Set in the late 1800s in Niger, Okonkwo lived in one of the nine villages of the Igbo people named Umuofia and had managed to become successful on his own by borrowing yam seeds from a richer man and from his mother's family in order to farm his land. He also at one point wrestled the great Amalinze the Cat and threw him from the ring making him famous. His fields flourished and he was able to pay back what he owed and one day he became his own man with three wives and some titles to go with them. His dream is to get all four titles and be the man with the highest honor in the village.
His father was lazy and had no titles and owed money to everyone. Okonkwo was ashamed of his father and while no one held what your father was against you--everyone was their own man--he felt the specter of his father over him and did everything to prevent himself from being like his shiftless father who played the flute and died a dishonorable death.
Okonkwo's first son, Nwoye had a bit of his grandfather in him and Oknokwo tried to beat it out of him with some success. But this son will wind up being a disappointment to him. His daughter, Eximima, by his second wife he believes has the temperament to be a good son but sadly was born a daughter. She also is born very sick until the local medicine man helps her out, which is good since his second wife had had many stillborns and this was her only child.
In another village, a man kills a man from this village's wife so compensation is agreed upon instead of going to war. A woman is sent over to be his wife and a young man is sent over as well. This man is Ikemefuna and he comes to live with Okonkwo for three years until the village has decided what to do with him. He is to be killed, likely because Okonkwo broke the Peace Weak by shooting his gun at his second wife. He pays compensation but that may not be enough, the boy needs to be sacrificed as well. The elder of the village tells Oknokwo that he is not to touch him because the boy calls him father and it would be wrong. But when it comes time to kill him Oknokwo lets his sense of not wanting to look weak overtake him and he strikes the boy causing his own downfall.
I had been looking forward to reading this book because I had heard great things about this book, but I found it rather boring and plodding. It does pick up at the end when the white men come and try to make a mess of things. It will really piss you off, at least it did me. But that section is very small and it's at the very end. He uses the descriptions of the village as building blocks that will be affected by the white people coming in with their religion. This book just didn't live up to expectations. I give it three and a half out of five stars.
Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Things-Fall-Apart-Chinua-Achebe/dp/0385474547/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2H30XVDDO0NKJ&keywords=things+fall+apart+by+chinua+achebe&qid=1551278951&s=gateway&sprefix=things+%2Caps%2C178&sr=8-1
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