Tiffany M. Davis

A couple of weeks ago, I saw the movie Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

I’d already read Americanah some months ago and while I wasn’t as hyped as others have been about the book (even after seeing her speak/read in person), it was nonetheless interesting. I’d heard of Half of a Yellow Sun, which was written prior to Americanah, but hadn’t gotten around to reading it. The movie’s starpower (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose) and subject matter (the Biafran War in Nigeria) drew me in and these actors delivered the plot in a way that made me run to buy the book.

I am about half of the way through the book (it’s 544 pages long), but I am pleased to say that the movie follow very close to the book. The book itself is written in Adichie’s lyrical prose; I actually like this one much better than Americanah. Perhaps Half of a Yellow Sun didn’t get the props it should have because it had nothing to do with America (we all know how America, as a whole, thinks of Africa or any country “over there”).  Perhaps it’s because the formation of the nation of Biafra, and the subsequent civil war, is little more than a footnote outside of America, and an nonexistent one within the USA. Regardless, I highly recommend Half of a Yellow Sun, and I will be rewatching the movie when I’m done.

Thanks for stopping by.