Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "The Thing Around Your Neck" - A Collection of Short Stories

Fi: Brilliant book- BUT bought second hand from Amazon seller- identified a ‘good condition’ but really wasn’t

United Kingdom on Sep 27, 2023

Saba: came as advertised, good quality.

United Kingdom on Sep 13, 2023

Nini: Each story in this book made me pause to think before moving on to the next story. I don't know if I have a favorite because I like all of them. They all evoked different emotions in me. For some reason I could resonate with most of the main characters in the story.

I must say one of the stories was very dark. The one that talked about Nonso.

I will read this book again.

I wish some of them could be made into full novels. Like the arranged marriage and the American Embassy. I am also curious about Chinedu and what happened to him and Ukamaka....

I am dying to read another collection of Chimamanda's short stories. She is brilliant!

United States on Aug 19, 2023

KGBeast: Adichie versammelt hier zwölf Geschichten, bei denen einer der thematischen Schwerpunkte das Verhalten von Nigerianischen Männern und Frauen - und Männern und Männern - in Nigeria und in den USA zueinander ist. Dabei geht es in diesem Zusammenhang sowohl um Frauen, wie auch um Mätressen, die im Christlichen Nigeria sehr üblich zu sein scheinen. Daneben spielen Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Christen und Muslimen, die Migrationserfahrung - insbesondere in die USA - und auch Erfahrungen aus der Kolonialzeit eine Rolle.

Eine sehr erhellende - und auch teilweise verstörende - Kurzgeschichtensammlung, die ich gerne weiterempfehle.

Germany on Jul 16, 2023

Amazon Customer: Each story better than the one before. This is what writing should be, honest, relatable, brilliant, stories that touch the heart, across cultures

India on Jul 01, 2023

Turesa Lewis: These stories helped to educate me on life for women in Nigeria who struggle with their relationships, religious and political violence and adjusting to Western culture. The final story The Headstrong Historian gave the account of life in a small village. This story was also the prelude to the slave trade in the western world. I learned that the irony continues as I read to discover that in truth, our heroine is a slave in so many senses.

United States on Mar 10, 2023

MonikaMonika: CHIMAMANDA. A name that I heard three years ago. A name that I was trying so desperately to get familiar with. A name, to be honest, I fell in love with instantly. It is also a name that I found on Facebook during a time when she had written what I consider to be her masterpiece. Along with all that, it is also a name that I am glad I didn't try to read three years earlier because had I read her then, I know I would have pretended to like her words because I knew she was 'cool'.

I received The Thing Around Your Neck as a birthday present from a 'friend' whose friendship, unfortunately, didn't last long. Chimamanda did, though. I don't remember ever thinking about why I wasn't picking her up even though her book was waiting to be read. Her art of simplified truances were not for me. Now, the story is different. Books have taught me a lot and I have matured enough to bask in the sinful glory of a dreamless haze; sinful because how can someone, in a language that is being used everyday, create something as mesmerizing and as private as this?

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's collection of short stories, The Thing Around Your Neck, is, for me, like a fabled dream. African...

India on Oct 24, 2020

ArtsAddict: I recently saw a TED Talks address by the author which led me to purchase this first book.
This was both a joy and a pain to read. A joy because it brought stories of a way of life and culture we know so little of as black people in my Caribbean country. I suppose we hear of Africa what the rest of the world does. It was also a pain because in these stories is also a reality of how much we take for granted that our culture and customs and history should be told and preserved and passed on to generations. Somehow we've been taught to believe our stories are not interesting enough unless told through a certain perspective that mimics what's already out there. This is my first but won't be my last read by this author. Thank you for telling stories so wonderfully and purposefully.

United States on Aug 25, 2018

Anastasia D: There are books that I can’t help skimming, skipping few paragraphs here and there. Not Adichie’s. Even if I notice my eyes were not focusing - I get back to the book with full attention.
I enjoy reading Adichie’s books, though after reading Americanah and this book - I started feeling slight frustration with her harsh depiction of American life and culture. “The trick was to understand, to know that America was give-and-take. You give up a lo but you gained a lot, too”. That’s not America, that’s everywhere. When you leave your village, your city, your country - you leave behind your past, heritage and sense of security. That applies to all foreigners. I understand it’s catchy and shocking to compare the cultures, in Adichie’s case - always diminishing America, but it is getting slightly old and annoying.

United States on Jan 18, 2018

Kindle 2: This book is the 3rd one I've read by this author, and is a harrowing story, very well written in a style I find compelling. Why not 5 stars? My problem is in relating to Africa and its complicated cultural systems. I even find the characters names difficult to pronounce, which makes it hard for me to imagine them. Isn't that strange? I am obviously lacking all knowledge about the issues dividing the warring factions within this country, let alone the entire continent, all of which destroys its fluency. My fault, not the author's! At least it led me to do some reading up on African history. With this new found knowledge I will re-read it, and hopefully the background of political unrest will slot into place and provide the support I needed. And, if I spend a bit more on the audio version, I could finally hear those beautiful names pronounced correctly.

United States on Oct 21, 2014