Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie

Last year I read Ms. Adichie's novel "Half of a Yellow Sun", a novel about the civil war in Nigeria. It was a great novel - well written and informative and one which I highly recommend. I hadn't known anything about the war in Nigeria (nor did I even know that there had been a war in Nigeria) prior to reading that novel. I enjoyed that book so much that I was eager to read more by the same author. Purple Hibiscus was Ms. Adichie's first novel. Set in Nigeria and interspersed with local dialect and imagery about life in Nigeria, Purple Hibiscus is about a 15 year old girl, Kambili, who grew up under an authoritarian and extremely religious father who kept a strict household, a household with no smiles, no freedom and lots of beatings. When the political climate in Nigeria turns sour, Kambili and her brother are sent to stay with their aunt and her family. There they learn to sing, to smile, to have fun, relax, and more importantly to assert themselves. She begins to see her father not as a man who inflicted pain for her benefit, but as a kind of tyrant, but she continues to love him. This book examines the problems created by religion and overzealous faith, domestic violence, and personal development. It was a quick read but an enjoyable one.