Half Of A Yellow Sun, Chapters 27 & 28

Hello bookclubbers!

Sorry for the delay but am glad that everyone is still with us and enjoying the book. I picked this picture from my trip to the Rodin Museum in Paris because I feel it captures the feeling of these chapters.

These next two chapters continues with Ash's post of impending war. As she mentions, everything becomes more tense as the plots unfold. Like Ash, I felt this tightness within my chess. As I mentioned in my previous post, Adiche has this really great way of just drawing you into a situation. I sometimes feel like an invisible observer in each scene. Chapter 27 focuses on Richard and Kainene and how they are dealing with the growing tension.

Perhaps, I am biased but Richard is my least favourite characters in this novel. After all these years, he's still so prickly about "belonging" -- once again, I think it has to do with his character, or lack thereof. He is an adult who can never seem to feel comfortable in his own skin. For instance, in the situation where Madu asks him to write for the Propoganda Directorate:

"Why me?" Kainene shrugged.
"Why not?"
"The man hates me."
"Don't be so dramatic. I think they want experienced insiders to do stories that are about more than just the number of Biafran dead."
At first the word insider thrilled Richard. But doubts soon crawled out; insider had been Kainene's word, after all, and not Madu's. Madu saw him as a foreigner, which is perhaps why he thought he would be good at this. pg 382

I find this chapter, or perhaps Kainene and Richard's reaction to the conflict confusing. They go to parties and go about their daily business despite all the signs that chaos is about to ensue. Richard, at least has some trepidations but Kainene is almost in denial. It isn't until the horrible scene where they are trying to escape and Ikejide loses his head by a flying shrapnel that there is some sort of reaction.

"Are you all right?" Richard asked her. She did not respond. There was an eerie blankness in her eyes. Richard was not sure what to do. He shook her gently but the blank look remained, so he went to the tap and splashed a cold bucket on her." pg 398

"At nights, she cried. She told him she wanted to dream of Ikejide but she woke up every morning and remembered his running headless body clearly while, in the safer blurred territory of her dreams, she saw herself smking a cigarette in an elegant gold holder." pg 399

This incident become the catalyst for Kainene. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to experience what she did. But for me, this is where I begin to really like her. Before, she always seemed so jaded and dismissive. Here, she takes that moment of horror and she fuels her energy into her work at the refugee camps. She's still a hard woman, but in a good way.

Chapter 28 reveals what Olanna and Odenigbo face in this time of war. There is a more languid pace of writing in this chapter. It reveals the details of the hardships faced in their day to day lives:

The bathroom floor was slimy with too much dirt washed off too many bodies, and the toilet was thick with the smells of strangers. On humid evenings when the odors sat heavy in the moist air, Olanna longed for a fan, for electricity. pg 410

I love how Adiche describes things. I can imagine the hot stickiness of the sun, the feeling of being too crowded. She really knows how to draw you in. Living under such tense conditions, Odenigbo finally breaks down at the loss of his mother but perhaps also at the loss of the life they once knew.

"I never did enough for Mama,"he said finally...

"We never actively remember death,"Odenigbo said. "The reason we live as we do is because we do not remember that we will die. We will all die."

"Yes,"Olanna said; there was a slump to his shoulders." "But perhaps it is the whole point of being alive? That life is a state of death denial?" he asked. pg 415

Kainene and Olanna reunite in this chapter also. Once again, I am so shocked at how disjointed they can be with one another. Their meeting and initial halting conversations are mixed bag of emotions - judgement, criticism, defensiveness, uncertainty and genuine concern for one another. But they slowly let their guard down, enough for Kainene to confess what had happened to her at Port Harcourt and you see for a brief moment, a bond of sisterhood.

"Olanna got up and sat next to Kainene on the bench and put an arm around her. Kainene smelled of home. They said nothing for long minutes." pg 433

Olanna eventually visits the refugee camp that Kainene has been working at and realizes how in her own way, Kainene has had her own demons to face in this war. And at the end of the chapter, Kainene reaches out to Olanna.

"Later, as they walked to the car, Kainene slipped her hands into Olanna's." pg 438

I feel that this might be the turning point in Olanna and Kainene's relationship. That through this shared experience of war together, they begin to see each other in a new light. What are you thoughts about these two chapters? And of Olanna and Kainene?