Americanah: A novel
10th ANNIVERSARY EDITION • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic about star-crossed lovers that explores questions of race and being Black in America—and the search for what it means to call a place home. • From the award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Half of a Yellow Sun • WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR
"An expansive, epic love story."—O, The Oprah Magazine
One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be Black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post–9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.
At once powerful and tender, Americanah is a remarkable novel that is "dazzling…funny and defiant, and simultaneously so wise." —San Francisco Chronicle
"An expansive, epic love story."—O, The Oprah Magazine
One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years • A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be Black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post–9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.
At once powerful and tender, Americanah is a remarkable novel that is "dazzling…funny and defiant, and simultaneously so wise." —San Francisco Chronicle
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Readers say *Americanah* by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a deeply immersive novel that balances an epic scope with intimate storytelling. Reviewers agr...
How to describe this book? It feels like an epic novel, but it reads like a more intimate story. I loved Ifemelu and Obinze. Their stories are central to the book and it’s through their eyes that we see the struggles of Nigerians and other non-natives to adapt to foreign countries. There is love of family, friends, lovers, country, new country, loss of innocence, gained experience, many characters, but concentrated on a few. The writing just pulls you in. Don’t let the length of this book intimidate you.
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Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
588 pages
What’s it about?
This novel is a love story, an immigrant’s story and a story of race in America.
What did it make me think about?
This is a book I wanted to love. It started off so promising for me, and parts of the novel were amazing. I found the main character smart, interesting, insightful and sometimes just harsh and hard to understand.
Should I read it?
I found the authors' commentaries on race in America thought provoking. Her observations on being a new immigrant to America were also interesting. Her ability to stand back and observe, and then write social commentary makes this novel worth reading. However be warned- the second half of the book got tedious for me.
Quote-
“There was a manic optimism that he noticed in many of the people who had moved back from America in the past few years, a head-bobbing, ever-smiling, over-enthusiastic kind of manic optimism that bored him, because it was like a cartoon, without texture or depth. He hoped she would not have become like that. “
If you like this try-
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyimi
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
588 pages
What’s it about?
This novel is a love story, an immigrant’s story and a story of race in America.
What did it make me think about?
This is a book I wanted to love. It started off so promising for me, and parts of the novel were amazing. I found the main character smart, interesting, insightful and sometimes just harsh and hard to understand.
Should I read it?
I found the authors' commentaries on race in America thought provoking. Her observations on being a new immigrant to America were also interesting. Her ability to stand back and observe, and then write social commentary makes this novel worth reading. However be warned- the second half of the book got tedious for me.
Quote-
“There was a manic optimism that he noticed in many of the people who had moved back from America in the past few years, a head-bobbing, ever-smiling, over-enthusiastic kind of manic optimism that bored him, because it was like a cartoon, without texture or depth. He hoped she would not have become like that. “
If you like this try-
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyimi
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Read for my book club, which was canceled. :-(
Very moving and powerful story about Ifemelu and Obinze, two young lovers growing up in Nigeria, who find themselves on different paths in life. Ifemelu heads to the States to study and chase the "American dream" that Obinze had wanted for both of them, only to be confronted with racial issues for the first time in her life. She starts a blog to talk about race and racism in America, becoming wildly successful but moving further and further away from Obinze, whose life took unexpected turns when he was not able to get to America.
After years in the States, Ifemelu decides it's time to return home, and their reunion is bittersweet and complicated.
Very moving and powerful story about Ifemelu and Obinze, two young lovers growing up in Nigeria, who find themselves on different paths in life. Ifemelu heads to the States to study and chase the "American dream" that Obinze had wanted for both of them, only to be confronted with racial issues for the first time in her life. She starts a blog to talk about race and racism in America, becoming wildly successful but moving further and further away from Obinze, whose life took unexpected turns when he was not able to get to America.
After years in the States, Ifemelu decides it's time to return home, and their reunion is bittersweet and complicated.
I loved the characters! Ifemelu was a very different main character that was fascinating in her untraditional viewpoints. Aunty Juju another example of this. It was refreshing to hear a middle class African perspective that is not steeped in the narrative of African poverty that is so prevalent.
The novel is long-winded, that’s for sure. I thought Adichie offered a strong discussion of race relations and immigration. Still, these themes, like those of romance, elitism, and striving for something more, became murky as they seeped into one another. I don’t think I minded though, because that’s how life is. There’s no clear linearity in how different facets of life interact with one another, just as Ifemelu and Obinze are not perfect, linear characters. I found Ifemelu and Obinze to be deeply human, despite how frustrating they could be at times, and above all, the novel did a great job of situating them within their circumstances.
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