Americanah: A novel

Why did people ask "What is it about?" as if a novel had to be about only one thing. - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Americanah Americanah does in fact seem to be about several things. On one level, it is simply a love story, but, more significantly, it is about the immigrant experience. It is also about the black experience - the experience of American-Africans as opposed to that of African-Americans or of Africans. More deeply still, it delineates the complexities of national identities and ways of thinking. Much of this is accomplished through an exploration of the everyday issue of hair care. Kinky African hair is fragile, the author tells us, and it requires special handling. Products made for white people's hair simply won't do the trick. Much of Americanah is taken up with detailing the Nigerian-born heroine, Ifemelu's, quest for hair care. We see her spending long hours getting her hair braided, and even when she decides to let her hair go natural and sport an "Afro," that style, too, takes a lot of care and is the focus of her grooming regime. Ifemelu began life in a Nigeria which existed under military dictatorship. She attended a Lagos secondary school where she fell in love with Obinze. He would be the great love of her life. It was the dream of Ifemelu and Obinze to get out of Nigeria. It was a common dream as people were emigrating from the country whenever possible. Eventually, with the help of family, Ifemelu was able to go to America to study. Her early experiences in America were harrowing. She had little money, only what her family could send, and since she was on a student visa, she was unable to work, legally. A friend found a way for her to use someone else's Social Security number to look for a job. That, too, turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Desperate for work, she suffered a humiliating experience which continued to haunt her years later. Finally, her friend helped her connect with a white liberal couple who hired her as a babysitter for their two children. As well as being her employer, they become her friends and the remainder of Ifemelu's experience in America seems to be smooth sailing. Except for that hair thing. Finishing her undergraduate career, Ifemelu decides to start a blog about her observations on race. She calls it "Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Know as Negroes) by a Non-American Black." In her blog, she takes on many of what some would consider taboo subjects. She writes, for example, about the relationship of styles of hair to employability. (There's that hair again!) She writes about what she regards as the misguided reverence that some African-Americans hold for Africa. She writes of her relationships with white and black lovers and her observations about how she is regarded by those men's friends. Meantime, Obinze is having his own immigrant experience in Britain. He overstays his visa and he, too, tries working on another person's national service number. Then, in order to legitimize his presence in the country, he plans a sham marriage to a British citizen, but he is found out and deported back to Nigeria where he begins to prosper. Years later, he is a wealthy businessman with a beautiful wife and daughter when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria. This book seems to me not so much plot-driven or even character-driven as observation-driven. The plot that exists is a structure for presenting Ifemelu's (i.e., Adichie's) opinions and social criticisms. These often appear in the guise of her blog entries. Such as this one: Understanding America for the Non-American Black: American Tribalism In America, tribalism is alive and well. There are four kinds - class, ideology, region, and race. First, class. Pretty easy. Rich folk and poor folk. Second, ideology. Liberals and conservatives. They don't merely disagree on political issues, each side believes the other is evil. Intermarriage is discouraged and on the rare occasion that it happens, is considered remarkable. Third, region. The North and the South. The two sides fought a civil war and tough stains from that war remain. The North looks down on the South while the South resents the North. Finally, race. There's a ladder of racial hierarchy in America. White is always on top, specifically White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, otherwise known as WASP, and American Black is always on the bottom, and what's in the middle depends on time and place. That seems a very cogent summation of American society to me. And there are many such observations sprinkled throughout the book. They were among my favorite parts of the book. As a blogger myself, I was amused by Ifemelu's statement at one point that she never knew what her readers wanted or what they would like - what would generate a lot of clicks. She wrote posts which she was sure would be popular and would get a lot of response and there was nothing but silence. On the other hand, she might dash off a quick entry with no expectation of it striking a chord with readers and she would be overwhelmed by clicks and comments. I suppose this uncertainty is the bain of all bloggers. Maybe all writers. I enjoyed this book tremendously, although there were some things that bothered me. The character of Ifemelu, for example. She just seemed to glide effortlessly through life. Even the big emotional upsets of her life didn't really seem to upset her very much. For someone who was described as very passionate, she seemed substantially lacking in passion. In fact, all of the characters in the book seemed curiously flat and one-dimensional to me. I couldn't really care a lot about the fate of any of them. It appeared that Adichie couldn't either. They were simply vehicles for moving forward the story she wanted to tell. Moreover, I found the ending somewhat disappointing. It just didn't seem to me that this would have been the logical conclusion for these characters. But then, I am a white American woman of a certain age who has never lived outside of this country. What do I know about how these cosmopolitan world travelers would feel and behave? Throughout the last half of this book, which was the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 2013, I debated with myself about what rating I would give it - four stars or five stars. In the end, I decided that my quibbles were not sufficient to give it the lower rating. It was an amazing read, so I gave it five stars. But with the silent understanding that it really should have been four-and-a-half.

