The Thing Around Your Neck Paperback – June 1, 2010

Excellent! I really enjoyed these stories. Adiche is a wonderful storyteller and brings Nigerian culture and people to life. Her characters are memorable as are the stories that they tell.

I enjoyed these short stories. They provided insights to several aspect of Nigerian culture as it is juxtapose to the that of European culture.

These are beautiful, whimsical stories of culture shifting, of the intersection of differing African cultures with each other and in particular, the intersections of Nigerian culture, beliefs and experiences with that of the US. Ngozi Adichie's characters are poor, struggling housemaids, young African authors trying to make it as writers with the doubtful aid of English "African literature lovers", Big Men grown fat and over confident with power, influence and wealth, poor students trying to make their way in Western universities, retired academics waiting patiently, but without faith, for their pensions to be paid. Her best characters are the barely noticeable outsiders, those treading the at time treacherous, at times pitiful borders between Africa family and tribal norms and the consumer driven West. The wars, massacres and revolutions here are not those of Old Europe, but of Young Africa yet they have the same, stark effect of those who remember and mark their lives by these epoch-making events. These stories reward and enrich at a number of levels and provoke reflection long after the book is read.

I really enjoyed reading the stories contained in this book.

Each story in this book made me pause to think before moving on to the next story. I don't know if I have a favorite because I like all of them. They all evoked different emotions in me. For some reason I could resonate with most of the main characters in the story.I must say one of the stories was very dark. The one that talked about Nonso.I will read this book again.I wish some of them could be made into full novels. Like the arranged marriage and the American Embassy. I am also curious about Chinedu and what happened to him and Ukamaka....I am dying to read another collection of Chimamanda's short stories. She is brilliant!

This was the first of her books I have discovered and I couldn't put it down. My son read it at school and bought it for me for Christmas. She has an incredible ability to grip you in only a few simple pages and tells a whole tale in what might take a full novel for most authors. I hated when each story ended, as I was so taken with the characters, but got equally wrapped up in the next one just as quickly. This author is a gift.

This book is the 3rd one I've read by this author, and is a harrowing story, very well written in a style I find compelling. Why not 5 stars? My problem is in relating to Africa and its complicated cultural systems. I even find the characters names difficult to pronounce, which makes it hard for me to imagine them. Isn't that strange? I am obviously lacking all knowledge about the issues dividing the warring factions within this country, let alone the entire continent, all of which destroys its fluency. My fault, not the author's! At least it led me to do some reading up on African history. With this new found knowledge I will re-read it, and hopefully the background of political unrest will slot into place and provide the support I needed. And, if I spend a bit more on the audio version, I could finally hear those beautiful names pronounced correctly.

It was extremely well written and flowed beautifully. Clearly showed the culture shock between Nigerian and other cultures and made one think about our culture, the immigrant experience, women and so many other topics.