User:SafariScribe/sandbox

Purple Hibiscus (2003)

While studying in America, Adichie started researching and writing her first novel entitled Purple Hibiscus; it was written in a period when Adichie was feeling homesickness in the United states. She wrote the story with setting in Nsukka, Nigeria where she considered her home, and with written email, she began sending the work to literary agents in America. It wasn't her first written work, as she addressed no one sees her previous writings in an address at the University of Nairobi.

After sending the manuscript to many publishing houses and agents; she didn't received any response from each of them. The agents who accepted her manuscripts requested the change of the setting. According to Adichie, most of the reasons for the rejections were because of the story's setting in Nigeria, while some ask she do change the setting to America before it's accepted. Adichie held out since it isn't going to be easy changing the setting of a large manuscript. Few days later, she received an email from Diana Pearson, a literary agent working at Pearson Morris and Belt Literary Management seeking for the manuscript with lines saying, "I like this and I'm willing to take a risk on you." Adichie, who was desperate to be published sent her manuscript to the agent, which was turned a book on 30 October, 2003 by Algonquin Books. Another issue came up with the novel; it was marketing and finance, as Adichie was a black and not an African American. It was difficult according to her agent to sell the work, though, Adichie was happy at least her book has been published. According to Otosirieze Obi-Young, the book sold on its own until it was awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Best Book, a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

Purple Hibiscus was received well internationally, and received positive reviews from book critics. It was published in the United Kingdom on 1 March, 2004 by Fourth Estate, and Adichie also got a new agent, Sarah Chalfant of the Wylie Agency. Adichie was clear in adding racial issues involved in her education which was portrayed by her character Kambili in the book, and in a review by Washington Post, she was praised as "a very much the 21st-century daughter of that other great Igbo novelist, Chinua Achebe." Luke Ndidi Okolo, a lecturer of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, said in a review:

As a matter of fact, Adichie's novel treats clear and lofty subject and themes. But the subject and themes, however, are not new to African novels. The remarkable difference of excellence in Chimamanda Adichie's "Purple Hibiscus", the stylistic variation–her choice of linguistic and literary features, and the pattern of application of the features in such a wondrous juxtaposition of characters' reasoning and thought.

Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)

see caption

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with copies of her novel, Half of a Yellow Sun at a bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. (2006).

Adichie talked about his father's stories and how she has been taking note of them.

Being desperate to be published, she wrote other books, that she may make ground for easy publication acceptance. Her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun was published in 2006 by Fourth Estate in London, UK. It told a story spanning the period before and during the Nigerian Civil War; its title referenced the flag of Biafra, a nation that existed during the war, and the book served as a tribute to her grandfathers whom were found dead in the refugee camp at Nteje, after the war. Adichie has said that very important for her research was Buchi Emecheta's 1982 novel Destination Biafra. Half of a Yellow Sun wad critically analysed and positively acclaimed from many sources; it received the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The novel was adapted into a 2014 film of the same title directed by Biyi Bandele. In 2008, she wrote an excerpt entitled "A Private Experience", a short story published in The Observer that portrays the story of two women from different cultures learning to understand each other in the middle of a crisis.

The Thing Around Your Neck (2009)

Adichie's third book, The Thing Around Your Neck, was written and published in 2009 after an extensive research of marriage and hindrances of feminism while in the US. It is a collection of 12 stories, some already published in issues of magazines, exploring the theme of marriage, love, culture and ethnicity.

One story from the book, "Ceiling", was included in The Best American Short Stories 2011. The collection of stories was critically accepted and Adichie was praised in a review by the Daily Telegraph, as "one who makes storytelling seem as easy as birdsong". In a review by The Times, she was called "Stunning. Like all fine storytellers, she leaves us wanting more".

Americanah (2013)

Adichie at the reading and signing of her work, Americanah in Berlin, Germany (2014).

Her fourth book, Americanah, was published in 2013 and was listed among the "10 Best Books of 2013" by The New York Times. It was an exploration of a young Nigerian woman encountering racism in America. It was from Adichie, who explored the character Template:Lang-ig, being identified by the colour of her skin at arrival to the United States. The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2017 "One City One Book" selection for best books. In 2015, she was co-curator of the PEN World Voices festival in New York. While delivering the festival's closing address, she addressed the issue of racism, which was in keeping with the theme of Americanah:

I will stand and I will speak for the right of everyone, everyone, to tell his or her story.

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017)

Adichie's next book, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, was published in 2017. She has said the book had its origin in an email letter she wrote to a friend who had asked for advice about how to raise her daughter as a feminist. In 2020, it was followed by "Zikora", a stand-alone short story about sexism and single motherhood.

