Comments on: CHIKE AND THE RIVER by Chinua Achebe /2011/chike-and-the-river-by-chinua-achebe/ We Love to Read! Thu, 30 Jan 2014 13:28:14 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.18 By: Friederike /2011/chike-and-the-river-by-chinua-achebe/comment-page-1/#comment-3396 Sat, 27 Aug 2011 15:40:13 +0000 /?p=20428#comment-3396 Thanks for your comment, Roger. Yes, while this is a children’s book, it has moral messages that apply to wherever children grow up – and parents are encouraged to listen and assist the children. It is a good book for an educational environment too.

Yes, ONITSHA was also on my mind when I read this short book, written of course much earlier. Onitsha is a reasonably sized city and an important harbour – was already then. For a small boy coming from a village of a few houses, Onitsha must have seemed enormous. “Big city” is also meant to represent the complexity of life in contrast to the simplicity of village life where “everybody knew the thief…”.

]]> By: Roger Brunyate /2011/chike-and-the-river-by-chinua-achebe/comment-page-1/#comment-3384 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:44:56 +0000 /?p=20428#comment-3384 I am interested in your description of this, Friederike, as a book for children of all ages. So far, I have only read THINGS FALL APART, which is not of course a children’s book but is in many ways childlike in its narrative simplicity. It did not encourage me to read more Achebe, but it may be that in a story written FOR children, the contrast between simplicity of style and complexity of issues might be less bothersome.

On another note, it was also interesting to revisit ONITSHA after reading Le Clézio’s book of that title, also featuring a young child. But with the Le Clézio in my mind, it was rather surprising to see it referred to as a big city. Perhaps it is, but LeC made it seem like the back of beyond. Roger.

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