Americanah by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie in my opinion is a pretty good read as far as an experience about immigrants from Africa, and how they view us. And as far as a well written book it is definitely up there. But this is the internet, and no book is without flaw on the internet. So the book stars two main Characters Ifemelu, who many call the true star of the book, and Obinze, the forgotten gem. The book starts off with where each of them at the current part of their lives, then written in flashback to show how they get to where they are. I promise it’s an easier read than it sounds. You read through their humble beginnings, their budding love and eventual separation in order to find a better life outside of their native Nigeria. You see an Ifemelu who has the closest thing to a success story, while simultaneously trying to find herself, mainly in the comfort of other men. Meanwhile Obinze’s story is a much more unpromising in England, and ultimately winding back home. Now personally I do have some parts of the book overall that I enjoy more than others. If you haven’t noticed by now this is probably the only review that you will read on here mentioning Obinze as a main character. I personally find him to be much more of an interesting of a character and I enjoyed reading his parts of the story and watching this man just try to make it with a deck stacked against him and truly have to struggle. A lot of people just write him off as Ifemelu’s first love and that’s cool and all but he is definitely a character worth thinking on and trying to understand. Another like of mine is Ifemelu’s blog, it’s an integral part of the novel as a whole and it really brings out how immigrants view us. It’s Ifemelu’s claim to fame in the states and it helps connect her to the rest of the people in the states sharing an experience similar to hers. It touches on a variety of issues from understanding how racism is in America compared to your native country, all the way to Obama. It truly encompasses the thought process of these foreign black people and helps you as a reader understand more about how other people see our country. Not to mention that it’s just really cool to see an author try something so unique as to write a story in third person then transition into first person to give you so much more out of the character. As I mentioned earlier this is the internet and no book is without flaw on the internet. My major complaint about this book is that it shoves this love story down your throat. To keep it as spoiler free as possible I’ll just leave it at Obinze and Ifemelu grow too old to have this teenage love affair. Ifemelu, and as you will see many boyfriends just feels extra. She comes to America and just runs through them and personally as a reader I just sat their getting tired of her love life and for as long as the book was it felt aggravating to hear how she felt about this guy or that guy. One final comment, in this long drawn out review, which I applaud if you’re still reading. The ending, no spoilers but it’s terrible. Some people on here may try and claim it comes full circle or that there is one, and they are wrong. Ambiguity is cool sometimes, but in that situation it just didn’t do it for me. I will admit that there was nothing left for Adichie to do with the book and the characters, but still given more thought she could’ve done something better. All in all this book is not bad at all and is a pretty good read I suggest it for anybody looking for a change of pace from normal American literature and want a contemporary easy yet thought provoking read.

Adichie has really flourished in a book like Americanah. Many of the characters don't go into much depth, they appear and disappear without saying much or having a big impact on the story. However in ways this could be praised. Adichie gets the reader to really focus on the main characters (Ifemelu and Obinze), which puts them on a pedestal and highlights their defining characteristics. Given the fact that the book is mostly about them and their affairs this was most likely the best way to go. This book has a hint of the common “rags to riches” vibe, which is a very known theme, but to be also accompanied by a fallen love interest that is to later be revitalized, this is the hook of this story. This proves the complexity that the world actually possesses. It is not just another story of an immigrant coming to America, it is so much more than that; Love, racism, culture, realism, and even confusion about one's identity, these are virtues that Americanah shares with the real world. The world we live in in many cases is not what we want it to seem. The “American dream” is almost non existent, without a tremendous amount of work that many people are not willing to commit to, it is unachievable. Even those who are, are still not guaranteed satisfaction. Ifemelu sees the truth when her life is not as she would have hoped. With the difficulty of finding a job and the shameful deeds that occurred with her tennis coach, the American dream surely faded. This being said, Ifemelu was on her own. Mistakes aren’t corrected, and as they begin to pile up Ifemelu and Obinze begin to feel the pressure. As a reader of this book, these mistakes began to anger me. Like in common “stop what you're doing” situations, these characters preceded in doing things that would negatively affect them in the long run. Ifemelu avoidance of Obinze after her tennis coach encounter really shifted her as a character, this prideful, strong woman has become ashamed of herself. This book has a way of presenting you with a feminist view of life, how the women draw yours sympathy and the men are more or less viewed as villains. This is more so seen when Obinze becomes a wealthy man and finds a new family. It is also demonstrated when a character known as Aunty Uju breaks up and scars her man Olujimi. He is brought up, but is quickly forgotten to emphasize that it is a heavily woman oriented. Adichie as an author really made a piece that obviously touched her. How her words flowed, it seemed as though she wanted to talk about everything in life, all the endeavors and twist that came along with it. With this in plan, her writing made it seem as though Ifemelu and Obinze were just paradigmatic characters, but somehow kept their narrative interest while reaching out to the reader. Americanah seemed as though it was a story that could be approached by anyone with the ability to read, and they would feel some sort of connection to the main characters. Whether the misfortune be like that of Ifemelu and Obinze or not, just about everyone has had hard times in their life, and that is exactly what Adichie was trying to share. I honestly had a hard time setting this book aside, as it is one of the best books of this time and definitely deserves its popularity. The vast amount that was shared in this book that has real world value was tremendous. Honestly the only way someone couldn’t love this book was if they didn’t like hair.

