Critical review
The short story collection generally received positive reviews from critics. Constance Lam of Palatinate praised the book's characters, writing that "the beauty of Adichie's work lies in how deftly she works within the short story form to create nuanced, substantial characters". [8] In her review for Daily Telegraph , Jane Shilling criticised the structure of the book, writing that "if there are flaws in the collection, they are minor faults of structure – a couple of stories simply stop, rather than reaching a conclusion, while the compression of the final narrative, "The Headstrong Historian", is so intense that it feels as though it should have been allowed to blossom into something longer", meanwhile she described and praised Adichie as writing "with an economy and precision that makes the strange seem familiar...She makes storytelling seem as easy as birdsong", and the characters as "having the power of archetypes and the verisimilitude that comes from fine observation". [4] Bernardine Evaristo, writing for The Daily Telegraph wrote that "this stunning collection of short stories confirms Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's position as one of Africa's brightest new literary stars", and Adichie as a writer that "offers insights into both worlds and, like all fine storytellers, leaves us wanting more". [9]
In a review for The New York Times , Michiko Kakutani explained that "the Africa in Adichie's collection isn't the Africa that Americans are familiar with from TV news or newspaper headlines". She described Adichie as one who "is interested in how clashes between tradition and modernity, familial expectations and imported dreams affect relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children". [10] Susan Salter Reynolds of Los Angeles Times posed a question, writing "imagine how hard it must be to write stories that make American readers understand what it might be like to visit a brother in a Nigerian jail, to be the new bride in an arranged marriage, to arrive in Flatbush from Lagos to meet a husband or to hide in a basement, waiting for a riot to subside, wondering what happened to a little sister who let go of your hand when you were running. How would it feel to be a woman who smuggled her journalist husband out of Nigeria one day and had her 4 year-old son shot by government thugs the next?" [11]
Deirdre Donahue, in USA Today , praised Adichie and the book's characters, writing that "unlike many literary authors, she eschews pretentious obscurity in favour of clarity...She touches on religion, corruption, Nigeria's civil war and living in America as a lonely African wife. Mostly, however, she creates indelible characters who jump off the page and into your head and heart". [12] Yiyun Li, writing for San Francisco Chronicle , wrote that "Adichie's characters don't feel as though they were merely created; rather, it is as if they were invited into the stories by the most understanding hostess, and their dilemmas, pains and secrets were then related to us by the hostess, who seems to understand the characters better than they understand themselves, who does not judge them, and who treats them with respect and love and empathy that perhaps they would never have allowed themselves to imagine." [13] Michael Lindgren, in a review for The Washington Post wrote that "Adichie deploys her calm, deceptive prose to portray women in Nigeria and America who are forced to match their wits against threats ranging from marauding guerillas to microwave ovens." [14]
Saul Austerlitz of Boston Sunday Globe relays similarity between Jhumpa Lahiri and Adichie's work, writing that "the characters of The Thing Around Your Neck are caught between past and present, original and adopted homelands. Adichie deftly accesses the privileged mindsets of her Nigerian characters, who stubbornly insist on believing that they are to be protected from the worst. Her Americans are outsiders clamouring to be let into society; her upper-class Nigerians are insiders clamouring to be let out of history". [15] Marjorie Kehe of The Christian Science Monitor also commends the author and the characters, writing that "Adichie's gifts as a storyteller [are all] on display. The backgrounds of her characters may initially seem exotic to Western readers. And yet the love, justice, and understanding they seek are so fundamental and familiar that there are few readers of any background who won't recognize acres–perhaps even miles–of common ground. Adichie's characters are as likely to inhabit Hartford or Princeton as they are Nsukka or Lagos...but all in some way are in a state of loss". [16] Ben Dickinson of Elle wrote that "the colouration and vigour [in those stories] rarely pale, and Adichie's supple talents are on full display in her African tales, which never fail to touch the universal in the particular experience of the aging revolutionary professor, the fallen bourgeois golden boy, the shopping-crazy gal caught up in a marketplace massacre". [17]
Robert L. Pincus of San Diego Union-Tribune wrote that "Adichie has attracted a lot of attention in her relatively short career. This book will show you why". [18] Maggie Galehouse of Houston Chronicle wrote that "packing a full world into a few paragraphs is precisely the short storyteller's challenge, the task Adichie has set for herself in this [collection]. This young Nigerian writer proves herself worthy of the challenge, building a rich universe in both broad and subtle strokes". [19] David Milofsky of The Denver Post agreed that the book follows the same lyricism as Half of a Yellow Sun , "but rather than being focused on the past, it brings contemporary issues of politics and immigration into sharp focus". [20]
Jim Carmin of The Oregonian wrote that "Adichie's stories show more of the difficulties and less of the pleasures of everyday life in Nigeria and what it means to leave that life for America: Neither choice is easy, both have dangers. Her words and stories are insightful and provocative and tell us much about the human experience in difficult times". [21] Kevin Hartnett, in a review for Paste wrote that "this collection [is] concerned with how large forces–violence, tradition, immigration, colonialism–shape and determine individual lives. The emotional weight of The Thing Around Your Neck derives from the feeling of ambivalence about opportunity in America and the chaos of modern Nigeria that's built up through the whole collection– the real 'thing' around the characters' necks". [22]
Erin Adair-Hodges of Weekly Alibi praised the book'a prose, writing that it "is unflinching, eschewing metaphor for the simple power of calling a thing as it is", while showing similarities between Adichie and Jhumpa Lahiri". [23] Kirkus Reviews wrote that "in the five tales set in the United States, Adichie profiles characters both drawn to America and cautious of assimilation" while commending two short stories: "Jumping Monkey Hill" and the title story "Things Around Your Neck". [24] James Lasdun, in a his review for The Guardian wrote that, "the writing throughout the book has a verve that propels you forward through its pages. The polarities Adichie explores– Africa/America, black/white, male/female, master/servant–are very efficiently laid out, gridded over each other in unexpected ways, with power and weakness constantly switching positions. And a pervasive, lightly mocking intelligence gives the whole thing a lively, satirical edge". [25]
