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.

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.