No Longer At Ease

I enjoyed reading Chinua Achebe's seminal Things Fall Apart as well as a collection of essays. Given that he died fairly recently (2013), I decided to finish his "African Trilogy," which began with that first memorable book. No Longer At Ease (1960) is another book concerned with Africa, Nigeria in particular, and the how Africans would respond to the postcolonial world. Obi has been chosen to study in England and when he returns he finds that there are many expectations from a variety of sources, and the path he has chosen is not exactly the bed of roses that expected. However, the main concern of the novel is corruption in the postcolonial age and Achebe offers a tragic story of corruption as a last resort. It would seem that Achebe has a cast of character types that have emerged in the new  postcolonial world and addresses some other issues pertinent to Africa such as ignorant superstitions and filial piety in the new age. Achebe's style is interesting in that he quotes western poets (the first page features a quote from T.S.Elliot's "The Journey of the Magi." In fact Obi discusses Graham Green in a job interview and criticizes that the novel, The Heart of the Matter, isn't a real tragedy because the protagonist Scobie escape his misery by suicide-a true tragedy according to Obi would suggest perpetual suffering. In fact, he singles out Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust as an example of an appropriate ending where the character Tony Last is kept prisoner in the jungle and forced to read Dickens to his captive until death. Achebe also peppers his novel with African folk sayings and aphorisms that I found insightful and intriguing. I am looking forward to the third installment of the "African Trilogy," Arrow of the God.