This is a book that I really enjoyed reading. Helon Habila did a great job writing this book. He took something so important as the political issues in Nigeria, and turned it into a story that was worth reading. Habila made the issues in Nigeria understandable and inviting.
I have learned that Waiting for an Angel (2002), was originally written as a series of short stories (the first of which, published as ‘Prison Stories’, won him the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing). While Habila has said that constructing the book in this way allowed him a sense of achievement as he completed each section, the fracturing of viewpoints and chronology also creates an effective jarring which mirrors the story’s tense and unsettling atmosphere.
Waiting on an Angel, shows us the effects of a dictatorial government on the ordinary people that populate nigeria. Though life is difficult and opportunities almost non-existent, the young people still have hopes and dreams. The story is based around the lives of the main character Lomba and his close friends. Through their lives, especially Lomba, Habila educates the reader on all of the issues that were going on in Nigeria. The author shows the issues in a light that makes the reader feel what is going on.
My favorite part in Waiting on an Angel, was honestly the second chapter. In the second chapter, Lomba and his friends go to see a physic. And one of Lomba's friends wants to know when he is going to die, because he wants to be ready for it. He then learns that he is going to die sooner then expected. But that he is also going to know. He will see the angel of death right when it is time. The way that Habila writes this chapter is moving. It just had a really emotional tie to it.
I personally could not imagine knowing when I am going to die. Many people say that they want to know to be ready, just like Lomba's friend, but I think that would scare me. Most people say the only thing that they really fear is death, and I am surely one of those people. But with that fear comes the idea of living for the moment... living each day as though it was your last....
My favorite part in Waiting on an Angel, was honestly the second chapter. In the second chapter, Lomba and his friends go to see a physic. And one of Lomba's friends wants to know when he is going to die, because he wants to be ready for it. He then learns that he is going to die sooner then expected. But that he is also going to know. He will see the angel of death right when it is time. The way that Habila writes this chapter is moving. It just had a really emotional tie to it.
I personally could not imagine knowing when I am going to die. Many people say that they want to know to be ready, just like Lomba's friend, but I think that would scare me. Most people say the only thing that they really fear is death, and I am surely one of those people. But with that fear comes the idea of living for the moment... living each day as though it was your last....
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