Tradition and Change: Book club for educators
I remember the first time I read Things Fall Apart. It was about 15 years ago, and I was looking to expand the novels I taught in my high school English classes. My librarian friend suggested Things Fall Apart. I had a study hall at the end of the day, so if the students were quiet on any given day, I would read.
I remember getting to the end of the book and gasping aloud while throwing the book down on my desk. My students looked up and asked what happened. I got the part of the book where things fall apart.
I can still remember that feeling the first time I read the book. Isn’t that what good literature does? It suspends our reality - even if just for a moment. Achebe was a master at transporting his readers to a new world. I was all in. I loved Things Fall Apart since that first reading, and since then, I’ve read and taught it more than a dozen times.
Recently, I faciliated a book clud discussion of Things Fall Apart with over 40 teachers from across the country. We talked about how Achebe mixes western literary forms with African literary traditions and myth with reality, but nothing was as magical as the first time I read (and threw down) Things Fall Apart.
Access the book club slide deck here.
