Everything you'd want in a novel: Anthills of the Savannah

Strange as this may sound, I actually think Chinua Achebe's 1987 novel, Anthills of the Savannah, would have gotten more attention had it not been for his much-read debut novel Things Fall Apart, which set up a false expectation for the kind of work Achebe would write - steeped in legend and myth and mystery, safely pushed back into the colonial past so that we can all feel a little bit holier and more sanctimonious about the characters and their issue: yes, violence against women in the village society was wrong, yes the Christian missionaries destroyed the old and sound ways of village life, imposing their values and beliefs, etc. But that was all in the past you could say. Anthills was totally in the present - and still feels present-day, as sadly politic in Africa, and the class divisions and relentless poverty,  haven't changed much over the past two decades. Briefly, it's the story of three men who were friends in a British-style boarding school who now have risen to the top in a government in a country obviously modeled on Achebe's Nigeria: one (Sam) is the new leader following a military coup, Chris is his head of the Ministry of Information, and Ikem is the editor of the National Gazette. The novel follows them, at a brisk pace, through a period of social upheaval, as a delegation from the remote and drought-stricken north arrives in the capital to protest lack of aid and the editor, against all advice, meets with them and writes sympathetic editorials. Achebe sketches in each character deftly and efficiently, along with some very strong secondary characters, including notably several very strong women who play a key role. Some terrific scenes: the cocktail party at the house of the hospital inspector known as the Mad Medico, Ikem's speech at the university, Chris in hideout in an overcrowded apartment, the long bus ride to the north with the police possibly in pursuit. Honestly, this novel has everything you'd want in fiction: ideas, conflict, fast-paced plot, access to consciousness of several different characters, for Western readers a view of a different society, lots of hilarious moments including almost innumerable wise and often enigimatic sayings and proverbs, rivaled on this score only by Sancho Panza (e.g., the worm isn't dancing, that's the only way it can walk). Novel builds toward a powerful conclusion, which strikes note of both comedy and tragedy, as so many of the great works of literature do - Shakespeare, to a degree, but also many excellent 20th-century writers who must have influenced Achebe - Greene, Naipaul, and particularly Forster come to mind.