The Thing Around Your Neck and Life
Hey you! How long has it been? Well, it’s been a while. I don’t even remember the last time I did this…
Not so much life update…
Aha! 9th February 2021. Exactly 193 days ago. Wow, that’s a long time! But I have been reading. Well, not so much of what I said I wanted to read this year — Books by Nigerian authors, but yeah. I have been reading other things.
I have been slow with my Nigerian fiction goal and quite frankly, I paused because life was dealing with me and I too was showing it as much pepper as I could.
But I have been reading newsletters, random articles and I really enjoy doing that. I love reading random stuff from people, and I have this cool thread on Twitter where I tweet the links to some of the articles I read. Most of them come from my email inbox. Others, just random.
Book of the month
Anyhoo, back to why I am writing today. I am here to update you on what I have been reading — the book I supposedly read after my last update here. 5 whole months after. lol.
On the bright side, we are still in 2021 and I am very much alive writing this. So yaay!
THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
I know I started the year with Chimamanda. Yes, I remember. Why her again? No particular reason to be honest. It was a random pick and I enjoyed reading this book.
I didn’t think that I liked short stories until I read “A Broken People’s Playlist” by Chimeka Garricks. I totally loved that book. Reading “The Thing Around Your Neck”, a book with 12 short stories again, without feeling tired at any point to drop it, shows that it was a good read.
I don’t know what yardstick you prefer to use when you rate books but for me, if I have a smooth read without feeling tired, that's it. Basically a page-turner does it for me.
The Thing Around Your Neck focuses on Nigeria and America, exploring the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States.
The first story “Cell One” shows the lawlessness in Nigeria. Chimamanda focused on a rebellious son and his experiences with the corrupt political system. “A Private Experience” deals with the relationship between Igbo Christians and Hausa Muslims. In this story, two women are hiding in a store from a riot brought on by religious violence. Even though Hausa Muslims were hacking down Igbo Christians with machetes, the two women are brought together and share conversation and advice about motherhood.
In “The Arrangers of Marriage” a new wife moves to New York City with her husband arranged for her by an extended family. Following the move, she realizes that her husband does not accept her Nigerian identity. And there were a lot of other things she didn’t know about her new husband including the fact that he had been married. She learnt to stand for herself with the help and support of another woman. This is one of my favorites. It was captivating and I particularly like stories with women coming through for each other.
My absolute favorite is “The Shivering”. It’s a story about Ukamaka, a young woman who was worried about the well-being of her ex-boyfriend, Udenna. And some other things happened in the background including navigating friendship. This is weirdly my favorite of all 12 stories. Weirdly because I complained about the character in this story so much. She was stressing my life but then I think I saw a bit of myself in her at some point and that even irritated me the more and at the same time, that was what made me like it. Weird, I know. So basically, I like this story because it was enough to captivate me and my emotions so much that I remember every detail about the story and I was texting my friends about it when I was getting mad at the character.
So yes, for August, I read The Thing Around Your Neck and I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads because it deserved it.
Before I go, Goodreads says I am 3 books behind schedule for 2021 and I accept the challenge. I will fix up. 12 Nigerian fiction it is, so help me universe.
I promise to write more often.
