Mr. Chinua Achebe’s latest novel is his first in over twenty years. Set in an unspecified West African country called Kangan a few years after its independence from a colonial power, the book follows the careers of three former schoolmates, each of whom has become a notable in the new nation: one is an important minister in the current military government, another is the editor of the government-controlled newspaper, the third is the military dictator himself. The three soon fall out; the dictator arranges for the editor to be killed, the minister successfully flees the capital but is killed by a drunken soldier in a distant province, the dictator is deposed and killed, and another army officer takes his place.

It is a saddening fact that after extraordinary beginnings many writers of fiction do not sustain the quality of their first works. In thirty years will that be the critical conclusion about Chinua Achebe’s career? His latest novel is so far removed from the excellence of his earlier ones that so hard a judgment seems almost probable. Suffice it to say that if a disinterested reader picked up Anthills of the Savannahas his first work by Mr. Achebe, after a few pages he would very likely dismiss both book and author once and for all. Out of my high regard for this author, I studied the novel more carefully, but can think of nothing to propose in its defense except this: the first twenty or so pages