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Purple Hibiscus

By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2004; 320 pages

Rating: 3

"Purple Hibiscus" tells the story of Kambili and her family. Their family is a joyless one. Kambili's father is abusive, physically, verbally, and mentally. However, this fact is not known and her father is highly respected throughout the community. After beating Kambili so badly that she ends up in the hospital for months, their lives all take a dramatic and drastic change.

I have to confess, I listened to Purple Hibiscus on CD. (It was unabridged.) And I think I would have liked it better had I read it myself. It was nice, however, to know how the names and Nigerian words are pronounced, but other than that, I didn't really care for the audio version.

As far as the book itself, it is well written. It's not entertaining, but it's not really supposed to be. Unfortunately, I don't really think I can recommend that you read it. I didn't feel enlightened, encouraged, or motivated towards some change. I guess "Purple Hibiscus" did reinforce the fact that you can't judge what's happening at home by how someone appears to the outside world.