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Americanah: A novel (ALA Notable Books for Adults)

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Americanah Paperback – February 27, 2014

by Ngozi Adichie Chima (Author)

4.5 45,493 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILEY S WOMEN S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2014.

From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a powerful story of love, race and identity.

As teenagers in Lagos, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America. There she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

Thirteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a blogger. But after so long apart and so many changes, will they find the courage to meet again, face to face?

Fearless, gripping, spanning three continents and numerous lives, the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Americanah is a richly told story of love and expectation set in today s globalized world.

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She rested her head against his and felt, for the first time, what she would often feel with him: a self-affection. He made her like herself. With him, she was at ease; her skin felt as though it was her right size.
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She was taking two sides at once, to please everyone; she always chose peace over truth, was always eager to conform.
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How easy it was to lie to strangers, to create with strangers the versions of our lives that we have imagined.
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Publisher ‏ : ‎ HARPER COLLINS; 0 edition (February 27, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 000735634X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007356348
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1.22 x 7.72 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,645,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #13,986 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
- #18,076 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #69,124 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE's work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker and Granta. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus; Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize; Americanah, which won the NBCC Award and was a New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Year; the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck; and the essay We Should All Be Feminists. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

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msiee

A Good Read for Americans and non Americans

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2017

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Americanah follows the main characters Ifemelu and her boyfriend, Obinze, as they both try to find a better way of life for themselves, when a school strike leaves them out of school for an extended period of time. They both seek to gain visas to America to take them out of their current status, however, Ifemelu is the only successful one at gaining the visa. It is at this point where things begin to take a turn for the couple as they each struggle to find themselves and look for happiness and success. It is their different turns that provide the climax and enjoyment for the reader.

The novel goes back and forth between the point of views of Ifemelu and Obinze. Through each narration, readers are drawn in by the travails of the character in focus. With Ifemelu, readers see how she sheds her innocence and is no longer naïve to how life in America is “supposed to be”. A quick example: when Ifemelu arrives in the U.S. to stay with her aunt Uju, she is surprised to see that she struggles to maintain a life for herself and her son. This aunt who once lived “large” in Nigeria, was now living in a roach- infested one bedroom apartment. The initial idea that the struggle was over when one arrived in the U.S..... Hmmm…not so much.

For Obinze, through the assistance of his mother, he was able to go to London, however, he learned that making money (especially as a foreigner) was not easy, and that since he was trying to obtain citizenship via the back way, he would struggle in almost anything he did. Life was not better in London compared to what he was accustomed to in Nigeria. Through the various jobs he took to survive and the relationships he attempted to make, there was always that feeling that he was losing a piece of himself. Definitely, not the life he imagined.

Without giving so much a way, I will say, this was a good book. This is a good book for those that are curious about immigrants, those who come over to seek a better way of life legally and those who enter a country illegally or through other means risking much, in search of what may be better. Due to the political climate we are experiencing now in the U.S., this is a book that should be on everyone’s reading list, if not, bookshelf. This book also tackles the social issues that our characters are faced with. If you have not addressed them personally, you will almost be forced to confront your own biases, whether you are white, black American or black and African.

I was drawn to each character in the novel- even those with minor roles for the reader, but significant to the main characters of the story. Adichie is so colorful with her words, she has the ability to transport you into the story and make you a front row spectator. Dry moments in the novel, barely. Once introductions are made at the beginning of the story and our characters determine where they are headed, the action begins and you are curious to see where the story will take you.

Would I recommend this book? With a resounding “YES”! How can I not? This book speaks to my heart. It took me two and a half weeks to read this book, but that was me with a million of other things and books on my plate. However, if this is the only book you are reading, it should be an easy and fast read.

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Somi

A Wonderful Read

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2013

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I am probably biased towards this novel, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, not only because Adichie's first novel, Purple Hibiscus, which I read as a very young girl, awoke in me the possibility of good writing and beautiful prose by a Nigerian like me, but because of the familiarity of the book. In Nigeria, we are brought up on foreign movies, sitcoms and TV shows, foreign books and foreign news, we know how English should be spoken, and many of us who bother to read a lot, are very familiar with the colloquialisms of the west. This is perhaps why, we do not recognize how much we miss our own particularly Nigerian way of expression, in the literature we read. It is perhaps why, when we read a phrase that is essentially Nigerian, in a novel like Americanah, "Tina-Tina, how now?" "Why are you looking like a mumu?" "How will you cope/how are you coping?" all familiar Nigerian modes of speech, we are infinitely grateful.

