Americanah

Americanahby Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieThis as a very readable book. It does not require any existing knowledge of Nigeria or of America. I feel I learned a lot about both and even more about perspectives on race and colour.It is Ifemelu's story and begins from her point of view, told in flashback as she sits in a salon in America, where she is having her hair braided before returning to Nigeria after thirteen years.In Nigeria is the love of her life, the best friend and soul-mate she fell in love with as a teenager. But when Obinze was unable to get a visa to join her in America she found herself in situations which led her to deliberately lose touch.Ifemelu's developing awareness of the differences between African Americans, American Africans, the attitudes and variations in the way ex-pat Africans from different African countries, or from different strata of African society, interact and see each other, as well as Ifelemu's observations on relationships between all of them and non-black Americans, are all fuel for her very successful blog about blackness in America. After initially being poor and lonely Ifemelu becomes academically and financially successful and mixes with people of class and education. She is far from any stereotypical immigrant, who left home to escape poverty or harsh treatment. She left to seek change and advantage, but through ambition and choice. For a while she cultivates an American accent and relaxes her natural Afro hair. But she begins to feel uncomfortable with that and goes back to her Nigerian way of speaking and allows her naturally kinky hair to grow out.The point of view alters to that of Obinze as we learn his story, his disappointments and difficult time as an illegal immigrant, in England, before being deported back to Nigeria and his marriage to Kosi.The tension between the lovers is maintained to the end as the reader tries to work out whether they are destined to be together finally.It is difficult to summarise the scope and depth of this book. It is full of well observed detail, with touches of humour and is engaging and memorable.It is just an absolute pleasure to read.

WARNING: "WAY TOO MANY SPOILERS" SAYS ONE READER OF THIS REVIEW.The novel is set in the period of roughly the forty years after the 1970s. In the first two chapters we see Ifemelu, having lived in the United States for fifteen years and with a fellowship at Princeton, feeling the need to go back to her native Nigeria. She has a black American lover, but is looking forward to meeting her former boy friend, Obinze, although he is now married and has a little daughter. For his part Obinze, now prosperous as the result of having ingratiated himself obsequiously with a powerful local wheeler-dealer, feels a little thrill when he receives her email announcing that she is about to return.The novel then flashes back to the time when they were both still at school, and later at Nsukka University, and in love with each other. America was then a magnet for many of those young people, and they envy the Nigerians who have been there or even settled there. Part of it was an idolization of American (generally popular) culture, part to get an education abroad which was not constantly interrupted by prolonged teachers' strikes, part a wish to escape from a Nigeria under a military dictatorship and in which corruption is rife. For example, Ifemelu's aunt Uju, who was almost a mother to her, was the kept woman of a boorish old general who kept her in luxury in a magnificent house. She loses all that in an instant when the General dies, leaving her with Dike, their one-year-old baby son. She somehow managed to get to America with Dike and did menial jobs while studying medicine. Five years later Ifemelu followed her, having got a university scholarship and a visa. Obinze planned to go there, too, once he had graduated, for post-graduate study.There are excellent descriptions of the sheer unfamiliarity of American life when Ifemelu arrives to stay with Aunt Uju in Brooklyn until term started in Philadelphia; also of what five years in America had done to change Aunt Uju. Ifemelu had enrolled in Philadelphia because an old friend Ginika was already there: Ginika and her friends had also become thoroughly Americanized. In due course Ifemelu will acculturate, too; but she becomes increasingly aware of racial issues in America, not only between whites - even well-meaning ones - and blacks, but also between WASPs and Jews, and between African Americans (the descendants of slaves) and American Africans (Africans who have recently arrived in America). Much later she will write a blog for her "Fellow non-American Blacks", describing incidents illustrating racial issues. Every now and again the blogs appear in the novel (though I think that, unlike the rest of the novel, they are not all that well written).Ifemulu had to work as well as study; but she was turned down for a job innumerable times. In a deep depression she neither wrote nor phoned Obinze, deleted his emails and did not read the letter he sent. Then at last she found a job as a baby-sitter for a liberal white family (its dynamics very well described), and had what initially appeared an unselfconscious love affaire with Curt, a member of that family. He lived in Baltimore and, after she had graduated, he helped her to get a job with a public relations firm in that city. For the interview she had her braids "relaxed": hair styles as a way of projecting identity play an very important role in this novel, and Ifemulu will have it re-braided when she decides to return to Nigeria.In Baltimore she learnt from an old schoolfriend that Obinze was now in London, and the novel now switches to telling his story (which, in my opinion, lacks the depth and subtlety of Ifemulu's).When Obinze had applied for an American visa after graduating, his application had been refused without any explanation. But he was so keen to get out of Nigeria that he then got a six-months visa for England, purportedly as a research assistant, though he had no such job. He did various menial jobs in London instead. When the visa expired, he stayed on as an illegal immigrant, hoping to find a British woman to marry, which would give him the right to stay in England. But the immigration authorities discovered that he has outstayed his visa and deported him back to Nigeria.Meanwhile Ifemulu's relationship with Curt turned out after all not to be all that unselfconscious as far as she was concerned, and she brought it to an end. It was now that she started her blog, and this soon went viral, received responsive as well as abusive comments, earned her invitations to speak on multiculturalism and diversity, and brought in a lot of money. The blog was admired by Blaine, a black American academic, and very soon she moved in with him. The stage is set for an examination of the difference between African Americans like him and American Africans like her. The novel becomes increasingly obsessional about race - conversations become mostly about it; the blogs appear more frequently. And Blaine fell out with her because she fails to turn up at a demonstration he had organized in support of a badly-treated African American, and their relationship lost its warmth.When she returned to Nigeria, she noticed how the country had changed in the last fifteen years, but also how much she had changed and how some Nigerian behaviour now jarred on her. Returnees from abroad are a special group, envied and condescending, and they have their own club, the Nigerpolitan. After a while she started a new blog about the Lagos scene as she perceived it.It took her some months before she finally contacted Obinze, and the last part of the novel shows, as might be expected, the relationship between them going through several complicated phases; but I must not reveal them.The book is a trifle long, with perhaps rather too many characters and with some scenes that might well have been cut. Also, although I fully appreciate how important racial issues are and am in sympathy with what Adichie writes, I found the very lengthy treatment of them in the American part of the book a little wearisome, a tract rather than a novel, and telling me little that I was not aware of. As in her earlier novels "Purple Hibiscus" and "Half of a Yellow Sun" (see my Amazon reviews) she gives a vivid account of the Nigerian scene, and on the whole I found the chapters set in Nigeria a good deal more involving than those set in London or the United States. Ifemelu throughout and Obinze in the Nigerian chapters are memorable and complex characters.

