The Thing Around Your Neck

 

Book: The Thing around your neck

Author: Adichie

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Adichie never fails to awe you with her writing, with its deep understanding of various shades of its characters and various layers of its stories. Each story is a gem and takes  the readers experience to a different level. From the ancient poor to nouveau rich, from religious paradox in a society to immigrant experiences in US of A, from having a cheating husband to being a mistress, from getting a basic life to making it to writers club, the stories show life from various view points and each is real and alive. 

There are so many stories which strike a chord with you. Like the immigrant experience when same English transforms in a different country - a lift becomes an elevator, biscuits become cookies, saying phone is busy instead of engaged, having tea without milk or sugar, or having pizza as your favourite food. 

Finally, I personally treasure this book as a book lover. Adichie treats you to a list of African authors to be read. 

The title story called 'The Thing around you neck' names: 

- Okot pBitek's poetry

- Amos Tutuola

- Nawal el Saadawi

'The Jumping Monkey Hill' short story is about budding African authors assembling for a workshop for Lipton African writers prize so it's bound to be a field day for African literature discussing the beauty of their writing styles with 

- Damnudzo Marecheta as astonishing 

- Alon Paton as patronising 

- Isak Dinesan as unforgivable 

- Achebe as sublime and 

- Conrad 

Being a connoisseur of Indian fiction, Adichie's short stories make me feel that Nigeria is no different from India, and the immigrant experience is no different from a NRI. Adichie does what a Jhumpa Lahiri or Chitra Banerjee do for us. They show the tough lives of poor people at home who come to America to be rich but instead live a lonely yet stable life. Is anyone truly happy! Is happiness a person or a place! Aren't we all searching for answers?