The Thing Around Your Neck is a collection of 12 short stories, focusing mainly on the lives and experiences of middle class Nigerian women (save for one story, Ghosts that has a male narrator) who are caught up in political or religious violence or coping with unhappy marriages, or faced with unexpected disappointments or standing at crossroads of homesickness and immigration.
Review
This is my third book by Chimamanda, having loved her debut, Purple Hibiscus (for which I hope to put a review next year) and being fascinated < by her ambitious novel, Americanah .
I was very satisfied with the read and I assure you she is as good a short story writer as a novelist. Here are some stories in the collection that are worth a special mention:
My favourite story is A Private Experience, in which a Christian medical student seeks shelter with a poor Muslim woman during a religious riot. Their kinsmen (Igbo and Hausa respectively) are fighting against each other outside. During the time they share shelter, they exchange stories and offer their expertise to help the other. A stream of humanism in a background of riots is an excellent take on the situation.
My second favourite is Imitation, in which a young wife, living a life of isolation in America (her husband visits her for two months), discovers her wealthy husband has moved a mistress into the family home in Lagos. She tries out a different hairstyle to imitate the mistress that she heard of. In the end she decides to confront the situation, something that she has never done before.
In Cell One, the narrator tells the story of her pampered brother who achieves a mature outlook after being wrongly arrested and being forced to spend time under detention.
The title story, The Thing Around Your Neck is told in the second person. A young girl goes to live with her uncle’s family in Maine after being granted an American visa. Her homesickness eases since they speak the same language and have the same food as back home in the new house. Later she says “until your uncle came into the cramped basement where you slept and pulled you forcefully to him, squeezing your buttocks, moaning… And you remembered what he said, that America was give-and-take.”
The American Embassy exposes the sub human treatment of Nigerians by the embassy officials. The people who are crushed in spirit and desperately seeking a way out are tortured by unsympathetic passport officials.
Arrangers of Marriage is the story of a woman married to a Nigerian doctor in the US and how vast is the rift between reality and her hopes.
Some other notable stories are Jumping Monkey Hill that deals with sexual harassment and male chauvinism narrated as a story in a story, and Ghosts where a Professor is visited by ghosts of his past. Ghosts explores themes of drug counterfeiting, corruption and non-payment of pensions to the deserving candidates.
Theme
The theme ‘around your neck’ echoes through many of the short stories. It can be a scarf (A Private Experience) or the heaviness that strangles your neck (The Thing Around your Neck) to mention a few. In each story the protagonist or a close acquaintance of the protagonist feels choked and tells us the story behind the suffocation.
Writing
All the twelve stories are sculpted close to reality. The characters gain our sympathy by their life experiences and surprise us about ways to survive the tragedy. Chimamanda’s writing is laden with a strong social and political commentary. When strangled with the noose of violence, politics, tradition, displacement or dismissal, her characters come to life and recite their stories. Some find solace in confrontation and some are left in a dubious air of malaise.
Final Verdict
Most of the stories in the collection touched my heart. Those who love stories in contemporary setting written with a brazen steady hand would adore this book.
Title : The Thing Around Your Neck
Author : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher : 4th Estate
Published : 2009
Language : English
Pages : 218
Rating : 4/5
Love her work, I too started with Purple Hibiscus and heard her speak not long after about the novel she was then writing, Half of a Yellow Sun, which was also great, as was Americanah. But I haven’t read the short stories, so thank you for the reminder!
I hope you will pick these up too. The stories are short and fresh and full of life. They make an excellent read
Always blows my mind when a writer like Diaz or Adichie can pull of both novels AND short stories. IMO short stories are a really tough format to pull off, even half decently.
I agree. I love the honesty with which Adichie writes. And also her sharpness. I am such a fan
I really must get around to this – the last Adichie on my TBR! Fantastic review 🙂
Thank you. I am sure you will love this book. So I hope you will get to it soon
I enjoyed your review. My first Adichie book was also Purple Hibiscus. It has a special place in my heart. I read somewhere that one of the short stories from this collection will be made into a movie.
Really? Thanks for letting me know. I hope the movie will capture the essence of Chimamanda’s writing well enough. Thanks for visiting.
This sounds like a fabulous read! I’m hoping to read more Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I’ve read her short We Should All Be Feminist and loved it and have heard great things about her novels! I didn’t realize she had a collection of short stories! Definitely will check them out. Great review!
Thank you so much. I would recommend starting with Chimamanda’s novels. Purple Hibsicus is a short one and a good start. Americanah is my personal favourite.
Thanks for visiting. 🙂
So far I’ve only read Americanah, but I really enjoyed it so am looking forward to reading more from her. I didn’t realize she had a collection of short stories and based on your review, it sounds like I need to add it to my reading list. I like the idea of the similar thread connecting all of the stories together.
There is no thread connecting the stories. The stories are distinct in nature, but they all have a suffocation theme, that’s all. I hope you will enjoy the book. If you have liked Americanah, I think you will enjoy this as well
This is my least favorite work of hers, but it’s still pretty great! I think I gave it around 3-3.5 rating on Goodreads? I’d like to reread it sometime. I read this book when I was starting to explore short fiction, so this was one of the first few short stories I read, actually. I’ve read many more since then and I think I can appreciate the format better.
I think my favorite was A Private Experience and Ghosts was one of the more memorable one for me.
I would urge you to explore it again if this is something you read in your initial stages of reading short fiction. I think you will be able to appreciate the stories more. I loved A Private Experience. It was a very moving tale. Especially how the two women are helping each other out while their kinsmen are killing each other. I was so sad that the medical student (I think?) does not find her sister after the riots. It is so sad and realistic.
Great review!!! I have not read any of her works, but your review motivated me to pick up one of her books!
I hope you will enjoy them. I would recommend starting with Purple Hibiscus if you want a shorter novel or Americanah, if you are okay with its size. I hope you will love Chimamanda as well.
This sounds like a really enjoyable read. I do love humanistic stories with diverse characters. I always find short stories hard to review, but you have really peaked my interest in this book with your review.
This is a very good short story collection. I hope you will love the read as well. The stories are very realistic. Thank you for visiting. 🙂
Still can’t believe that I haven’t read any Adichie. She has been on my TBR forever! Been reading your reviews since a few days, really like your blog!
Thanks a bunch for visiting. I hope you will read Adichie soon. Start with Purple Hibiscus if you want a short read or Americanah which is longer