Americanah

Is this a chick lit novel? Or is it a social commentary novel? It is both. This was a book that managed to cross genre lines with aplomb and panache. There is much to think about while reading the book. It raises the specter of how immigrants are treated, and why people choose to immigrate. The book toggles back and forth between the story of Ifemelu an Obinze. Ifemelu in the U. S. and Obinze in the U.K. The immigration experiences are similar but at the same time very different. Then there is the race commentary and questions that the author raises for the reader. The magic is that the reader laughs and cries along with the characters while being made to think about some aspects of the culture in the U. S. and in the U.K

This book was not what I expected. It was witty, not laugh out loud funny but consistently amusing. It gave us in Ifemelu an interesting narrator who was smart and engaging, and also a bitch, and a prima donna, and a bully. Many current books/movies/shows about racism create these "all-American" Black characters which helps to highlight the idiocy of prejudice but also perpetuates a White standard for acceptable behavior (all-American is code for White.) This "Blacks! They're Just Like Us" approach assuages the guilt of White readers by making it okay to exclude or disapprove of Black people who don't live by that paradigm. Think The Cosby Show. Our protagonist here was multi-dimensional, seriously flawed, but interesting and funny and show more overall sort of likeable, and the empty "perfect" characters, the stereotypes come to life, were the White characters, Rich White Boyfriend (he is called that in the book) and every member of the family Ifemelu nannys for in undergrad. The book was also educational about Nigeria mostly. It was one of the more challenging books I have read in a good long time, and though flawed, it is a book that expands the reader.

It is as much a polemic on race, and the concept of race, as it is a story. Think Atlas Shrugged. (Not because the sociopolitical beliefs of Ayn Rand and Adichie have anything to do with one another, they don't, but because they both use a love story to draw in the reader and make the social commentary seem completely rational and unassailable.) Though I expect my politics align more with Adichie than with Rand, many of her tenets were flawed, or at very least arguable, and I, the reader, was made to feel stupid and/or racist if I did not accept her propositions as gospel. For one thing, the writer talks all about how there is no racism in Nigeria because most everyone is Black, but at the same time there are deep tribal divisions and a the divide between Igbo and Yoruba is based entirely on prejudices. That is the same thing as racism. We can call it tribalism or racism it is all the same thing. Why does this pass unremarked on? This sort of selectively incisive commentary pissed me off, but that does not change the fact that the discussion alone made me think about my own beliefs and observations in a constructive way, to challenge my assumptions. And if there is anything that Americans need to do it is to think about race without depending on lazy truisms. Many years ago I told a friend that I never looked at things in terms of race. She said;"You are so lucky that you have that option. For us Black folk everything is about race." That was the beginning of a new way of thinking for me, and I thought about that conversation a good deal while reading Americanah.

I mentioned it before, but I want to point out once again that there is a story here, and it is a good one. It is not one long op-ed. I recommend it strongly to all readers. show less

It's A) a love story, B) a coming of age novel, C) a treatise on race in the United States, D) all of the above. If you picked D, you're correct!

Adichie's deconstruction of race in America, as seen through a newcomer's eyes, is potent and compelling. She has a keen eye and a delicate, almost considerate, touch when discussing sensitive (for most white folks) topics like white privilege and ignorance.

In some places her prose is languid and poetic and in others it feels taut and affected. It all somehow works, though. Despite the divergent flow of the writing, it feels natural and necessary and intentional.

I liked Ifemelu and Obinze and I rooted for them both. Together and separately, as they were navigating their worlds. I felt for show more each other as they celebrated triumphs and weathered their personal storms. Although I can't say I ever felt *wholly* invested in them as characters, they were so smart, open, and adventurous that I felt an easy kinship with them that was enough for me to want the best for them.

I'd like to give this five stars but, if I'm honest, Americanah is a bit of a mess. It's a little bit all over the place (timeline, narration, location, genre) but everywhere it ends up is beautiful in its own right. I would happily recommend it. show less

When Ifemelu, a beautiful Nigerian woman attends a dinner party in Manhattan with her white boyfriend, the discussion buzzes about the potential election of Barack Obama as President. One guest expects that Obama will "end racism in this country". A Haitian woman agrees declaring that racism never affected her in California. Ifemelu argues: "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."

This novel centers around Ifemelu's experience of coming to America to improve her life. leaving family, home, and love behind. This is the path show more to betterment that is well understood in Nigeria. However, Ifemelu's (and other immigrants) experience starts slowly with great difficulty with issues of race at the forefront of her struggles. Even after she breaks through the "class" barrier, she continues to experience racial inequalities while struggling to retain her ethnicity instead of conforming to "white America".

