Another good ending

I finished Purple Hibiscus in my room, Thursday morning, and I was pleased. I couldn’t help but think, ah, you’ve done it again, Chimamanda, because the last time I felt the satisfaction that came with finishing a book that left the characters in a place of resolution and well as growth was on a crowded airplane this summer when I finished her other novel, Half of a Yellow Sun (well…that was the most recent book I read before Purple Hibiscus. But still.)

I thought the ending, and especially the final words of her novel –“new rains will come down soon”— really epitomize what Kambili’s character has been searching for throughout the entire story: a metamorphosis. Yes, the ending was sad, in a sense that her father died and that Jaja was sent to prison for crimes he didn’t commit. But I think, at least for Kambili, she is finally experiencing the beginning of a transformation of self for the first time in her life, something that I think was not possible with her Dad still alive. There are a lot of parts of her life that have fallen apart—her aunt and cousins have moved to the US, and Father Amadi to Germany, and her mother emotionally unstable. But I think with all of these changes in place she can finally start over and really do what she wants with her life. 

New rains will come down soon?