Book Review – The Thing Around Your Neck

A Collection of Short Stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

May 10, 2009

A collection of 12 short stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie exploring relationships between parents and children, husbands and wives, siblings and Nigeria and the West.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author of the Orange Prize-winning novel Half of a Yellow Sun (HarperCollins, 2006), has compiled a collection of compelling short stories in The Thing Around Your Neck (Fourth Estate, 2009).

These twelve stories are either set in Nigeria or feature Nigerian characters in central roles. They explore relationships between people and between the African nation of Nigeria and the Western World.

Short Stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This collection of engaging and thought-provoking stories by Nigerian-born author Adichie highlights the inconsistencies and strengths of a variety of relationships. Contrasting responsibilities, expectations, jealousies, sacrifices, everyday circumstances and extraordinary events, Adichie’s storytelling skills help readers to both identify with central characters and acknowledge them as flawed and complex individuals.

These vignettes are composed with great skill and dexterity, sketching character profiles quickly but managing to convey great depth and complexity. The variety of settings and external conflicts, including political turmoil, relationship boundary issues, east/west cultural conflicts and sibling rivalry, are used to highlight character strengths and flaws as well as offering readers characters of different ages, education levels and social standing.

Each story ends offering a degree of closure, but still leaving multiple possibilities regarding the continuation of the story for the reader to ponder.

The following are included in this collection of short stories, listed below with their original publication and alternate title if applicable:

“The American Embassy” in Prism International and The O. Henry Prize Stories 2003 (edited by Laura Furman)

Chimamamanda Ngozi Adichie

Born in Nigeria in 1977, Adichie’s first novel Purple Hibiscus (Algonquin Books, 2003) won the Commonwealth Writers’ Best First Book award and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun won the 2007 Orange Prize.

Compelling Stories of Individuals and Nations

The stories included in The Thing Around your Neck involve the everyday struggles and triumphs of individuals, as well as reflecting the attitudes, strengths and weaknesses of both the Eastern and Western cultures.

Adichie deftly weaves her stories, successfully inviting readers to invest their time and attention and leaving them both satisfied at the story’s conclusion and wishing for more. Several stories are heartbreaking in their intensity and stirring in the injustice they portray.

While the subject matter may preclude the stories being considered enjoyable, these stories are certainly absorbing and paint a compelling picture of the contrasts in lifestyle and expectations between Nigeria and the West. The short story format of The Thing Around Your Neck makes it ideal as a first venture for anyone wishing to broaden their reading experience with African-based literature.

The copyright of the article Book Review – The Thing Around Your Neck in African Literature is owned by Susan Whelan. Permission to republish Book Review – The Thing Around Your Neck in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.