Especially with the current focus on our country's racial discord, when it is easier to believe that racism only occurs in certain geographic or socio-economic populations, this novel reminds us that none of us are literally color-blind. It allows us an opportunity to walk in Ifemelu's figurative shoes to see how explicit and unintentional racism affects many people of color in our country.

The narrative is interrupted a little too often by the "essays" on racism, but the characters and the story are worthwhile and keep you cheering for love and authenticity to win out in the end. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2534482.html

You need to know more about Nigeria. It is the seventh most populous country in the world (after China, India, the USA, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan) and is becoming a middle-income country (wealth per capita a little ahead of Moldova, a little behind Armenia). It has the largest population and the largest economy in Africa, the 20th largest GDP in the world (just behind Australia, just ahead of Thailand). One in six Africans is Nigerian, and soon it will be one in five.

I went to Nigeria for 48 hours in July, and a couple of colleagues strongly recommended this book to me as a pathway to understanding the country. It was a good recommendation on their part. There are three major themes to the show more book: exile, race and hair. As an expatriate migrant myself, I have thought a lot about exile and distance from the country where you grew up, and the sense of betrayal at leaving it behind. Adichie's protagonist Ifemelu eventually returns home voluntarily from the USA; her lost love Odinze is humiliatingly deported from the UK; and both find that while you can never completely leave, you can never completely go back either.

The book is sharpest in contrasting American (and to a lesser extent British) attitudes to race with the experience of people who have grown up in societies where it simply isn't an issue because there are no (or hardly any) white people. Ifemelu achieves (slightly anonymous) fame as a blogger on race, with the rise of Obama as political backdrop to her years in America. She shocks her black friends as well as her white friends and colleagues in a very good way. She shocks me as well.

As for the hair question: I had no idea. Really.

Excellent book. Go and get it. show less

[Americanah] by [[Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie]]
I finally got around to reading Adichie's 2013 novel that explores the experiences of Nigerian-born Ifemelu and Obinze, and I'm so, so glad I did. Ifemelu and Obinze grow up comfortably upper middle class in Nigeria, but have to contend with the challenges of living in a developing country. When they are in college and the teachers continually go on strike, they begin seriously looking for ways to leave. As a female, Ifemelu is able to get a visa to America to live with her aunt fairly easily. Getting a work visa is not as easy. Obinze, as a male in the post-9/11 world, is unable to legally emigrate. He ends up briefly in London and then back in Nigeria.

Ifemelu is the focus for most of the show more book. She becomes successful in America writing a blog about race. She writes about how she never thought of herself as Black until she came to America - Black doesn't exist in Nigeria. She writes about the differences between Non-American Blacks and American Blacks. Her words are powerful and honest and entertaining - as a good blog should be. I was immediately struck by how her observations line up with [[Isabel Wilkerson]]'s book, [Caste]. Though [Americanah] is a novel, it felt like real life observation of how the American Caste system is implemented and how it affects all of us.

Amidst these observations and experiences with race in America, the UK, and Nigeria, life happens. Ifemelu has various relationships, jobs, and family drama. Through it all, she thinks about Obinze, her first love. When she moves back to Nigeria, the question is whether she and Obinze will still love each other and whether life will allow them to be together.

I really loved this novel. For me, the most successful parts were the revelations about race and the immigrant experience. Also about the different lifestyles in Nigeria, America, and Great Britain. I was less interested in the romance between Ifemelu and Obinze. That took just a little bit of the glow off of this novel for me, but I still highly recommend it. I'll read anything [[Adichie]] writes. I think she's a wonderful writer.

Original publication date: 2013
Author’s nationality: Nigerian and American (dual citizenship, I believe)
Original language: English
Length: 588 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: library kindle
Why I read this: 1001 books, books about Black American experience for category challenge show less

This book is several things interleaved.

There's a love story with fairly traditional elements of circumstances coming between the lovers.

There's clearly some autobiography, from an author whose own life gives her plenty of material.

There's a lot of exploration of the dislocation of being an immigrant and the ways in which the assumed community of people from the same place easily falls flat. I identified strongly with a surprising amount of that, given that my circumstances are very different from the characters'.

There's a mourning for Nigeria. Just as with Teju Cole's writing, I see so much of my Turkey in the author's Nigeria.

There's an extended essay about race, racism, and especially how those play out in the USA. This is mostly show more done very well--if the protagonist's blog were real I'd be a subscriber--but towards the end of the US section it starts to feel like a lecture is intruding on the story.

There's an interesting format experiment in which Adichie basically implements Brecht's ideas about giving away the story before telling it so that suspense doesn't interfere with the other things you're supposed to feel. Only Adichie does this far more deftly than Brecht, so it never detracted from the enjoyment of the story.

It does a surprisingly good job of carrying all these elements, albeit at times feeling a little overloaded. I enjoyed reading it and felt at times like it was really hitting hard. show less