tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136656462890325261.post1351271052700281053..comments2023-10-05T10:42:41.132+01:00Comments on We Found "Happiness": Interesting PerspectiveMeredithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00204524162705680876noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136656462890325261.post-77652505028563851832014-09-05T12:01:53.612+01:002014-09-05T12:01:53.612+01:00Have you read Amerikanah by the same author?Have you read Amerikanah by the same author?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03360029192273068541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4136656462890325261.post-11385550375168405392011-06-23T15:53:59.262+01:002011-06-23T15:53:59.262+01:00How funny, just caught up on your blog. So sorry ...How funny, just caught up on your blog. So sorry to hear about the sick family and very relieved to hear the kids at least are well. Hope the others are headed in that direction too. Unfortunately, I know too much about sitting in ER and how it feels when your child is screaming with pain... and you can't do anything to make it stop when they ask you to. And of course, I am writing this from the Royal Childrens Hospital where we are spending another night. No crises tonight just routine chemo-if there is ever such a thing. 2 more sessions to go and we will finish and hopefully not have any more of this stuff to deal with.<br /><br />Anyway, long way to get to it, but I read the same book last week. Tash has been tearing through 3 to 4 books a week so I headed out to the local library. There on the shelves, helpfully in a large print edition (yes it does help), was this book. I think her voice is authentically Nigerian but more representative of the upper middle and elite classes than the man in the street. It is what she knows best, having come from that background and it let me relive Lagos for a little while. I have read "Purple Hibiscus" and "Half a Yellow Sun" by the same author. I think "Half a Yellow Sun" is probably her most sophisticated work and is an interesting way to get a better appreciation of what it was like for the Igbos during the Biafran war. It still informs Nigerian culture and behaviour. <br /><br />Other Nigerian writers to try - Helon Habila who we really enjoyed reading and is very accessible as a writer; Chinua Achebe, the master, especially for the classic "Things Fall Down"; Ben Okri "The Famished Road" which is about a spirit child living in the slums of Lagos and won a Booker Prize, a more challenging read but very evocative. You could also get very intellectual and try Wole Soyinka, who won the Nobel prize. He is still around Lagos and still an activist at heart. He writes essays and plays in the main. Terra Kulture had put his plays on from time to time when I was there. I was more excited about going than my Nigerian colleagues.<br /><br />PS my very first post - Love Angelagettingtoknowyouhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11674893205667543631noreply@blogger.com