Americanah follows the main characters Ifemelu and her boyfriend, Obinze, as they both try to find a better way of life for themselves, when a school strike leaves them out of school for an extended period of time. They both seek to gain visas to America to take them out of their current status, however, Ifemelu is the only successful one at gaining the visa. It is at this point where things begin to take a turn for the couple as they each struggle to find themselves and look for happiness and success. It is their different turns that provide the climax and enjoyment for the reader. The novel goes back and forth between the point of views of Ifemelu and Obinze. Through each narration, readers are drawn in by the travails of the character in focus. With Ifemelu, readers see how she sheds her innocence and is no longer naïve to how life in America is “supposed to be”. A quick example: when Ifemelu arrives in the U.S. to stay with her aunt Uju, she is surprised to see that she struggles to maintain a life for herself and her son. This aunt who once lived “large” in Nigeria, was now living in a roach- infested one bedroom apartment. The initial idea that the struggle was over when one arrived in the U.S..... Hmmm…not so much. For Obinze, through the assistance of his mother, he was able to go to London, however, he learned that making money (especially as a foreigner) was not easy, and that since he was trying to obtain citizenship via the back way, he would struggle in almost anything he did. Life was not better in London compared to what he was accustomed to in Nigeria. Through the various jobs he took to survive and the relationships he attempted to make, there was always that feeling that he was losing a piece of himself. Definitely, not the life he imagined. Without giving so much a way, I will say, this was a good book. This is a good book for those that are curious about immigrants, those who come over to seek a better way of life legally and those who enter a country illegally or through other means risking much, in search of what may be better. Due to the political climate we are experiencing now in the U.S., this is a book that should be on everyone’s reading list, if not, bookshelf. This book also tackles the social issues that our characters are faced with. If you have not addressed them personally, you will almost be forced to confront your own biases, whether you are white, black American or black and African. I was drawn to each character in the novel- even those with minor roles for the reader, but significant to the main characters of the story. Adichie is so colorful with her words, she has the ability to transport you into the story and make you a front row spectator. Dry moments in the novel, barely. Once introductions are made at the beginning of the story and our characters determine where they are headed, the action begins and you are curious to see where the story will take you. Would I recommend this book? With a resounding “YES”! How can I not? This book speaks to my heart. It took me two and a half weeks to read this book, but that was me with a million of other things and books on my plate. However, if this is the only book you are reading, it should be an easy and fast read.

As seen on The Bookish Owl (http://www.thebookishowl.net/?p=7015) It was a long time before I mustered up the courage to pick up Americanah as I was still reeling from the sheer beauty and power of Purple Hibiscus, the first Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book that I read. When I finally finished devouring Americanah last night, I was struck by how speechless and awestruck it left me. It wasn’t merely up to par with Purple Hibiscus – it exceeded it, going far and beyond. The last book that made me feel this way – this abstract feeling which I can never ever verbalize – was Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. The magic of Americanah stems from its various themes, all equally provocative and colorful. To ask, “what exactly is Americanah about?” is to do the book injustice for it encompasses so many things. It is about race, racial identity, cultural identity, a country’s identity, and yes, love, among others. To be honest, I couldn’t relate with some of these ideas: specifically, those that pertain to being black, whether being “black” refers to being African-American or a Non-American Black. This theme was lost on me, obviously because of my race, inexperience, and isolation from the issue. Nevertheless, I thought that this theme and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s execution of it resonates and continues to apply to the issues that we face today. Or, to be more accurate, the issues that I hear and read about on the news. Concepts that I did appreciate, however, were those that spoke of Westernization, national and cultural identity and how these two relate to our own sense of self. The two principal characters of Americanah, Ifemelu and Obinze, both move abroad from Nigeria to work and in Ifemelu’s case, to study. She moves to America and he to England, two different people in two vastly different countries but with roughly the same experiences. Poverty, exploitation, homesickness, and their status as illegal aliens hanging over their heads. It wasn’t hard to imagine that these too were felt by the thousands of Filipinos working overseas. Then there was the matter of cultural identity; the clash between Nigerian culture and Western culture, most profoundly felt by Ifemelu herself. This conflict was reminiscent of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (mentioned in Americanah, by the way) which tackles the same thing albeit under different circumstances and in a whole other century. Ifemelu’s struggles to remain true to her roots despite the pressures and the need to be Westernized as well as her difficulties in reverting and adapting on her return home was excellently written and translated on the page. Ifemelu wasn’t just a character – she felt like a real, breathing, existing person and it was easy to empathize with her. Obinze’s chapters in the present as well as Ifemelu’s perspective on her return home from the USA gave a glimpse on how Westernized their country had become. Thanks to Ifemelu, the “old” Nigeria and the “new” Nigeria were blatantly juxtaposed. It was interesting to see this contrast but to see Ifemelu struggle to adapt in the new Nigeria and to witness the change in her friends, all who were introduced early on, was even more fascinating. One thing that bothered me about Americanah, however, was the ending. It felt too abrupt and too rushed. Nonetheless, I felt it an apt and fitting conclusion to Ifemelu and Obinze’s story. In A Nutshell: There’s a lot more that I want to say about Americanah but I’m struggling to find the right words to express my thoughts. One thing’s for sure; Americanah was sublime. It’s one of the best books that I’ve ever read and along with The Book Thief, one of the only books that I will enthusiastically, ceaselessly, and highly recommend to everyone.

