Girls at War and Other Stories

Over the past few decades, publishers have increasingly turned to a writer’s earliest works in a not-so-subtle effort to profit from those writers’ later successes. Occasionally, but (predictably) rarely, those works are worthy of publication. Sadly, this is not one of those exceptions. In fairness, I found this collection much more dependent than his novels on a level of cultural familiarity that I simply do not have. I am fairly certain that if I knew more about Nigeria, especially about cultural and social standards and customs, (and about the war for Biafra which informs much of the collection) that many of these stories would have a fuller meaning for me. Although that is partly true for Achebe’s novels, certainly, I have show more never felt that it stood in the way of my appreciating them the way it did here. The dozen stories collected here include two student pieces written when Achebe was in his very early twenties and I think that many of the stories have the hallmarks of any early writer: he is learning his craft and hasn’t yet realized his potential. Stories end abruptly or feel unfinished or incompletely thought out. The stories I thought most impressive (and enjoyable) were, in every instance, the latest written in the collection. (“The Madman,” “The Vengeful Creditor,” and “Girls at War,” all written in 1971). Indeed, Achebe himself implicitly acknowledges this in his brief preface and to my knowledge, his reputation does not rest on his stories. More a work for completists than anyone else. show less