It's like the word Americanah, such a Nigerian word, used to describe someone who had lived abroad for so long, they no longer understand the nuances of being Nigerian. They use American swearwords, or complain that the fries at KFC Onikan are limp, even though you see nothing wrong with them. This is when you turn to someone who understands and say, (No mind am, na Americanah), Don't mind him, he is an Americanah.

Adichie's latest follows Ifemelu, a bright, sharp and observant girl, from her early years in 1990's Nigeria, to a life in America, where after the first rude shocks of culture change in a new world, where `fat' is a bad word and not merely a statement of fact, where colour is such a big issue that it can rule people's lives, and where everything is different, she slowly and surely starts to become an Americanah.

In Americanah, ifemelu observes, and we are informed by her observations, she converses and we see her character, and she remembers, and in her memories we see a rich story that begins in Lagos, journeys through the cities of America, and gains a body that is beautiful to savour. It is through Ifemelu's observations, we experience what Americana is about.

Hair, specifically Black/African hair. Why do black women hide their hair? Would Beyonce ever allow the world to see her hair the way it really is, or would Michelle Obama? These are the questions Ifemelu asks In her blog, where after having lived in the United States for a long time, she broaches issues of race, hair and life in America from the eyes of a `Non-American Black'.

We experience race, Kimberley, the white woman who uses beautiful as a word to describe `black', because for whichever reason, black is a word that should be said as little as possible. Kurt, to whom Ifemelu's race means nothing, and Blaine, the Black American Yale professor, whose influence, in my opinion, would be the biggest in turning Ifemelu's observations from the disinterested and amused observation of a `Non-American Black' or `NAB', who calmly tells Kimberly, "You know, you can just say `black.' Not every black person is beautiful." to those of an `American Black' or `AB', who would say in her blog. "If the "slavery was so long ago" thing comes up, have your white friend say that lots of white folks are still inheriting money that their families made a hundred years ago. So if that legacy lives, why not the legacy of slavery?" The old Ifemelu would have told the descendants of the slaves to `get over it'.

We also experience love, Adichie herself describes Americanah as a love story, and this is true. There is love in almost every book, but in Americanah, it is not incidental, it is a central part of the story. Before America, and race and hair became issues, there was Obinze, the love of Ifemelu's teenage life. If Ifemelu, the daughter of a civil servant who lost his job because he would not bow to the excessive respect that Lagos Yoruba's employ and call his boss `Mummy', and uses English in such a way as to provide a hilarious sort of comic relief, is sharp and confident, then Obinze, the only son of a university professor, with his love for American books and his quiet belief in himself, is self assured and mature. They fall in love soon after they meet as secondary school students in Lagos, and when Ifemelu tells her aunt and friend, Uju, about him, saying she has met the love of her life, there is a hilarious moment when Aunt Uju advises her to "let him kiss and touch but not to let him put it inside."

While most of the story is seen though Ifemelu's eyes and memories, we also get to see some of Obinze, we follow him to London, where he lives as an illegal immigrant, after failing to find a job in Nigeria, or to fulfill his dream of going to America, (he later visits America, when he becomes rich, and isn't impressed, he lost interest when he realized that he could buy his way in.) He is arrested on the eve of his sham wedding, and repatriated. In all this Obinze never loses a certain `solidity', that he seems to effortlessly possess. In a democratic Nigeria, where a new middle class is rising, and the money that used to be the preserve of the top army generals starts to filter down, Obinze gets lucky in the way that only happens in Nigeria, where there really is too much money, and overnight he is a very rich man.

When Ifemelu starts to hunger for home, Obinze, with whom she has lost touch, is already a husband and father. "Meanwhile o, he has serious money now. See what you missed!" her friend, Ranyinudo tells her, on a call from Nigeria. (How Nigerian to say something like that!) The central question becomes, will they get back together? To some, this is a weakness of the story, the descent into the fantasy of a happily ever after for the heroine and hero, but it is not such a bad thing in itself, it makes enjoyable, and hopeful reading.