I am probably biased towards this novel, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, not only because Adichie's first novel, Purple Hibiscus, which I read as a very young girl, awoke in me the possibility of good writing and beautiful prose by a Nigerian like me, but because of the familiarity of the book. In Nigeria, we are brought up on foreign movies, sitcoms and TV shows, foreign books and foreign news, we know how English should be spoken, and many of us who bother to read a lot, are very familiar with the colloquialisms of the west. This is perhaps why, we do not recognize how much we miss our own particularly Nigerian way of expression, in the literature we read. It is perhaps why, when we read a phrase that is essentially Nigerian, in a novel like Americanah, "Tina-Tina, how now?" "Why are you looking like a mumu?" "How will you cope/how are you coping?" all familiar Nigerian modes of speech, we are infinitely grateful. It's like the word Americanah, such a Nigerian word, used to describe someone who had lived abroad for so long, they no longer understand the nuances of being Nigerian. They use American swearwords, or complain that the fries at KFC Onikan are limp, even though you see nothing wrong with them. This is when you turn to someone who understands and say, (No mind am, na Americanah), Don't mind him, he is an Americanah. Adichie's latest follows Ifemelu, a bright, sharp and observant girl, from her early years in 1990's Nigeria, to a life in America, where after the first rude shocks of culture change in a new world, where `fat' is a bad word and not merely a statement of fact, where colour is such a big issue that it can rule people's lives, and where everything is different, she slowly and surely starts to become an Americanah. In Americanah, ifemelu observes, and we are informed by her observations, she converses and we see her character, and she remembers, and in her memories we see a rich story that begins in Lagos, journeys through the cities of America, and gains a body that is beautiful to savour. It is through Ifemelu's observations, we experience what Americana is about. Hair, specifically Black/African hair. Why do black women hide their hair? Would Beyonce ever allow the world to see her hair the way it really is, or would Michelle Obama? These are the questions Ifemelu asks In her blog, where after having lived in the United States for a long time, she broaches issues of race, hair and life in America from the eyes of a `Non-American Black'. We experience race, Kimberley, the white woman who uses beautiful as a word to describe `black', because for whichever reason, black is a word that should be said as little as possible. Kurt, to whom Ifemelu's race means nothing, and Blaine, the Black American Yale professor, whose influence, in my opinion, would be the biggest in turning Ifemelu's observations from the disinterested and amused observation of a `Non-American Black' or `NAB', who calmly tells Kimberly, "You know, you can just say `black.' Not every black person is beautiful." to those of an `American Black' or `AB', who would say in her blog. "If the "slavery was so long ago" thing comes up, have your white friend say that lots of white folks are still inheriting money that their families made a hundred years ago. So if that legacy lives, why not the legacy of slavery?" The old Ifemelu would have told the descendants of the slaves to `get over it'. We also experience love, Adichie herself describes Americanah as a love story, and this is true. There is love in almost every book, but in Americanah, it is not incidental, it is a central part of the story. Before America, and race and hair became issues, there was Obinze, the love of Ifemelu's teenage life. If Ifemelu, the daughter of a civil servant who lost his job because he would not bow to the excessive respect that Lagos Yoruba's employ and call his boss `Mummy', and uses English in such a way as to provide a hilarious sort of comic relief, is sharp and confident, then Obinze, the only son of a university professor, with his love for American books and his quiet belief in himself, is self assured and mature. They fall in love soon after they meet as secondary school students in Lagos, and when Ifemelu tells her aunt and friend, Uju, about him, saying she has met the love of her life, there is a hilarious moment when Aunt Uju advises her to "let him kiss and touch but not to let him put it inside." While most of the story is seen though Ifemelu's eyes and memories, we also get to see some of Obinze, we follow him to London, where he lives as an illegal immigrant, after failing to find a job in Nigeria, or to fulfill his dream of going to America, (he later visits America, when he becomes rich, and isn't impressed, he lost interest when he realized that he could buy his way in.) He is arrested on the eve of his sham wedding, and repatriated. In all this Obinze never loses a certain `solidity', that he seems to effortlessly possess. In a democratic Nigeria, where a new middle class is rising, and the money that used to be the preserve of the top army generals starts to filter down, Obinze gets lucky in the way that only happens in Nigeria, where there really is too much money, and overnight he is a very rich man. When Ifemelu starts to hunger for home, Obinze, with whom she has lost touch, is already a husband and father. "Meanwhile o, he has serious money now. See what you missed!" her friend, Ranyinudo tells her, on a call from Nigeria. (How Nigerian to say something like that!) The central question becomes, will they get back together? To some, this is a weakness of the story, the descent into the fantasy of a happily ever after for the heroine and hero, but it is not such a bad thing in itself, it makes enjoyable, and