Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in 1977 in Enugu Nigeria Sto a middle-class family and was raised with a strong emphasis on education and literature. Her experiences growing up in Nigeria and witnessing the socio-political issues faced by her country would later become the inspiration for her critically acclaimed novels.
She first attended the University of Nigeria to study medicine and pharmacy before moving to the US to attend Eastern Connecticut State University to learn political science and communications. She graduated with an MA in creative writing from Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University.
She started out writing poetry and one drama, For Love of Biafra (1998) but soon moved on to short tales, which she published in literary publications and won awards for. Her first book, Purple Hibiscus, released in 2003, takes place in the political unrest of Nigeria in the 1990s and is narrated from the viewpoint of 15-year-old Kambili Achike. It was on the shortlist for the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction and won the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book). Chimamanda's third novel, Americanah, was written when she was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study from 2011 to 2013, and it was released to critical acclaim in 2013. Americanah will be made as a ten-part television series for HBO Max in 2019.
Chimamanda's third novel, Americanah, was written when she was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study from 2011 to 2013, and it was released to critical acclaim in 2013. Americanah will be made into a ten-part television series for HBO Max in 2019.
Chimamanda has also won numerous awards for her writing. Her works often explore themes of race, gender, and identity, and she is known for her powerful storytelling and thought-provoking narratives. Chimamanda's impact extends beyond the literary world, as she is also a renowned speaker and feminist advocate, delivering powerful TED Talks and writing influential essays on topics such as feminism and cultural identity. Her work continues to inspire and resonate with readers around the world.
Apollo
The novel is set in both modern-day Nigeria and 1970s Nigeria and is narrated by a middle-aged man called Okenwa as he visits his elderly parents and investigates his connection with them through an episode from his youth. His parents, today as then, are bookish, chilly, and utterly dedicated to one another, forming a perfectly unique unit. As an adult, he is tired of their lack of understanding of him; they continually ask him if and when he's going to be married, have a child, etc., even though he's over 40 and, as is implied later, gay. The episode includes one of the family's "house boys" named Raphael, with whom Okenwa developed a nonsexual bond but who is abruptly pushed out of the house due to a minor incident that Okenwa caused and blamed on Raphael.
Okenwa seemed to utilise the episode to reevaluate his parents and his misunderstood relationship with them, rather than being sorry about the events or Raphael's ultimate situation (he later turned to crime). He observes that they were severe, overly rigorous, and ready to judge, particularly during his childhood. Perhaps this is why he felt obliged to connect with Raphael, his sole companion who paid him any attention at all.
"Apollo" succeeds given that it explores both identity and memory in the manner in which we as humans are obliged to interpret it all: clumsily and while rushing forward in life with little knowledge and an ever-shifting viewpoint. We misremember bits and parts of events. In our minds, people either mellow or wither. We have the wrong dates and the faces wrong. We tell ourselves it occurred one way repeatedly enough that we believe it. Other occurrences that come to our attention in the meantime impact us.
In conclusion, Apollo by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a powerful and thought-provoking novel that explores themes of identity, love, and the complexities of human relationships through the character of Rapheal and Okenwa. Adichie's vivid and descriptive writing style immerses the reader in the story, allowing them to truly connect with the characters and their struggles, in thought and in memory.
