Recent Read, Movie and Music


Recent Read
So much has been said about the last book of Nigeria’s literary genius, the late Chinua Achebe... I was drawn to this book the many reviews and insults flying everywhere for the man who dared taint the Yoruba race's perfect son Awolowo's history.

Having read so many fictions on the Biafrian war and feeling this sadness and thinking history was well captured, I was grateful to finally read a true experience of what actually happened during those days.

Now I understand why the older generations of Nigerians are not ready to go to war anytime soon, why our people would rather dialogue than enter that vicious world where lives are lost and destroyed for selfish reasons.

I decided to take flufffycutething's advice on my last review of Chimamanda's Americanah and read the whole pages of the book.

Do I still think the book is over-rated, yes. But I think is over-rated for the wrong reasons. As in there was so much noise about the whole natural hair drama that people forgot that this book is a love story and a race story. Ifemelu practically went through every relationship on earth and came back to her true love (Obinze) even though at the end of the day she wreck his marriage. No one seems to be talking about that.

I read somewhere that Chimamanda said this is her "fuck you novel". The book is so unconventional and openly talks about our hypocritical society.That a man could walk away from the woman he vowed to love in sickness and in health for his true "puppy love'. I did not hear or read any one talking about this side of the story. I mean Ifemelu was Obinze's mistress before he decided he had enough of his wife who had lived dutifully with him, loved him wholeheartedly,  given birth to a beautiful daughter for his first love who he unfortunately did wait for the first instance.

The book also discusses the extent to which illegal immigrants will go to obtain legal documents and citizenship in abroad-The fake marriages,  the under-ground business of fake identities (using a legal citizen's name and social security number), The fear of arrests and the worst deportation and how some people are willing to go through this circle again despite been caught and deported.

She talked about race...race is a touchy issue and yes the west always fail to see that racism still exists in the world and because one of them decide to embrace us does not make racism go away.

I like the fact that Chimamanda did not hold back in telling her story...she wrote it just as it is and I wonder why people chose to focus on her talk about natural hair which was not really a big issue in itself.
Movie:Last vegas
Sandra and I have the tradition of watching at least one movie every month at the cinema before I travelled to India in 2010. We either go the cinema together or invite 1 or 2 friends along. We have not had this opportunity in a long while because of her accident. I was glad to finally get the chance to watch a movie with my beloved friend.

If you want to have a good laugh, Last Vegas is the movie to watch but it is a movie I wished I had watched at home not worth my while in the cinema.

The movie kind of remind me of Hangover,  I love De Niro, Douglas and Freeman and all 3 men in a movie makes a good watch but this is definitely not a legendary movie.

Music:  Chrisette Michelle

I discovered this artiste by accident; actually i found her album amongst the movies file I copied off a colleague's hard drive. Been a while i listened to good music. I love Chrisette's voice and i can’t really say my best of her songs so far.



♥Lara
From Ilorin, the town that I call home for now

Molara Brown

7 comments:

  1. When the brouhaha started regarding both novels, the comments I read surprised me. I came to realized that the 'points' raised up in the novels where like a 'sore' that never really healed, but just had an' illusion' of a covering...and when scratched a little,' blood' oozed out....those crying for war should never pray to experience it ... my parents survived the war ... and they pray never for it to happen again! What do our generation know? They think war is like what they see in movies?

    Adichie was bold to speak out the thoughts of many Nigerians who are afraid to speak out for fear of being cussed out! And captured the true happenings in the society, which is so saddening!

    I like De-niro films! I would definitely watch this movie.

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  2. I've had both books for close to a year but i haven't read them yet. I should probably read them next. I haven't seen last Vegas although i've had it for a while too. I need to start binge-reading/watching

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  3. i started that Chinua's book but dropped it after a few pages and I've never gone back. I guess fiction is more my style?

    The other issues you highlighted from the book Americanah really are salient but i guess many like me just got carried away with all the emotions that people* feel when you hear such love stories....

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  4. You are ryt 'Lara. I agree that the book kinda encourages some not so cool things. I guess Adichie wanted to capture life as it really is. Life is not fair as they say. And many things she wrote about in the book screamed that life is just not fair...I think that's what makes the book really special.
    I should watch that Deniro film. Hes def one of my fave actors.
    www.folasoasis.com

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  5. Thanks for the review, Lara.

    I have read a lot of Achebe's books and two of Chinamanda's but I still haven't gotten round to reading these two reviewed here. From all the interest Adichie generated, I actually thought the book was centered on the natural hair drama. My bad.

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  6. Been getting a few positive feedback on Americanah...might just pick it up next. I could always do with a good 'fuck you novel'.

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