Americanah

Adichie, C. N. (2013). Americanah. New York: Knopf.

Hardcover | $26.95 USD | ISBN-13: 978-0307271082 | 496 pages | Adult Fiction 

Adichie has written a chilling masterpiece.  This novel can’t be about just one topic because so much is woven together. Here are some of the questions addressed: What does it mean to be African and live in America?  How does moving from Nigeria to America affect and change someone?  What is the impact this will have on relationships? On love?  What will be realized about communities? White privilege? What will be learned about ethnocentrism and about our own identities? These are all questions that Adichie discusses through her character Ifemelu, a young Nigerian woman who moves to America in pursuit of a higher education. 

Ifemelu has moved to America to study and to become a wrier. She has her ideas about what America should be like based on TV shows like the Cosby’s, but upon her arrival she realizes its not what she thought. She is there to attend school and starts off fresh and new and is learning a lot about her new homeland called America. Truth is, the experience of coming to America, taught her a lot and taught her about things she did not know existed, including the four letter word: race. The concept of race didn’t exist in Nigeria, but it exists on every street corner, store, and train station in every city in America. She learns what it means and what it feels like to be “black” in America. Ifemelu begins to write a blog about race in America.  She does not have it easy in America – she hits some real lows and struggles to find a job, but through a lot of flashbacks we learn that she does gain an education, a fellowship at Princeton and finds a new love in an African American professor.  Her life was kind of easy in comparison back in Nigeria, or maybe it was just simpler. Ifemula ends the blog and returns to Nigeria after thirteen years of living in cities all around the U.S. But she isn’t returning to what she originally planned. Things have changed.

To make the story more interesting, there are parallel stories intertwined. Her teenage love, Obinze, wanted to also come to America to finish school, but because it is post 9/11 he is not permitted to enter the U.S. Instead he goes to London and faces his own challenges with finding a job. He tries to fake a marriage but is deported. He struggles just as much as Ifemelu, but upon his return to Nigeria he marries again, but the problem is it wasn’t for love and he is not happy. Adichie’s characters are both unhappy and unsatisfied with the position that they found themselves in, although oceans and continents apart. Their love went in opposite directions while their hearts remained in Nigeria, though they didn’t know it. It took a journey of self-realization to appreciate the life they had. However, the experiences taught them and stretched them.

This realistic love story will provide readers with plenty of insight for those who want to have their eyes opened to the issues of race, migration and struggles in America. This book is highly recommended for all readers. Though race has an important role in this book, not only Africans or African Americans need to read this. This is one book that all readers from all races should read because the honesty of the characters and their experiences will teach us all. It belongs in every library’s multicultural collection. This work is highly recommended for all public libraries.