In summary, I loved the story. I loved the familiarity of it, Ifemelu's mother's ridiculous religiousness, her fathers ludicrous use of English, Aunty Uju, Ginika, Kayode, Emenike, who is perhaps one of the more interesting characters, as he strives to shed the life he was born with, to become what he wishes to be, and all the other different kinds of people that make up the rich tapestry that is Nigerian life.

Ifemelu is an interesting character, observant, watchful, sure of herself, even as a teenager, she is confident in a way I wouldn't have understood at that age. Obinze, knows himself in such a way that he doesn't need to follow any crowd, or have anybody validate him. However, I did feel that the ending was rather rushed, as if the author had other things to do, and was hastily putting the final scenes together.

The main grouse I had with the book was the fact that I saw some elements from Adichie's previous works. When Barrack Obama wins the election and her cousin Dike calls her to say that his president is black like him, I remember an interview long ago where Adichie says that her nephew had said the exact same thing after the elections. It make me feel cheated, this, the similarity of her relationship with Curt to the relationship of the characters in her short story, The Thing Around Your Neck; when Obinze describes his house in Enugu, and I see the house in Birdsong, the scene of another adulterous affair in another of her old short stories. How autobiographical is her work then? I ask myself. I begin to feel suspicious, perhaps all the characters are really her and the people she knows, perhaps Pat Peoples is really Matthew Quick, and Nick Hornby's characters are really just himself?

I noticed that apart from Dike, her little cousin, and Obinze, and perhaps Obinze's mother, Ifemelu does not seem very emotionally involved with the people that shape her life, sometimes she seems like a watcher, an observer, and not a character in the story. Also, because this novel is really many observations and opinions, sometimes it does feel contrived, like a character or event has been introduced, solely because they are a means to present an issue Adichie wants to discuss. Lastly, I did not find the blog interesting, unlike the prose of the novel, the writing is not fluid, or vey descriptive, and seems to jump from one issue to another, trying to cram many thoughts into one jumbled package. This may be because I am not an NAB, and those issues mean little to me, perhaps the AB's would read it differently.

Regardless, Americanah is a wonderful read, sometimes laugh out loud funny, sometimes sad, but always interesting.

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Megan Bailey

Excellent novel

Reviewed in Canada on January 11, 2024

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This book describes the experiences of an African black person working in America - their struggles and how they deal with them. It also touches on how they experience returning to their country of birth and the changes that occur. Adiche has a very engaging style that makes her work both easy and compelling to read. As an African immigrant to North America I identified wholly with what she wrote about and found much common ground.

One person found this helpful

Viola Cellitti

Amazing Story

Reviewed in France on November 23, 2023

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Interesting story about an African Woman descovering racism for the 1st time.

Ximena.Hegu

A must read book

Reviewed in Mexico on May 13, 2021

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I'm not a freqent reader. But I can say that this book will make you a frequent reader. It's got an amazing plot plus the content of the book is filled with culture from Nigeria inside and outside of its country. Really give it a try.

Pedro Manuel Carrasco De La Cruz

A tale of perseverance and resilience

Reviewed in Germany on September 15, 2023

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A great surprise to find this book. A story in which hope and resilience is transversal to every episode in the life of our protagonist. Sometimes tending to be over dramatic, it is a realistic portrait of the African experience in the African-American community of USA.

With a story which expands over more than 30 years, the timeline does never become heavy or difficult to understand. The number of characters might be a bit difficult but also enriching to the general plot, up to the taste of the reader.

Recommended for readers of contemporary literature.

Ilaria

IDENTITÀ

Reviewed in Italy on March 14, 2021

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Libro arrivato in ottime condizioni. Estremamente avvincente. Americanah è la lucida osservazione di una nera africana in un mondo fatto su misura per i bianchi, che troppo spesso mal sopportano (e forse ancora non accettano del tutto) la presenza dei neri.

Ifemelu è una nigeriana emigrata negli Stati Uniti che vede i suoi connazionali cambiare identità, perdere la loro unicità per omologarsi agli americani, per farsi accettare da loro, anzi per essere a tutti gli effetti come loro, giungerà a fare cose di cui si pentirà ma sul finale la protagonista diventa artefice del suo destino e afferma la sua identità. Super consigliato

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