Exploring “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe

By Jereme Harlan

On Sunday, November 16th, 10 members of Imago Dei’s Literature Discussion Group met at Urban Grinds Café to talk about Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart.” Aside from the north-African names in the novel that no one could pronounce (and no one tried to pronounce), we had a lively discussion about the gradual ruin of the Umuofia tribe in Africa.

Keeping with the spirit with the book’s title, and as group discussions frequently go, the central focus of our gathering—the book itself—went off track and down a rabbit trail of sorts and, essentially…fell apart. But that is all a part of what makes our monthly discussions so much fun. Just as the influence of Christianity, via some well-intentioned missionaries, slowly infused discord into the life-vein of the Umuofia tribe so, also, the topic of Christianity bore into our central focus of Achebe’s novel and in no time we were waist-deep into an intellectual dialogue about all things related to Christianity. But seeing as we are affiliated with Imago Dei, that is not such a bad thing at all.

Our moderator, Vivian, kept us together with many thought-provoking questions. After each question followed several seconds of thick silence and then someone would answer her, whereupon the steady flow of conversation would begin again. The “main guy” of the story with the name that no one could pronounce (and no one tried to pronounce), was a sad, brutal, and fearful man who simultaneously made us angry yet somehow evoked our sympathy as well. We talked about his motivations and reasons for his actions; we talked about the son he hated and eventually disowned and the son he loved, whom he killed; and we talked about the appearance of the missionaries and the subsequent influence of the church and organized government into the tradition-bound Voodoo religion of the Umuofia tribe, and about how the main guy with the name we could not pronounce fell apart at the end.
His name, apart in liquid letters:
O
k
o
n
k
w
o

Lit Discussion Group: Imago Dei Explores “The Power and the Glory”

By: Jereme Harlan

On Sunday, September 28th, 6 members of Imago Dei’s Literature Discussion Group met at Costello’s Café to talk about Graham Greene’s “The Power and the Glory.” We discussed everything from his motive for writing the novel, to identifying the different protagonists and antagonists, to even a way-off-track-but-somehow-connected discussion about the war in Iraq. It was a fun and lively dialogue loosely guided by our moderator, Vivian. A few times she had to steer us back on track so that we were actually discussing the novel, but for the most part we had a surprisingly intellectual dialogue about the novel’s symbolism, various themes, and connection to Christianity that was very similar to a college literature class.

The Christian aspect of “The Power and the Glory” was unmistakable, and comprised the main vein of the novel. On surface level it is a Catholic novel, since Greene converted to Catholicism in his mid-twenties, but the novel is also generally regarded as his masterpiece. We agreed that Greene’s style and motive for writing this was not to “preach” Catholicism, but rather to tell a simple story about a “whiskey priest” who is on the run for his life in early 1900’s southern Mexico. The whiskey priest is so named because he is a bad priest: he fathered a child and drinks way too much alcohol; but by the end of the novel he is a martyr for the cause of Christ. Although Greene’s style of writing is factual and far from poetic, his main character is epic in scope. He is a very human yet Christic figure; he is a solitary opposition to political and religious turmoil to which his fellow citizens readily succumb; he is an unfortunate (yet necessary) casualty in a conflict he neither understands nor supports.

Overall, “The Power and the Glory” was a fun read, but even more enjoyable was sitting at a café table in north Portland, sipping a cappuccino, and discussing it with fellow book lovers. Imago Dei’s Literature Discussion Group has a large membership but typically has little participation—percentage wise. We haven’t yet decided what we will be reading/discussing next month, but whatever it is, we would love to have even more people join us for good coffee and a friendly conversation.

Upcoming Books

It was great to meet all of you who came to Urban Grind Coffee House last Sunday! As discussed, next month's book will be Johnny Cash's autobiography Cash. We'll be meeting on Sunday, January 20th at 2:30pm at 403 NE 56th Ave, so go out and grab that book for an interesting holiday read!

"Engaging.... Written with honesty and spiritual insight.... Cash's stories and strength shine." Chicago Sun-Times

P.S. February's book was decided too! You might want to get a head start on A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius!

Quotes from The Atonement

"Was being Cecilia just as vivid an affair as being Briony? Did her sister also have a real self concealed behind a breaking wave and did she spend time thinking about it, with a finger held up to her face? Did everybody, including her father, Betty, Hardman? If the answer was yes, then the world, the social world, was unbearably complicated." Part 1, Chapter 3, Page 34

The Atonement- December's Book

We are tentatively planning to start up Book Group again on Sunday,
December 2nd, 2:30-4:00pm. We'll be meeting at Urban Grind Coffee House for the discussion of Ian Mcewan's The Atonement. This should be great
timing, as the movie is due out the following weekend. I'd add a
synopsis but the trailer is conveniently located in the movie link,
which should perk your interest enough on its own.

More details to come!

Join the Google Group!

Join the Imago Book Group "Google Group" to get the latest information about meet ups!