Nwamgba was born and raised in a small village in Nigeria. They had very primitive ways. She fell in love with Obierika, to the dismay of her family, who thought she could do better. However, her father finally agreed that they could marry.

They were very successful and wealthy by the village standards and Obierika helped out his four cousins by giving them seeding sweet potatoes and other things. After several miscarriages, they had a healthy son, Anikwenwa however, shortly after, Obierika died. Nwamgba thinks that his death was mysterious and thought that perhaps, his cousins might have had a hand in his death.

Soon after Obierika died, his four cousins started to harass Nwamgba. They took things from her, like all of the seeding potatoes. They also claimed that her property was theirs. She feared that they would take that away, eventually. When the white man came and told her about the new school, she decided to enroll Anikwenwa in the mission school, where he would learn English. Her hope was that her son would be able to read the legal documents she had, including the deed to their house and thereby, get free and clear from the four cousins, once and for all.
Nwamgba was very proud of Anikwenwa for how well he did in school but was not happy that he would not participate in the family and village traditions.

This is a powerful story of how one culture can go to another culture and quickly change traditions and values to their own beliefs, thereby “civilizing” natives. In this story, Englishmen came from a Christian mission and assimilated the village children to their beliefs and reject their own. Highly recommended.  You can read it here.

Also reviewed by:
Musings of a Bookish Kitty

Other Short Stories I have reviwed by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:
Quality Street
A Private Experience 

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story review. Come join in the fun!

(Author photo courtesy of Riverhead Books)

This story is narrated by a  “Early American Literature” teacher, who teaches priveleged freshmans in high school.  He tells his students about his father’s exodus from Ethiopia to Sudan, and his final escape to England and the the United States of America.

The teacher confesses to the reader that part of the story is true but part he has made up as he went along.  He tells his fathe’rs story over several days until one day, he runs into the dean in the school hallway. 


“I knew that it was only a matter of time before I was called to account for what I had been teaching my students. On a Friday, the dean caught me in the hall just as I was preparing to enter my classroom. There was nothing threatening or angry in his voice. He simply said, “Come and see me in my office when your class is over.”

When he goes to see the dean after class, the dean asks how much of the story is true.  The teacher confesses, “almost none of it.”  The dean responds, “it’s good to hear them talking about important things. So much of what I hear from them is shallow, silly rumors. They can sort out what’s true for themselves later.”

I found An Honest Exit to be a mesmorizing story.  Even though it is not true, the way it was told and the circumstance rang true to me.  Things like the son’s story have happened in history, even recent history. Dinaw Mengestu uses traditional storytelling for this story and I think it worked well.  I highly recomend that you read this story!  You can read it at The New Yorker, here.

If you would like to participate in Short Story Mondays or just find out about some great short stories, go to John of The Book Mine Set. He has a short story review every Monday and a place for you to link your short story reviews. Come join in the fun!

(Photo by John Paul Kragg)

The Story centers around Carson, a young man who meets Nikki, when he travels to Vancouver.  They start dating and get pretty serious, at least from Carson’s perspective.  Nikki, on the other hand just seems to be going through the motions of dating Carson with no real interest.  He’s there, he’s interested, so why not pass some time going out with him?  At least, that’s my interpretation of how she feels.

The sex scene John refereed to was disappointing but they were just having a “quickie”, LOL!  That’s why it was so disappointing to the reader, there was no substance but I think that was the point.  It demonstrated to me just how uninterested Nikki really was.  Like John, I didn’t like Nikki either.  She came across as shallow and uncaring to me.

John ended up liking the story but I could take it or leave it.  It certainly wasn’t a “must read” or anything near that for me, it was okay.  I liked the start of it the best, when it touched on Carson’s childhood.  If you would like to read it, go here.