Welcome to our new book club, “It’s Lit!”. Each month, we’ll be picking a book of our choice to settle into together. The goal of this book club is to bring together our wonderful members of our FEMME MAG community for one common goal: books. But it’s more than just reading them; we’re talking about quizzes, writing prompts and games as well!
If you can’t already tell, our pick of the month is Chimamanda Adichie’s, Purple Hibiscus!! I can’t tell you how excited I am to dive into this literary gem with the FEMME MAG community. It’s a book that deserves all its flowers (see what I did there?) and we just feel it gets overshadowed a bit by Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun. Everyone’s always asking about if Kainene lives and talking about Ifemulu’s blog but what about Kambili? What about Aunty Ifeoma and Amaka?We need to speak about them. And speak about them we shall this month.
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Purple Hibiscus is a book about the life of fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja under their authoritarian father in post-colonial Enugu. Narrated through Kambili’s eyes, we see the disintegration of her family unit around her as she struggles to define herself in her repressive household. It’s a book that simultaneously explores religion, abuse and identity against the shaky backdrop of Nigeria’s military regime.
We chose this book because it fits in perfectly for the theme of the month: New Beginnings. Purple Hibiscus is a bildungsroman – a literary genre that focuses on the psychological growth of its protagonist from youth to adulthood – and beautifully encapsulates the journey towards something new. It’s that awkward, oftentimes rocky, journey. It’s a lot of unlearning, a lot of questioning and a whole lot of reaching forward for something that serves us better than the past. It’s beautiful, confusing and refreshing all in one go.
In particular, it’s a bildungsroman that places this inquisitiveness in the hands of a female narrator. We see the world through Kambili’s eyes and watch as she discovers herself throughout the course of the book – something we rarely see young female characters do.
Just like Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions and Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood of Bone, Purple Hibiscus sits among its contemporaries and places growth in the hands of its female narrators. We see the world through these female characters eyes. We hear their voices and their thoughts. We’re basically taken along a very intimate journey of self-discovery. In Purple Hibiscus, we see how Kambili’s world unfolds and is built back up again with new bricks and stones, giving her agency in her own story. It’s a powerful read.
So grab your copies of Purple Hibiscus and get ready because from next week we’re full steam ahead with this book!
