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This review was originally published on February 24.
Were republishing it now thatDream Count is out.
And as a broader social novel Dream Countfalls short.
Take Adichies most heroic undertaking,Half of a Yellow Sun(2006).
In turn, her fiction felt lively and polyphonic.
In doing so, she neglects the moral and thematic intricacies innate to a good social novel.
As for plot, Kadiatous story line fails to meaningfully intersect with the other womens narratives.
But Adichie never converts that premise into plot; she offers neither dramatic nor thematic payoff.
Alas, that is not what happens.
When Omelogor heads to the U.S. to earn a masters in cultural studies,Dream Countjumps the shark.
What if Omelogor really did have to engage with such a viewpoint?
What if her grand theories of the world bumped up against a reality that challenged them?
Their hearts are blind.
The most revealing moment inDream Countcomes when Omelogor describes a famous academic feminist who didnt like women.
She liked only the idea of women.
What exactly the blah blah blah about Bangladesh refers to, we never learn.
Maybe it has something to do with labor?
A younger Adichie might have penned just such a novel.
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