33 Ireland – Colm Tóibín – Nora Webster – March 2016 (Score 8.08)

I have only read two of Colm Tóibín’s books, this one and “Brooklyn”. Within two pages I found them to be linked. May Lacey, who came to visit Norah Webster to commiserate with her about the death of her husband, is the mother of Eilis, the protagonist of “Brooklyn”.

Nora set about the task of ridding the family of those parts of their lives which she no longer wanted to hold onto. She went to Cush and decided to sell their old summer house, collecting just a few photos and books to take home for the family. Nora has four children, Fiona, in teacher training in Dublin, Aine at school in Bunclody, Daniel, at school near home, and Conor, the younger boy, also at school.

She took the boys to Dublin for a day. They bought books at Easons, and went to Bewleys for a meal. They crossed the Ha’penny Bridge on their way back to the station. I did all of these during our holiday in Dublin last Christmas and New Year. In fact, I bought nine books from Easons, mainly on Irish subjects.

Page 30 – I read Teilhard de Chardin in my teens (from the library). I could make nothing of him. In fact, I had forgotten about him until I read this page.

Nora’s Aunt Josie paid a visit. The boys had stayed with her for two months while Maurice was dying. They behaved strangely quietly and ignored her. Daniel woke up screaming from a nightmare that night. Nora wondered if something happened during the stay and went, later, to see Josie who was straight-faced and silent about things, except to wonder why the boys were left with her so long.

Pages 70 and 71 – I laughed out loud at the story of the fire-irons and the sheep.

Nora went to work at Gibney’s where she worked before she married. This was at the specific request of Mr Gibney. She was to work for Francie Cavanagh whom she did not like, and who detested her. Kavanagh proved herself to be a really nasty piece of work.

On page 113 there is a discussion of the TV news of a civil rights march in Derry being broken up by the police, brutally. We follow Nora and her family though happy times and sad times, getting to know them. Tóibín has a deft touch in making his characters come to life.

Nora showed how strong a woman she was when Conor was moved, together with two other pupils (the three of them being the best pupils) from the A-class to the B-class. The Christian Brother in charge of the primary school gave no reason. Nora sent letters to ll of the teachers at the school to say that she would start to picket the school on a certain day if Conor was not moved back into the A-class. Two teachers visited her and she told them that she had her placard prepared and, if any teachers crossed her picket line she would put a widow’s curse on them “and you know how powerful a widow’s curse is. Conor was returned to the A-class.

This story tells us a lot about the power of the Catholic Church in Ireland at the time and about the continuing folk ways and beliefs in the old ways. It was certainly interesting to read about the Irish reaction to the events in Derry.

Nora learned to sing, and was introduced to Classical music> She took to it like a thirsty person who had been given water. She went back to work, reduced it to part time so that she could still have the opportunity to do the things she wanted.

She took on the complete redecoration of one of her rooms, straining herself very badly by painting the ceiling with chest pains and sore arms. She thought she was having a heart attack, but it was a false alarm, luckily. Life went on, and the book ended. And what a good ending it is.

After I had finished the book I wanted to hear Nora’s favourite, Beethoven’s Archduke Trio. I bought a CD of this, on which the Archduke is bundled with two other pieces by Beethoven. I enjoyed them all, and especially the Archduke. Thank you Nora (Webster) for telling me about it.

My score for this book is 8.5.

32   Nigeria – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Half of a yellow sun – February 2016 (Score 9.25)

Ugwu’s aunty is taking him to a new home where he will learn to be the house-boy for Master. It is a distance from their small village in Eastern Nigeria since they had to talk a lorry part way and have now been walking for a considerable time. His sister Analika also lives in the village. His new Master works in the mathematics department of the university in Nsukku. They speak Igbo.

Master tells him to call him by his name, Odenigbo. He tries, but is uncomfortable and slips quickly back to Master.

Olanna and her family are from west of Nsukku, and are clearly very wealthy. She has met Odenigbo. Kainene is Olanna’s sister. They are growing distant. Olanna is going to Kano in the north.

There are several hints of racism among the people whom we meet. Olanna’s cousins would never marry a man from another tribe. Mohammad’s mother did not want him to marry Olanna since “this Igbo woman would “taint the lineage with infidel blood”, though I am not sure whether that is racism, religious hatred or both. There is an interesting statement on page 72 that Igbo were a people who “deposed gods when they had outlived their usefulness”. Odenigbo’s mother would never allow Odenigbo to marry Olanna.

There is a military coup. Igbo are assaulted on the streets because locals think that they are behind the coup. In a later coup Hausa officers in the Nigerian army kill Igbo officers. The horror builds up. Igbo refugees are arriving from the north to escape the massacres.

Richard, who takes a role in the later parts of the book breaks with his fiancée since she says dreadful things about the Igbo like “they are uncivilised, just like the Jews (!!!!!)”, and “they had it coming” even though she clearly knew about the massacres.

Independence is finally declared for Eastern Nigeria under the name of “Biafra”, their flag being as described in the name of the book. A great sense of hope and relief sweeps through the people of Biafra. I, as the reader, know very well the horrors yet to come since I was a young man in my last year at university at the time of the start of the Biafran war in 1967, and read, listened and watched the news of what was happening right up till the end in 1970 when Biafra had been pummelled into submission. The Biafran engineer who worked in my office showed us newspapers and magazines from overseas which clearly demonstrated (assuming they had no reason to lie) that the British media were biased and misleading (assuming that the foreign media were not lying).

Adichie tells of bombers and fighters from UK, Europe and elsewhere bombing hospitals and refugee camps and strafing fleeing refugees from each city as it fell to the Nigerians. Food aid was prevented to the extent that kwashiorkor was given a new name – Harold Wilson Syndrome. Public libraries are burned, and even people’s individual book collections are destroyed. The war stops, but petty violence, theft and bullying by the Nigerian soldiers continues.

I felt very emotional when I reached the end of the book and read the dedication which finished it.

This is a harrowing story, but I think it is a story which had to be told. Once again we can see that much of the problem between the various tribes was caused by the divide and rule policies of the colonial masters in their greed for oil and raw materials. I scored it at 10.0.