The story is centered around Kambili and her brother Jaja. Both children live in a strict catholic family with a father who is not only overbearing, but also abusive. When Kambili and Jaja visit their aunt they are opened to a new world of love and openness that they have never experienced before. While Jaja takes to this new environment right away, Kambili is shy and timid and it takes the provocation of her cousin Amaka and the friendship of the local priest, Father Amadi, for Kambili to finally come out of her shell. When the siblings return to their father's house it is far from a easy transition and soon everything starts to become difficult.
Why does this novel make me so angry? Because the father is abusive and uses religion to try and justify his horrible actions. He causes his wife to have two miscarriages, breaks his sons finger, burns his daughters feet, beats her until she ends up in the hospital, and yet says it was because of love he does these things. In class some people tried to use the fact that he was an upstanding man in the community to say he wasn't a monster, but I had a hard time the whole novel. ** spoiler alert** When I found out that the mother has poisoned him I might have cheered a little. I don;t care what he did for the community, he brutalized his family and that is unacceptable.
Overall, I am sure you have guessed, I despised this book and I doubt I will ever pick it up again unless I am forced to for another class. It had nothing to do with the writing of the novel, the imagery was beautiful, but the content. It gets a 1 out of 5
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