Notes on Grief (2021)

In 2021, after her father's death, Adichie released a memoir titled Notes on Grief, based on an essay of the same title published in The New Yorker the previous year. Adichie was critically praised in reviews of the book, which Kirkus Reviews summed up with the words: "An elegant, moving contribution to the literature of death and dying." Leslie Gray Streeter of The Independent said: "Adichie's words put a welcome, authentic voice to this most universal of emotions, which is also one of the most universally avoided."

Mama's Sleeping Scarf (2022): launch and review

In 2022, Adichie's first children's book—Mama's Sleeping Scarf, dedicated to her daughter, and using the pen-name "Nwa Grace James"—was announced. A year and a half in the writing, because her young daughter rejected the first two drafts as "boring", it was published in September 2023 by HarperCollins.

Style

Although Adichie is primarily known for her works of fiction and non-fiction, she has also written, plays, poetry, essays, and book reviews. Her writing has received critical acclaim and literary reviews from the mainstream media, and feminist critics have approved of her talks and books. Her use of Igbo words in her work has drawn the attention of critics on popularization of her context, that Chinua Achebe was known for. Adichie has said she grew up bilingual in Nigeria, where she spoke both English and Igbo. Her use of some lines of Igbo in her books was to show her love for the Igbo language and its proverbs; citing her father James Adichie as the architect of Igbo-speaking in her family, "especially when he speaks it without adding any foreign language." Adichie has also expressed her sadness, saying "she feels bad that her father speaks Igbo fluently, while she doesn't and cannot make a philosophical argument in her own native language." Michael Gunn of the University of Uyo and Yusuf Tsojon Ishaya of Federal University, Wukari added that in some of Adichie's text, she makes interesting graphological choices that proves the fact that language offers unwavering possibilities with regard to its lacking usage in literary creative works. Her style of writing uses a descriptive character example; Kambili in Purple Hibiscus and Ifemelu in Americanah.

Lawal M. Olusola, a lecturer at Osun State University, noted figuratively that "Adichie is observed to be Chinua Achebe's literary daughter, for she once lived in Achebe's home when she was ten years old; read Things Fall Apart then, and she believed his halo surrounded her,which explains their easy comprehension and analytic style." He also analysed that "the language patterns in Anthills of the Savannah, also assist Achebe to a remarkable degree in establishing anti-woman position."

I'm not even joking when I say that chocolate is a fundamental part of [my] process of creativity... That perfect in between—not too milky, not too dark. With a bit of hazelnuts. Writing is the love of my life. It's the thing that makes me happiest when it is going well—apart from the people I love...Fiction gives me a transcendent joy [where] I feel as though I am suspended in my fictional walls. Here in Lagos, Nigeria, my desk was made by this furniture maker who's young. It's white with two pullout drawers on either side. On the table itself, I have my laptop and a couple of books. I also happen to have a bottle of a cream liqueur, called Wild Africa Cream. When I'm writing, I don't want any alcohol in my body at all. But when it's not going well, then I'm like, "All right. Maybe we just need to take a swig."

—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, in describing her style of creativity on Times of India.

Adichie's writing style has been considered unique, especially in her ability to combine elements of African and Western culture, as testified to in her fourth novel, Americanah. Her writing characteristically focuses on themes of identity, feminism, and postcolonialism, with her prove of witnessing the aftermath shadow of the British colonial rule; evident to her second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun. Most of her works has drawn premise from issues regarding racism, psychology, history and philosophy. she is generally described as "lyrical and poetic", since she often uses language to create a fascinating and clear exposure of an imagery to quicky emphasize the theme used. Her style of writing is usually dominated with its sharp wit and humor, irony, satirical phrases, idioms and Igbo proverbs, which she learnt from her father.

Adichie's work, for several reviews incorporates elements of African culture, such as folklore, traditional and hyperbolic exclamations and phrases, and local music. Her exploration of gender and identity seeks to being a technical consciousness to the black, after she faced racism and rejections of manuscripts, especially agents requesting change of setting. Unlike Achebe, Adichie is often known to use her characters as real "in a real living town".

Apart from genital cases, her work is dated historic following her themes on post-colonialism. She often uses her characters to explore the effects of colonialism on African societies and to challenge traditional Western narratives. Adichie often uses her characters to explore the power dynamics between colonizers and colonized and to explore the ways in which colonialism has shaped African societies.

