Yielly's Alphabet is a blog based on the alphabet. Each month a letter will be chosen at random and our posts will be based on that letter. Suggestions for future letters or posts as well as questions are welcome, just drop us note.

4.3.10

H is for ... Half (of a Yellow Sun)

Excuse me while I paraphrase Mr. Knightley's sentiment: If I loved Half of a Yellow Sun (by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) any less, I might be able to talk about it more.

I sometimes wonder if I will one day be able to tell anyone why I love this book as much as I do. I think it has something to do with Adichie's writing that feels altogether confident, something to do with the story she told that was altogether very human and very human, a story that called on history which I find has always made the best book.

But more importantly, my love for Half of a Yellow Sun has something to do with the fact that Adichie did for me what Alice Walker and Toni Morrison and Chinua Achebe and Maya Angelou did for countless young black women before me: she convinced me that young women like could be in books and that even I could write a book about what I wanted to tell and someone out there could read it. Half of Yellow Sun also gave me an inspirational woman(Adichie herself) to look up to and for that alone, I'm grateful.


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