You know when you read a book and you just want to memorise every word just to repeat it to yourself on a daily basis? This is what Chimamanda’s words does to me. Just wonderful.

This book describes the experiences of an African black person working in America - their struggles and how they deal with them. It also touches on how they experience returning to their country of birth and the changes that occur. Adiche has a very engaging style that makes her work both easy and compelling to read. As an African immigrant to North America I identified wholly with what she wrote about and found much common ground.

Interesting story about an African Woman descovering racism for the 1st time.

I'm not a freqent reader. But I can say that this book will make you a frequent reader. It's got an amazing plot plus the content of the book is filled with culture from Nigeria inside and outside of its country. Really give it a try.

A great surprise to find this book. A story in which hope and resilience is transversal to every episode in the life of our protagonist. Sometimes tending to be over dramatic, it is a realistic portrait of the African experience in the African-American community of USA.With a story which expands over more than 30 years, the timeline does never become heavy or difficult to understand. The number of characters might be a bit difficult but also enriching to the general plot, up to the taste of the reader.Recommended for readers of contemporary literature.

Libro arrivato in ottime condizioni. Estremamente avvincente. Americanah è la lucida osservazione di una nera africana in un mondo fatto su misura per i bianchi, che troppo spesso mal sopportano (e forse ancora non accettano del tutto) la presenza dei neri.Ifemelu è una nigeriana emigrata negli Stati Uniti che vede i suoi connazionali cambiare identità, perdere la loro unicità per omologarsi agli americani, per farsi accettare da loro, anzi per essere a tutti gli effetti come loro, giungerà a fare cose di cui si pentirà ma sul finale la protagonista diventa artefice del suo destino e afferma la sua identità. Super consigliato