A number of Adichie's writings, including Notes on Grief, challenged the conventions of condemnation and neglect of African rich men. In a speech, she talked about "An American professor who in a review said, her writings weren't authentically African." The professor said, the people wear shoes, drive cars and build houses—which to him, was less a typical African man. Though her characters seems always to be dark-skinned individuals, in comparison to the white-skinned heroes, she believed people shiuld use an old adage to qualify a majority; justifying a whole by part.

Themes

After war and post colonization

Adichie's work were based on the Nigerian Civil War, which took the lives of both of her grandfathers and was a major theme of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. Accepted widely as a writer of post colonial literature. Half of a Yellow Sun, published in 2006, was among her major story dating Nigeria and Africa during the 1900's, while considering other associated themes of culture, tradition and imperialism. Her works identifies the aftermath of a war and colonialism on various cultures; particularly her country Nigeria and ethnicity of the Igbo people. She was able to explore how different cultures across the world seems to be different as wa seen in her character, Kambili in Purple Hibiscus. Although her influence and writings criticised the British rule (and was seen thoroughly the relationship of her works and that of Chinua Achebe), yet laid an understanding of the nature and importance of knowing ones origin —by postcolonial literature. She cites post-colonism era, "as an art and forum for African literature".

Education

According to Adichie, Nigerians are graded the most brilliant people in the world, and so, her writings must be limed with education amd its critical impact. In her writing, Adichie portrays existentialism of education especially it's need for women—who were seen as "just wife". Adichie, in Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions mentioned how critical it was for a woman to be educated.

[It] is not enough to simply send young girls to school to learn, but they must also benefit from being socialized in a manner that is not wholly dependent on their status as women.

— Adichie on explaining Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions.

While drawing motive for the value of informal education, Adichie has also approached traditional formal education in Half of a Yellow Sun; she examines the effects of education on multiple characters and was seen in the character Ugwu and the professor of a University Odenigbo. The theme of education was also displayed in her short story, "The Headstrong Historian", one of the 12 stories in her collection, The Thing Around Your Neck. The female character Grace, who was the headstrong historian realised that because the colonial masters downgraded her view of Igbo culture, doesn't in anyway explains its same for everybody. Adichie has been praised for involving education with a suburb setting of Africa, where education was seen by the white as substandard.

Feminism

One of the major themes of Adichie's work and talks were on Feminism. It was completely seen in her TED talk which was turned into a book of some title. It was also seen in Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, and Americanah. In a talk with Trevor Noah during a session in the Daily Show uttered that "feminism and femininity are not mutually exclusive in her writing. In her statement, she said "being a feminist does not mean you must reject femininity" as she believes that it bears the concept of misogyny." Adichie is also regarded as a fashionista, literally expressed her work "In Why Can't a Smart Woman Love Fashion." Adichie's theme usage narrates that "gender roles are "absolute nonsense." She said, "Nothing should be assigned to a person because of their gender. This is including and not limited to cooking, cleaning, household maintenance, and child rearing. These are all learned skills that every person should know and should not be left to one person in a household." Adichie's literature is most often seen as characters fights for justice against gender and mutualistic marriage.

Motherhood

Adichie has always pointed the theme of motherhood and direct womanhood. In her work, she cited influenced by Buchi Emecheta, whose most work delves womanhood themes also, especially in her novel Second Class Citizen. Adichie in her "Fifteen Feminist Manifesto" addressed concern and worries to the way "soon-to-be mothers are received for their responsibilities". She also said some serves just as "wife."

In Fifteen Feminist Manifesto, Adichie wrote to her friend that "marriage is a good thing, but its shouldn't be the priority of women." She said "like a young girl after getting her PhD will be ask, when are you getting married?" In Half of a Yellow Sun, she used Olanna as "a torn between her family's view of her as just a pretty face and "ruined by education" to others when she realizes that she wants to have a baby with Odenigbo.

Gender and marriage

While researching for her writing Purple Hibiscus, Adichie literally explores the them of marriage and gender oppression. She opposed that the way women are seen for marriage life is totally different from boys. In her essay, We Should All Be Feminists, she explained that women should Marty when they want. In an illustration of the essay, she pointed out when Bill Clinton was running for President of America, the description on his twitter handle was founder and in his wife's own was "wife and mother". In a conversation with Trevor Noah, she added that "marriage is a lovely thing, but we teach women in a way we do not teach boys. This, that is the problem."

Americanization

Most of Adichie's work were influenced by her staying in the United States. Those were seen in her short stories and major works like Americanah. Some critics called it, "a theme of an American Dream"; capturing a sub-theme of immigration as seen by the character Ifemelu. Because of the racism and social segregation she faced, she bears her work that one should be satisfied with their native home. She also have explored homesickness, which was a major effect on her and education in America.