itle: Chike and the River, 2011, http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qisbn=9780307473868&qwork=1049359&keyword=chike+and+the+river&qsort=p&matches=27&cm_sp=works*edition*buyused
Author: Chinua Achebe
*Fascinating note: Chinua Achebe is a living, literary legend. He is a Nigerian novelist that embodies the style of the ancient Greek and African writers. His most celebrated work is Things Fall Apart. Often, he is unfairly compared and contrasted with Wole Soyinka, an ‘academic writer’ and a fellow Nigerian. Soyinka, writes plays in classic Greek style too, but he captures a different audience. Achebe writes of A Man of the People in the language of (all) the people.
Synopsis: The reader embarks upon an allegorical journey with an eleven year old boy named Chike. Chike is a Nigerian boy from the village of Umuofia. As readers, we settle in to the comfort of the pastoral mode which ‘appears’ before us. However, Chinua Achebe shifts gears quickly. Chike must leave his home to go to live with his uncle in Onitsha, a big city. Feelings of joy and anxiety swell within the boy. Then, Achebe’s protagonist sets out upon his journey and the reader is privy to parables and aphorisms which enlighten all along the road. In Onitsha, Chike becomes intrigued with the River Niger and what lies beyond it. He wishes to travel to the other side. But, there is a fare and a price to be paid for passage. Hence, Achebe’s novel focuses upon the price and the realization of a dream. Thus, readers of all ages can extract much wisdom from the African proverbs and symbolism of this novel regarding the state of Nigeria, Africa, and the world within Chike and the River.
Critique: Chinua Achebe is a master storyteller. True, as a Nigerian, he was nursed by the craft of story telling from cradle to adulthood. Yet, it is he who rises to the top of his class. Chike and the River appears, deceptively, to be a children’s book. Achebe proves that we are all children. We continue to commit the same errors. We continue to need guidance because we stray from the path that we were set upon. Ironically, the novel is set in Umuofia, the same village setting of his novel Things Fall Apart. Has Chinua Achebe returned to the roots of his story telling? Have things not changed? The reader must decide. And Chike’s journey leads us to wonder if the river is not a road to an eternal trek through life. This novel is a marvel and a real treasure.
Comments