Thursday, June 07, 2007

Chimamanda Wins the Orange Prize

I have been itching to post this news all day, but Internet access at work was down until I left (Jeremy and Molara have blogged about this already).

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie last night won the Orange Prize for her exceptional book Half of a Yellow Sun. The Orange Prize is awarded yearly to an exceptional book published in the past year by a woman writer.

A few years ago my brother gave me Chimamanda's first book Purple Hibiscus for my birthday. I devoured it in a few days and scoured the Internet for her short stories. I read the short story also entitled Half of a Yellow Sun, which I enjoyed so much that I started to await the publication of the book with much bated breath. When I finally got my copy of Half of a Yellow Sun, I took in the size and balked slightly. I have difficulty finishing books these days, much less big books with 'serious' themes.

"A book about war? I'm not so sure ......" were my thoughts.

I needn't have worried. Half of a Yellow Sun was as much a story of this set of people who lived through the Biafran War as it was about the war itself. I'd love to say that I finished it at a sitting, unfortunately I can't say that (a result of my own easily distracted mind and growing inability to sit still and read). However, I finished it in what was a short time for me.

Prizes are not necessarily a sign of a great writer, but it's wonderful when a writer who is widely acknowledged to be exceptionally talented and skilled wins one.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny enough, I am yet to read this book cause I can find it to buy. I was at Numetro some weeks ago and did not get it there. I am really itching to read this book and hope I will not be disappointed like I was with "Yello, Yellow". That book left me on a cliff hanger....arrgghhh!!! It was like the story was not complete and gave me the feeling of watching Nigeria Home video where they write at the end "Watch out for Part II............

Modupe

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Anonymous said...

oh my god, another person who had issues with Yellow Yellow. We read it in my reading group. can you imagine,for the first time, all 20 of us women were unanimous in our dislike for that book. This has never ever ever happened to us before. We are usually divided. after this, we have decided that we are going to exclude self-published/vanity publishing from our list. It was so badly edited. It lacked direction. Half of the Yellow Sun on the other is beautiful book. Of course, not of us liked it. some thought it was over-hyped, but I loved it. They should stop selling Yellow Yellow N500 or not. It is a worthless book.

Helen

TEMITAYO OMOLOLA said...

I Think half of a yellow sun deserved that prize. It is a brilliant book no question.
@Yellow Yellow ... Please that book is just Bad. How people can write that sort of crap and publish it and hype it soooo much is beyond my simple comprehension. I'm so mad at myself for wasting my hard earned 500 naira on that nonsense. That book has got me totally jaded about Nigerian authors. It will take a lot for me to pick up a book by any other Nigerian author.
I agree with Helen they should stop selling that silly book. Im just so mad at all these fake wannabe naija authors and all that nonsense hype... I mean ive read more interesting blog posts and i dont see their authors deciding to publish ...