hopeful reading. In summary, I loved the story. I loved the familiarity of it, Ifemelu's mother's ridiculous religiousness, her fathers ludicrous use of English, Aunty Uju, Ginika, Kayode, Emenike, who is perhaps one of the more interesting characters, as he strives to shed the life he was born with, to become what he wishes to be, and all the other different kinds of people that make up the rich tapestry that is Nigerian life. Ifemelu is an interesting character, observant, watchful, sure of herself, even as a teenager, she is confident in a way I wouldn't have understood at that age. Obinze, knows himself in such a way that he doesn't need to follow any crowd, or have anybody validate him. However, I did feel that the ending was rather rushed, as if the author had other things to do, and was hastily putting the final scenes together. The main grouse I had with the book was the fact that I saw some elements from Adichie's previous works. When Barrack Obama wins the election and her cousin Dike calls her to say that his president is black like him, I remember an interview long ago where Adichie says that her nephew had said the exact same thing after the elections. It make me feel cheated, this, the similarity of her relationship with Curt to the relationship of the characters in her short story, The Thing Around Your Neck; when Obinze describes his house in Enugu, and I see the house in Birdsong, the scene of another adulterous affair in another of her old short stories. How autobiographical is her work then? I ask myself. I begin to feel suspicious, perhaps all the characters are really her and the people she knows, perhaps Pat Peoples is really Matthew Quick, and Nick Hornby's characters are really just himself? I noticed that apart from Dike, her little cousin, and Obinze, and perhaps Obinze's mother, Ifemelu does not seem very emotionally involved with the people that shape her life, sometimes she seems like a watcher, an observer, and not a character in the story. Also, because this novel is really many observations and opinions, sometimes it does feel contrived, like a character or event has been introduced, solely because they are a means to present an issue Adichie wants to discuss. Lastly, I did not find the blog interesting, unlike the prose of the novel, the writing is not fluid, or vey descriptive, and seems to jump from one issue to another, trying to cram many thoughts into one jumbled package. This may be because I am not an NAB, and those issues mean little to me, perhaps the AB's would read it differently. Regardless, Americanah is a wonderful read, sometimes laugh out loud funny, sometimes sad, but always interesting.

This book is very eye-opening and well written. Adichie teaches us about race through eyes of Ifemulu, a girl who moves to America from Nigeria for school. Through her transition to America, Adichie teaches us what it’s like to one, be an immigrant and two, be a black immigrant. She takes us into the mind of Ifemulu, and we see her reactions to American culture and people. Ifemulu eventually starts a blog, and through this and her thoughts, readers of all race and background are able to understand her point of view and what she feels. Adichie’s voice also makes the reader become emotionally invested in the characters; I found myself rooting for certain characters, feeling the pain of others, and feeling their loss when they lose someone special to them. While Adichie includes the details of various romances, the book does not focus on it until the very end. Instead, Adichie uses Ifemulu’s relationships and the men she sees to guide her discovery through America and through the discovery of her identity. Relationships simply serve as a background plot to serve the bigger purpose of teaching the reader about racism in America, about the difficulty of being an immigrant from Africa, and about the importance of even seemingly simple things like hair to one’s identity. I felt that this book was surprisingly relatable; even though all I had in common with Ifemulu was being a female and being non-white. Ifemulu is an immigrant; while I could not equate my experiences to her completely, I did recognize them through being the first child of parents who had immigrated here not long before I was born. I was surprised at all the times I thought “I know what you’re talking about.” Many times Ifem’s voice was shut down in her native country and in America (not as subtly or as often though) because she was a girl. When she went back to Nigeria, her family friends were worriedly concerning themselves with the fact that she wasn’t married. Many times, Ifem discusses the immediate connection you feel when you see another of your race in America. She talks about the difference in culture of her native country and America, from topics to food, to proper etiquette, to mental illness, to ways to discipline your child. Majoring in biopsychology, I was especially interested in Adichie’s portrayal of the views of mental illness from a Nigerian perspective, and how they believe mental illnesses such as depression are completely constructed by American culture. While it is a perspective I don’t agree with, I definitely understand and recognize it. Through Ifemulu and other complex characters like Ifemulu’s family and friends, Adichie does a great job of addressing the oppression and unique experiences of black people who immigrated, black people who were born in America, and being a woman. However, this book should not be read just if you are in those categories. I believe anyone, from any socioeconomic status, of any gender or race, should pick up this book to read and can learn something about it, even if only appreciating a new point of view, becoming more self-aware, and aware of the their surroundings.

