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Chinua Achebe wins Man Booker International prize


Polka Dot Rock

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Chinua Achebe has won the Man Booker International prize! Which is both, for me, surprising and very pleasing as I love postcolonial literature.

 

His fellow shortlisted writers were Britain's Doris Lessing, Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie, Ireland's John Banville, the Americans Philip Roth and Don DeLillo, the Canadians Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro and Michael Ondaatje, and the dissident Israeli Amos Oz.

 

Here's a news article about it - Guardian: Man Booker International judges honour Chinua Achebe.

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Chinua Achebe has won the Man Booker International prize! Which is both, for me, surprising and very pleasing

 

It is indeed good news. I've read three books by Achebe, "Things Fall Apart", "No Longer at Ease" and "A Man of the People". All are wonderfully clear and concise novels conveying a balanced, honest and informative portrayal of the transition of a country from pre to post colonial times. He

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I've read Things Fall Apart which is a great novel, obviously a very important one too with regards to African literature written in the English langauge.

 

Andy - I'll check that article out, thanks for posting it :)

 

Achebe also wrote a very in/famous essay (which title now escapes me :roll:) about Conrad's Heart of Darkness: in very simplified terms, it suggested that it should no longer be considered as a canonical text because of it's overt racisim. Very controversial stuff, but all the more important in that it highlighted an issue that had been somewhat 'glossed over' 'til Achebe's polemic. It's really interesting, so keep your eyes peeled for it.

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