Hardcover, 336 pages
Spanish language
Published Nov. 30, 2004 by Grijalbo.
La sorprendente primera novela de Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ganadora del Commonwealth Writers' Prize como Best First Book. Una conmovedora historia sobre una virulenta relación familiar ambientada en un África de conflictos políticos y sociales.
La joven Kambili, de quince años, y su hermano mayor Jaja llevan una vida privilegiada en la ciudad de Enugu. Viven en una hermosa casa y frecuentan un elitista colegio religioso, pero su vida familiar dista mucho de ser armoniosa. Su padre, un poderoso y respetado hombre de negocios, es un fanático católico que alienta expectativas de cariño imposibles de cumplir.
Cuando los jóvenes visitan durante unos días a la cariñosa y atrevida tía Ifeoma en su humilde apartamento, descubren un mundo totalmente nuevo: el rico olor a curry que inunda el lugar, las continuas risas de sus primos, las flores exuberantes, la calidez, el respeto a las ideas, la libertad, el amor y la ausencia …
La sorprendente primera novela de Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ganadora del Commonwealth Writers' Prize como Best First Book. Una conmovedora historia sobre una virulenta relación familiar ambientada en un África de conflictos políticos y sociales.
La joven Kambili, de quince años, y su hermano mayor Jaja llevan una vida privilegiada en la ciudad de Enugu. Viven en una hermosa casa y frecuentan un elitista colegio religioso, pero su vida familiar dista mucho de ser armoniosa. Su padre, un poderoso y respetado hombre de negocios, es un fanático católico que alienta expectativas de cariño imposibles de cumplir.
Cuando los jóvenes visitan durante unos días a la cariñosa y atrevida tía Ifeoma en su humilde apartamento, descubren un mundo totalmente nuevo: el rico olor a curry que inunda el lugar, las continuas risas de sus primos, las flores exuberantes, la calidez, el respeto a las ideas, la libertad, el amor y la ausencia de castigos.Al regresar a su hogar, transformados por la libertad conquistada, la tensión familiar crece de forma alarmante.
En La flor púrpura oímos la voz de una juventud que rechaza las prohibiciones que se ciernen sobre su vida y que ahogan a su pueblo. Un relato tierno, sereno y conmovedor sobre los lazos familiares, la pasión de la adolescencia y la represión, y que trasciende el paisaje de una Nigeria convulsa para cobrar un cariz universal.
Religiosity, colonial worship & domestic violence make for a sparse & traumatic family life.
Obviously, not my usual type of genre, but it did keep my attention. Adichie's descriptions in the book were vivid and the way she used poetic sentences to talk about something was really well done. I have to say, I did not like Eugene at all. I mean, who would considering he's the villain of the novel. I feel a little justice at the fact that he came to bad ends as I always like a villain's "reign" to end, though it's never good to take a life. Eugene did good things for the community, but his family life wasn't as well as people thought. He was abusive, a religious-nut, and a control freak. At the end of the day, how you treat your family matters more than what you do for others, at least to me. I guess that can mean many things for different situations, but for this …
Obviously, not my usual type of genre, but it did keep my attention. Adichie's descriptions in the book were vivid and the way she used poetic sentences to talk about something was really well done. I have to say, I did not like Eugene at all. I mean, who would considering he's the villain of the novel. I feel a little justice at the fact that he came to bad ends as I always like a villain's "reign" to end, though it's never good to take a life. Eugene did good things for the community, but his family life wasn't as well as people thought. He was abusive, a religious-nut, and a control freak. At the end of the day, how you treat your family matters more than what you do for others, at least to me. I guess that can mean many things for different situations, but for this one, it really mattered. At times he would get so paranoid that his family was "walking through sin" that I would wonder why he was so worried about sin and how he turned out to be the way he was, a man who hurts the people he loves (and the only ones who loved him) because he thought they sinned. What he saw as sins were not. They were the attempts of teenagers trying to fit in and act normal. I think it was wrong of Eugene to push such a strict religion onto Kambili and Jaja as well as isolate them from anything that's considered normal for their age group to do. I liked how Kambili and Jaja came out of their "shells" and started to realize that it's not wrong to laugh and smile and act their age. They don't have to always be bound to their father's ways. In the end, I guess the lesson to be learned was to not be bound by other people's expectations of you. To always follow your heart, it's an old cliche, but it's true in this case. And to not allow yourself to be a victim and stand up for yourself, because sometimes (well, actually most of the time) nobody else will.