My book club finished the book Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Before reading it, I was curious and appreciated being introduced to the book. Americanah is about a Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who leaves University in Nigeria and her first love, Obinze, to work and study in America. It delves into her troubles as a Non-American black woman. Racism she never experienced before, frustration in finding work, and a constant search to find herself. As an expat, I was able to relate to her sadness and depression. I have been away from the familiar, life’s comforts I had grown accustom to, and the freedom of speaking to whoever, whenever. Of course, I can’t identify with the racism aspect of it, but I can identify with the loneliness as an outsider, not understanding the language, and the shock of a different culture. This book is a National Bestseller and voted “One of the Best Books of the Year” by the New York Times Book Review. I would have to agree that for the writing and historical purposes this book deserves to be a National Bestseller, but not necessarily one of the best books of the year. However, I believe it will make its way into African Studies. One of the best things about reading this book with my book club was discussing it with several expats, one being Nigerian. We were able to ask him questions about her descriptions of Nigeria and their ways. Book Cover Black women’s hair was a big point she made in the book, which is why the book cover illustrates braids. In my opinion, I believe the braid attempt on the book cover failed. At first I thought they were ropes, and then realized they symbolized black women’s braids. It looks like a child drew them. My book review will contain spoilers, so please stop here if you have not read the book and plan to read it. Writing I found some great lines in the book, and I would like to share a few of them with you. “…it would hurt him to know she had felt that way for a while, that her relationship with him was like being content in a house but always sitting by the window and looking out.” “…she had convinced herself that she was not living on memories mildewed by thirteen years.” “But his mannered English bothered her as she got older, because it was costume, his shield against insecurity.” “There was something in him, lighter than ego but darker than insecurity, that needed constant buffing, polishing, waxing.” Chimamanda’s writing is good. I enjoyed her style, but wasn’t awe-struck by it. There were times where she tended to become repetitive. Many chapters contain blog posts written by the main character and they all have the same type of theme, yet not all have that “Aha!” moment. The blog posts grow into lectures more than advice, opinion, or suggestions. To me, this was a turn-off. I would also like to point out that this book is fiction, yet in some ways, it mirrors the author’s life. Chimamanda is Nigerian, born into an Igbo family in the town of Nsukka, came to America to study and work, and now splits her time between Nigeria and the U.S. She has many degrees and acclamations for her writings. She has given lectures regarding writing, cultures, and feminism. This book would have been better written as non-fiction, because she didn’t distance herself enough from the fictional character, Ifemelu. Throughout the book, I turned to the back cover to look at her picture, and I knew it was her speaking through the main character. Like the author, Ifemelu is from Nigeria, born into an Igbo family in Nsukka, and comes to America for her studies. Chimamanda was quoted in an interview, saying, “I am angry. Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change, but in addition to being angry, I’m also hopeful because I believe deeply in the ability of human beings to make and remake themselves for the better.” The likeness of Chimamanda and Ifemelu’s life, along with the anger, is exactly what the reader will experience. I’m not a feminist, nor am I angry, so her angry writing didn’t do her justice with me. I completely disagree with her that we should all be angry. Why? The world is already angry, angry about feminism, racism, economy, government, the list goes on. There’s no need to breathe anger into people when it already exists, and in my opinion, suffocates purpose. Instead of being angry, create a love of who we are and acceptance. Plot When Ifemelu first arrives in America, she can’t get a job, and falls into a depression. She mentions that in Nigeria, depression doesn’t exist. If you don’t put a name on it, it isn’t there, but Americans put a name on everything. I found this quite interesting, because I didn't realize that many countries don’t discuss or acknowledge depression. Ifemelu begins blogging about racial issues, the blog takes off, and she starts to give lectures. Over time, she winds up making more money with her blog and lectures than any other job. While still working as a babysitter, she meets her employer’s cousin, a rich, white boy, who ultimately helps her get a green card. “With Curt, she became, in her mind, a woman free of