In 2006, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s second novel, “Half of a Yellow Sun,” was eulogized by eminent writers including Chinua Achebe, Edmund White and Joyce Carol Oates. Months later, it won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and now, her latest craft, “The Thing Around Your Neck,” awaits its fate.
Condensed into 12 short stories set in Nigeria and America, the opening narrative, “Cell One,” thrusts the reader into a household enduring the challenges of raising a delinquent male youth. Adichie’s ingenious writing ability is once again demonstrated in this piece of work as she eloquently weaves evocations of family, demise and sadness into the sometimes pedestrian lives of her characters.
Symbolic of her writing style is the elegant display of folk wisdom and cultural elements such as food, clothing, customs and sayings. In “Jumping Monkey Hill,” a story about students from various African countries selected to attend a writing workshop, the reader is tossed into a story within a story narrated by Ujunwa, one of the characters. She writes, “Aunty Funmi came and said the Yellow Woman had tied him up with medicine and she knew a good ‘babalawo’ who could untie him.” The insertion of ‘babalawo,’ also known as “witch doctor” in the West and “juju man/woman” in Ghana exemplifies the superstitious aspect of the African culture.
Adichie manages, throughout the book, to capture every opening to interweave cultural truths about Africa with stereotypes. This typecasting of African countries is evident in “Jumping Monkey Hill” through the voice of her characters: “You Kenyans are too submissive! You Nigerians are too aggressive! You Tanzanians have no fashion sense! You Senegalese are too brainwashed by the French!”
One territory often left untouched in Africa is slightly pinched in the same story: The issue of homosexuality emerges when one of the students, a Senegalese, attending the writing workshop announces to the group that she is a lesbian. Adichie presents interesting arguments through the perspective of Edward, the workshop instructor. He glazes on the issue of colonial mentality but also expresses views that could be deemed ignorant, although they represent a reality in some African communities.
But out of the 12 short stories, “Jumping Monkey Hill” holds an appealing moral to proponents of female empowerment and self-worth. This theme is not realized until the end of the story when the rest of the students at the workshop become aware that the main character in Ujunwa’s story is herself and she proves that having dignity in this era is plausible. It brings to mind a quote by George Santayana: “Our character…is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be.”
Adichie maintains a consistent tone throughout the book; the language usage is archetypical of some African-English expressions. One instance can be found in the title story, “The Thing Around Your Neck,” which narrates the story of a young Nigerian woman who entered the United States by winning the Green Card Diversity Lottery only to end up in the streets after rebuffing her uncle’s sexual advances. Adichie’s character reminisces: “Your father started to cry and beg even before he got out of the car….”
Adichie also delves into the African perspective in the same story when she writes: “You did not know that people could simply choose not to go to school, that people could dictate to life. You were used to accepting what life gave, writing down what life dictated.” Although this character depicts only one aspect of the African immigrant experience relating to a specific segment of the population, it does convey a viewpoint held by a people who grew up disadvantaged.
As much as “The Thing Around Your Neck” is an interesting read, with appealing elements of Adichie’s remarkable writing style, it fails to meet the profoundness of her previous books, “Purple Hibiscus” and “Half of a Yellow Sun.” Perhaps this is due to the nature of each book – the first two were complete novels and this one is a compilation of short stories.
It is worth noting, though, that some stories like “Cell One,” “The Shivering” and “The Headstrong Historian” leave the reader hanging, in a positive state, wondering what would happen had they been complete novels. There is no doubt, however, that one gets to experience Adichie’s effortless storytelling skill in this latest piece of craft.