Americanah: A novel

thenextgoodbook.com

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.

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.

“To be Black in America was to feel bulldozed by the weight of history and stereotypes, to know that race was always a possible reason, or cause, or explanation for the big and small interactions that make up our fragile lives.” As an Afro-Caribbean Canadian whose mother was a Jamaican immigrant and whose father was African American, I approve this message. “Try listening, maybe. Hear what is being said. And remember that it's not about you. American Blacks are not telling you that you are to blame. They are just telling you what is. If you don't understand, ask questions. If you're uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway. It's easy to tell when a question is coming from a good place. Then listen some more. Sometimes people just want to feel heard. Here's to possibilities of friendship and connection and understanding.”

CNA is an amazing author. I would recommend all of her works, but especially Purple Hibiscus.