I haven’t gotten far enough into this book to assess the quality of the story it’s telling; from what I have read so far though, the writing and editing could stand to be improved. I can’t put my finger on exactly what’s wrong, but something about the prose seems amateurish and clumsy, and it just grates. Maybe it’ll get better as I go on.

Edited to add: I’ve finished it, and it didn’t get any better. Not a book I’d recommend to anyone.

I really enjoyed this book. It felt like a smaller, more focussed and more cohesive novel than “White Teeth” was, which worked in its favour, I think. I liked this second novel better than the first.

This felt more like a collection of essays, rather than one of short stories. I think perhaps I need to re-read it with that in mind.

Fantastic book about a Nigerian woman, mother and wife, the role of women in Nigeria Ibo society, and about the changes in Nigerian culture around the middle of the 20th century. Highly recommended.

The book never really seemed to find its footing, I never felt like it was really about anything. The plot and the development of the characters and their relationships to each other seemed a bit lacking And there was this whole romantic subplot that was so unnecessary and distracting. Overall, not a very satisfying read.

Excellent.

At first I struggled with this book, but I gave it a second try, and it wasn’t as bad as it might have been. I ended up rather enjoying it.

I think I enjoyed this book a bit more on the second read. I appreciated Smith’s humour and her skill with words a lot more as well.

I’d read a lot of this book and was glad to get my hands on a copy of it. Having read it, I’m not entirely certain what all the hype was about. It was an okay book, but it wasn’t exactly good, and towards the end it got kind of… I don’t know. It was okay.

I borrowed this book from the library because the cover was pretty. Set in Singapore, it’s about a young Singaporean woman, engaged to be married to an up-and-coming politician, who falls in love with an American university professor. I didn’t find the love story very compelling, but it was an alright book overall. Not outstanding, but not bad either.