These were beautiful stories. They are personal and poised; her writing is concise and carries a lot of weight. She effectively captures the struggles of those in the middle: for self-knowledge when people don't even want to know your real name, feeling the divide between yourself and your parents because of your gender, having to choose how you succeed because you feel like there is an obligation to carry on with your life in a certain, uncompromising way in order to make life easier. There is no way not to reflect on yourself as you read these stories, to think of yourself critically and think about what you have given up and what you should hold close. Adichie's writing is clever and uncomplicated-- perfect for short stories. She explores some of my favourite topics in this collection: colonialism, racism, and the unseen world of ordinary women's lives. My favourites were the witty and no doubt autobiographical "Jumping Monkey Hill" (in which an Oxford-educated Englishman attempts to coach a group of writers from various African countries in producing authentically African fiction), the haunting "Cell One" (which centres on police corruption and brutality ), and "The Headstrong Historian" (a female-centric reworking of Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart").
What do You think about Thing Around Your Neck (2009)?
Very good. Adichie is such a good storyteller.
—Hphan
a fantastic collection of stories. excellent
—mem34
