Americanah

Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Rating: ⭐ 4/5

Date Read: 2014/09/02

Pages: 610

Race in America is woven into the fabric of the country: it’s difficult to imagine our lives without it. Of course, some claim that they don’t notice race, or that racism doesn’t exist (they would be wrong on both counts). However, most people hold race as this rarefied, natural thing, as if Africans from Lagos to Addis Ababa spend a ton of time thinking about themselves as black (with the underlying expectation that they compare themselves to those who are White).

Americanah is interesting, in that it examines race in America from the point of view of a woman who moved from Nigeria to the US and became black. To wit:

“The only reason you say that race was not an issue is because you wish it was not. We all wish it was not. But it’s a lie. I came from a country where race was not an issue; I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America.”

Americanah chronicles the story of Ifemelu, a middle class Niegerian woman, from her childhood in Lagos to college in Philadelphia, her post-college life in Baltimore, New Haven, and Princeton, and her ultimate decision to move back to Lagos. It has the feel of a sweeping epic, but sometimes the narrative falls flat. Adichie sometimes writes sections from the point of view of Ifemelu’s lover, Obinze, but these never feel like quite enough. The story also drags a bit after the return to Nigeria: I kept finding myself asking “Is this book over yet?” which is never a good sign.

Perhaps most stylistically interesting is Adichie’s decision to include Ifemelu’s blog posts on race in American (from the point of view of a non-American Black). I can’t decide whether the included blog posts are a clever device for adding relevant short essays that fall outside the narrative scope of the novel, or a lazy method to weave in issues that aren’t full realized in the narrative structure. Overall, I think it mostly works, and I’m curious to see whether other authors pick up the idea of metablogging in the future.

Despite its shortcomings, Americanah just seems to work. Adichie manages to write with a somewhat florid style that never seems obnoxious or precious, which I enjoyed. I also learned quite a bit about Nigeria, which was a bonus. I recommend this to anyone who’s interested in race and the immigrant experience, and I’m looking forward to reading more of Adichie’s work.