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Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I came across this book through a reader community I'm part of and heard a lot of praise. I bought it at an online sale but it shifted to the back of my TBR bookshelf which has grown to inordinate proportions. One day, I was watching BOOKRIOT's video which encouraged reading books by authors of colour. So, I decided to make it a habit to read those books more frequently and picked up this book.
After completing this book in two days, I was mesmerised by the depth of this novel. Without writing directly, it deals with two-face nature of human beings; without us realizing it. Everyone in the protagonist's direct family has a double nature with only an ideal face shown to general public, who revere them. Protagonist's father, a much respected man in the community is a tyrant, violent man and a religious fanatic. He hits them and feels sorry too as he's doing it for the lord. It is heart wrenching to read the conflicts going on in the protagonist's mind. She understands that her father hitting them is wrong but she's convinced after going through so much religious propaganda since childhood that he is doing it for their betterment only. It was like a complicated, domestic case of 'Stockholm Syndrome'.
I am very impressed with Adichie and her able writing style. I will e following her work in future too. I recommend this story of domestic abuse, religious fanaticism, attraction of western culture, delicate relations, adolescent attractions, regional problems and hard decisions to everyone.
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