3rd Chunkster Review: Half of a Yellow Sun

I really liked this book. I don't think I liked it as much as some other reviews I've read. Most people talk about it grabbing them from the first sentence and so forth. It took me awhile to get into it. I hate to admit this about myself, but I sometimes have trouble identifying with characters when I can't pronounce their names. It's kind of a crazy thing to say, but I think that is part of what I experienced here.

This is the story of the Nigerian civil war back in the 60's. I was slightly embarrassed to be American as I read this book, since it was made clear that we didn't really intervene much or care much about the atrocities that were happening at the time. Late in the book, when one of the reporters mentioned that his brother's body had been sent home from Vietnam, I remembered that we had some other pretty serious issues on our plate at the time.

I have to confess that I went and looked at my son's globe while reading the book to see if Biafra ever actually became a country. It becomes clear as you reach the end of the book that it did not.

This is the kind of book I love -- a well-written absorbing story in which I learn something (actually many things) about countries and peoples that I know nothing of. I highly recommend the book, and don't think anyone would be disappointed. While reading this, I received "Beasts of No Nation" from Paperback Swap -- a story of a child soldier in an African nation. I think I need to read something a little lighter in between before I take that on.....