Page after page, simply wonderful - Rated 
In Nigeria, devastated by civil war in the 1960s, we see the birth of the state of Biafra and relearn quite a bit of history. It is through the eyes of three different characters, whose personal tales intertwine, that history blends with their difficult paths:
Ugwu, a houseboy for eccentric university lecturer Odenigbo. Olanna, whose parents raise her and twin sister Kainene in the most privileged of backgrounds in Lagos; she leaves everything behind to follow Odenigbo as they are very much in love. Richard, a timid British national charmed by the Igbo culture and enthralled by Kainene, whose personality is an enigma for everyone. Obviously many other characters rotate all around and as we become acquainted with each of them, their presence is always pertinent and complementary to the main story.
I would not add anything else as the tale would be spoiled but I cannot refrain from strongly recommending this book as it is informative in many ways, its narrative flows beautifully, heartbreakingly, even comically at times and your heart is captured within the lines. It does not dwell on the violence of war even though it (the violence) is perceived in subtle but incredibly effective ways.
Read this book, you will not regret it. Quoting from my review title, simply wonderful, indeed.
Absorbing - Rated
I found this a riveting read, with convincing characters and very informative about the Biafran/Nigerian war. I shall definitely be reading her first novel now.
instructive but too one-sided - Rated 
I found the book interesting in so far as I didn't know anything about the situation in Nigeria at the time the story is set in- I was two when the events unfolded- but I do remember growing up at a time when adults often told you to eat up and be grateful because you were not a Biafran child. Not that I needed any such encouragement.So being a total ignoramus about Africa I did manage to get an idea of what it must have been like. I read different reviews and sometimes agree and sometimes not. I do agree when readers say that they don't really know that much more after finishing the book.The context is not clear for someone with no previous knowlegde of the war. At the same time it might be unreasonable to expect the writer to furnish all the historical background. Other readers wrote that they hadn't felt connected with the characters and I must admit I failed to warm to them as well.They were interesting enough but didn't leap off the page. Maybe it has to do with the fact that their actions are mostly the focus and not really their thoughts.I sometimes felt I was reading a catalogue of facts rather than a novel. But something else bothered me a lot more and it is the fact that the book is so one-sided. It is a celebration of Biafra, its courageous, heroic inhabitants, its martyrs... I wouldn't have a problem with that if we had had access to how people in the other camp thought, what their opinion about the causes of the war were but we never get this much needed other perspective. Once again, it wouldn't be easy for the writer who has lost family members in that war and has relied on family memories to tell this tale, to incorporate a part seen through the eyes of Nigerians.However the problem is that without it, the book reads a lot like propaganda and I am not sure that someone who was Hausa, Fulani... and not Igbo would necessarily accept it as the truth.
What the book did achieve however, was bring to our attention, a way of life, colourful people, customs, beliefs that a lot of us were probably unaware of, and it has helped us gain some insight into a very complex and moving page of history.
Educational... - Rated 
I picked this book up partly because of the recommendations here on Amazon and partly because of the Orange award.
I liked the changing from the different voices and characterisation, and also the switch back to the past and I thought the book was educational (I hadn't heard of the Nigeria - Biafra war so for me it was enlightening)and the story was enjoyable.
On a negative I thought the end was a little weak - I didn't think the last 100 pages were that gripping and really wanted to end the book by this stage.
Overall, whilst the novel was interesting I won't be running off to immediately read her other book - Purple Hibiscus. I would read Adichie again but she won't be on top of my reading list.
Overly Schematic? - Rated 
I'd give this novel 1 1/2 stars if I could. I originally bought this book as a present for my mum based on the West African setting and all the garlands but, when it became obvious that she had no intention of ever picking it up, ended up reading it myself . My hurt feelings have since been washed away by my relief that she'll never know-- at least not for certain-- what a stinker this is. Although, the book has got an academic value, I guess, in that it gives an idea of what kind of modern African fiction would appeal to a Western critic.
