GIRLS AT WAR by Chinua Achebe...

GIRLS AT WAR by Chinua Achebe (Anchor: $8). The 12 stories in this anthology include the earliest work of Nigeria’s foremost writer. The wily good humor of these narratives recaptures the traditional role of the storyteller; it’s easy to imagine Achebe winking broadly at the reader as he recounts the follies of the men and women in his tales. In “The Sacrificial Egg,” the people of the village of Umuru discover that it’s often better for prayers to remain unanswered. They want their riverside village to grow, but as it turns into a major marketing center, they learn that “There is good growth and there is bad growth. The belly does not bulge out only with food and drink; it might be the abominable disease which would end by sending the sufferer out of the house even before he was fully dead.” An enterprising young man finds a way to accommodate traditional beliefs and modern corruption in “The Votes,” while a carefree peddler outwits a local big shot in “The Madman.” The tone of Achebe’s prose shifts abruptly in the title story, as ordinary people struggle to grasp the horrors of war during Biafra’s ill-fated attempt at secession.