knots and cares, a woman running in the rain with the taste of sun-warmed strawberries in her mouth.” “He believed in good omens and positive thoughts and happy endings to films, a trouble-free belief, because he had not considered them deeply before choosing to believe; he just simply believed.” She also talks and blogs about black women’s hair. How difficult it is to maintain. How black women don’t wear it natural because it’s not acceptable for job interviews, etc. She goes into detail how black women use relaxers and burn their hair straight, and those who wear it natural, afro style or braids, avoiding the harsh chemicals. This taught me how black women struggle with their hair. There’s a part in the book where Ifemelu blogs about “Why Dark-Skinned Black Women—Both American and Non-American—Love Barack Obama”. From the post: “But today most of the American blacks who are successful as entertainers and as public figures are light…He broke the mold! He married one of their own. He knows what the world doesn’t seem to know: that dark black women totally rock. In movies, dark black women get to be the fat nice mammy or the strong, sassy, sometimes scary sidekick standing by supportively.” Ifemelu or Chimamanda, I can’t decipher who, is making a point that dark black skinned women may now be recognized as being relevant and beautiful. The Nigerian book club member clarified this when we came across the word Akata. He explained that Nigerians don’t look too kindly on African Americans. I found this video, of a woman discussing the word akata - [...] And here’s another video of a young lady discussing African vs. African American. [...] I learned something new, something I would have never known as a white woman—the differences—and find it intriguing. The way the woman in the second video approaches the subject is great and informative. And she’s not angry. Since Chimamanda and Ifemelu are somewhat the same, I can’t help but think that the author used a fictional character to voice her views. Again, she should have written a non-fiction book about the cultural differences between America and Nigeria. Non-American Blacks vs. Black Americans. There are also parts in the book where the author never finishes a relationship or action. She babysits for two children and has a friendship with the mother, her employer. Once she starts dating her employer’s cousin, Curt, the reader never hears about them again. Also, while she is set to leave America for Nigeria, she promises her hairdresser, who wants to stay in the U.S., that Ifemelu will contact a man the hairdresser likes and talk to him about marrying her. That is all we hear about it. The end of the so-called first love romance is hastily wrapped up on the last page. Characters This was the first time I liked a book, but not the main character. The main character, Ifemelu, is an angry woman, echoing Chimamanda. She dates a rich, white guy, who helps her get her green card. He makes her feel great, but she cheats on him because she is 'curious'. Then she dates a black American, who is pompous, doesn’t treat her well, who she adores, and then she leaves him to go back to Nigeria. The main problem I had with this character is she never grows. She remains stagnant, angry, bitter, and judgmental. There’s a part in the book where she’s talking with a “large-hipped, stylish poet from Haiti with an Afro bigger than hers” who stated that for 3-years she dated a white man and race wasn’t an issue. Here’s how the rest of the dialogue goes: “That’s a lie,” Ifemelu said to her. “What?” the woman asked, as though she could not have heard properly. “It’s a lie.” Ifemelu repeated. The woman’s eyes bulged. “You’re telling me what my own experience was?” This is a perfect example of how Ifemelu approaches everything in the book. Her opinion is the only one. When she dates the white guy, Curt, his positivity bothers her. When she dates the black American, his academia bothers her. She is forever aggravated, judgmental and lacks empathy. I can only recall once when she sympathizes with a hairdresser of hers. Other than that, Ifemelu never is appreciative of the good things she receives. She never looks inside herself regarding self-improvement. Due to some of the book sounding more like a scolding than a story, and the main character’s lack of growth, I give this book 3.5/5 stars. I would recommend it with some warnings, but I don’t think I’ll read another book by this author again.

One of the best books I have read this year. It has it all: a great love story, a subtle and poignant analysis on race and culture in the US, a vivid description of modern and old days Nigeria. Definitely a must read for all Africa lovers, but also for all literature lovers.

Her best book so far. Very intelligent and profound. I loved the blogs on race in America. Some slow and less captivating passages, especially scenes in Nigeria towards the end. But overall excellent read on all levels.

Um dos melhores livros que já li! Muito bem escrito, rico em detalhes, estória bem construída. Chimamanda é uma das melhores escritoras da atualidade.