I think the top of p. 245 pretty much sums up my problem with the story and the writing (and it never occurred to me that the book starts off boring then becomes dynamic in the last 100 or so pages, like many of my fellow low-scoring reviewers, because, as far as I am concerned, it is fundamentally inert all the way through). On p. 245 one of the protagonists, Olanna, is confronted by her next door neighbour, an African-American woman, Edna. It is one of the few scenes which places the story in any sort of historical context (and I may as well point out that there is just enough context for someone who never had any idea that Biafra-- apparently a Portuguese word, groan!-- ever existed for me to think that the exceptionalism of the whole thing wasn't being laid on a bit thick and then again not enough context for me to truly, *truly*, understand what motivated the movement to secede from Nigeria). Edna bursts into Olanna's room in tears and explains that white people have bombed a black church in her hometown "Four little girls had died. One of them was her niece's schoolmate. 'I saw her when I went back home six months ago.' Edna said. 'Just six months ago I saw her.'" The book is full of clunkers like this which only serve to remind you that all of these characters are shallow constructs. From head to toe. And who speaks like that? "'Just six months ago I saw her.'" Honestly. I'm suprised she there wasn't a scene in the preceding pages where Olanna found Edna rocking back and forth in a darkened room "'Edna', gasped Olanna 'What's wrong?'. Edna looked up from the floor, 'It's been five years since my cousin was lynched for whistling at a white woman in Chicago. He was only fourteen!' she sobbed, 'fourteen he only was!'" Cos, you know, they've made a documentary about Emmett Till too...
Where is Adichie's much trumpeted (in her afterword) 'emotional truth'? I can see how these incidents have basis in reality but the way they are knitted together is far from seamless. The quoted incident in particular simply reminds you that at the time when this was going on South Africa (which supported Biafra?) was an apartheid state and that African-Americans were still fighting for basic civil rights. But get this, you are supposed to feel bad, and not be 'Silent While They Die', about the plight of a bunch of middle-class Nigerians who were living better in the 60s than a great deal of the Earth's population live *right now*. There are people dying right now in Darfur and Adichie thinks what we all need to be reminded about are the vague gripes and resentments of one of Nigeria's more successful tribes.
The veneer of 'literariness' is especially tiresome; the author's apparent belief in the subtle, many-layered achievement of having one of the characters write a 'novel within a novel' to give a greater sense of background to the conflict simply boggles the mind. The sections dealing with this novel, which aren't Wikipedia cut-and-pastes of Biafra's short history, read *exactly* like the rest of the story. Except without the rest of the book's half-hearted, half-baked insights into the character's minds. In this sense, it's more transparently representative of what the novel actually achieves, IMO, than the rest of it.
There is also a little bit of jiggling with the timeline which serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever except to drag out a brittle tale of middle class manners and misdemeanours, I mean, really boring stuff. And I suppose the novel-within-a-novel thing concludes with a twist, albeit one so epically underwhelming that I again wondered what the purpose was apart from, you know, to seem more artsy? But these conceits could not disguise the fundamental lack of any story, or what is more important, the lack of 'emotional truth'. I'm not a heartless robot, I am West African myself and yet I am sad to say that I think two other 'Memoirs of Oppression' ('Wild Swans' and 'Maus') I have read have worked considerably better than this one notwithstanding that I am equally disinterested/unsympathetic with regards to the historical events they center around. They just read as more authentic and more meaningful than this book. Even the flaws of the characters in 'Half a Yellow Sun' seem less like genuinely sophisticated writing than step 5 in 'how to turn your sophomoric observations about war and politics into a prize winning fictional work'. And don't get me started on Richard, I'm actually suprised to find that no real-world analogue has been listed for that cat since he is so egregiously awful in every way he almost classifies as fan-fiction. I mean, he so clearly represents 'points' that the author wants to hammer us over the head with and ones that she's probably be ashamed to express herself since they lack any nuance whatsoever. Speaking of which... did I mention that British food is awful and Biafran food (which is 'our' food) is simply delicious? Because it is, you know.
Boring characters + boring story/earnest lecture = lame novel. The 'War is Terrible' moral has been done much, much better many, many times before. 'Slaughterhouse 5', off the top of my head.
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