What is the difference between an African-American and an American-African? Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's new novel Americanah gives you much fodder for thought if you have never stopped to think about such detailed distinctions on your own. Although the book tells the story about the love and lives of its two central characters Ifemelu and Obinze, Americanah is essentially a book about race, the way race is perceived and the way it exists in today's modern and globalised world. Ifemelu and Obinze meet in high school and fall head over heels in love. They come from very different backgrounds. Ifemelu's father is a former civil servant out of work and her mother is a middle class woman blinded by her prejudicial faith in God and His miracles. She encompasses everything that happens around her in the light of the lord, creating explanations that only serve her deep faith, without much touch with reality. This is modern day Nigeria in the eighties where the military reign seeps into everyday life and Ifemelu's mother changes her church to one which is supported by the generals. When her husband's distant cousin Uju (who has come from a small village to live with them in Lagos) decides to become the kept woman of a married, much older general, Ifemelu's mother terms it a 'miracle of God'. Here Ifemelu grows up, with a general distrust for the obvious. Right in the beginning of the story, Adichie makes it clear that Ifemelu and Obinze are not easily bought into the conventional. They ask, prod and try to find their own ways to deal with things around them. When the general is killed, Aunt Uju manages to cross continents to make her way to the USA with the general's illegitimate son. Ifemelu too finds herself in the USA soon thereafter, winning a scholarship for higher studies. The harrowing experiences that follow are the making of Ifemelu. All her experience or idea about the land of opportunities is from such glossy TV shows as the Cosby Show. Facing a reality that is nothing like the obscure shiny images in her mind, Ifemelu eventually lands on her feet, but not before she manages to destroy her now long distance relationship with Obinze. Ifemelu's self-consciousness and awkwardness turn into pride; she also finds herself distancing herself from her own kind who she feels are too desperate to blend in, like her Aunt Uju. Someone who once appeared full of practicality and wisdom and smartness now stinks of desperation. Uju herself faces the harsh reality of earning a livelihood instead of being kept by someone. Adichie very eloquently describes this falling out between Ifemelu and her once mentor as Uju tries to blend into being a American. Ifemelu finds a long term relationship with a white boy and discovers the depths of patronising from others on issues of race and colour. White American women, almost clueless about how to deal with a dark skinned girl, call her a 'beautiful woman', in tones that actually mean 'ordinary-looking black woman.' Adichie weaves this racial awakening of Ifemelu through a subtle input of events that expose the protagonist to her own identity. Adichie's characters are not all black, they are more multi coloured so to speak. They are in fact 'sable' or 'gingerbread' or 'caramel'. At one point Adichie describes one coloured woman as someone with 'skin so dark it has an undertone of blueberries.' Ifemelu deals with her increasing frustrations through her blog titled "Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black". She eventually wins a fellowship at Princeton, something Adichie herself won. The writer has said that many of Ifemelu's experiences are her own. Meanwhile, Obinze finds himself in the UK but ends up as an illegal immigrant. His experiences are really a world away from Ifemelu's more sophisticated problems with finding respect. Obinze is just looking for a day he can feel 'free' as he walks down the streets of London or Essex, cleaning toilets and putting up with crude racial encounters as he tries to make it on his own. Chimamanda Adichie is a wonderful observer of human nature, of qualities and the finer, grainier, subtle things that become the reasons for a person to become who he becomes. She captures human interactions superbly in this book. Ifemelu's extended visit to a New Jersey hair salon, where each hairdresser is justifiably 'correct' in the way she sees America as opposed to Ifemelu's own, is one of the first and most captivating such scenes in Americanah. African hair itself represents a political statement as the writer has said in most of her interviews. Promoting this book takes up some space in explaining how deep the roots of racial treatment has seeped into people's cultures. Ifemelu feels free after she stops hiding her Nigerian accent under an American one. She refuses to straighten her hair even when African-Americans ask her, 'You ever wonder why he likes you looking all jungle like that?" on observing her long term relationship with a white man. Perhaps it is this dignity and pride in her own ethnicity which is also her authenticity that allows Ifemelu to survive. Obinze struggles and fails and is shortly deported back to Lagos. Eventually, though, Obinze thrives in his own country, gets married to a high aspiring woman and again gets caught up between the values of wanting to be 'his own' or a 'wanna-be'. Ifemelu also returns to Nigeria and the rest of the novel very predictably returns to the unfinished love story between the two main protagonists. However, here too it is the writer's strong story telling capability that shows the reader the world that Nigeria is; the reason why Ifemelu or Obinze are who they are. The proud, home grown generation has no time for such nonsense as 'Americanahs' who seem to be returning home to just belittle and deride their own kind. Americanah is not just a simple novel. It deals with issues. It is a story of the new world, where immigrants are of a new kind. Ifemelu or Obinze are not the old world sixties' or seventies' immigrants; they are smart, capable, intelligent and educated middle class protagonists, who are forced to emigrate not because of ambition, or conflict or poverty but by "the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness". Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 2006 Orange Prize winner Half of a Yellow Sun was a complex book about the experiences of Igbo civilians during the Biafran war. The story was about history and politics and people. In Americanah, Adichie subtly tones her writing down one notch to deal with something that is far more complex than a war and history - she deals with identity and race in the modern age while explaining the present day socio-cultural and political background that makes people who they are. However sudden or rushed, the ending of the novel feels as if it is emphatic, rich, real, perceptive and of course, hugely entertaining.

Got Americanah for someone special. It’s a thoughtful and engaging read, and I truly hope they enjoy it.