Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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?
By Damla
“They would not understand why people like him who were raised well fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction, conditioned from birth to look towards somewhere else, eternally convinced that real lives happened in that somewhere else, were now resolved to do dangerous things, illegal things, so as to leave, none of them starving, or raped, or from burned villages, but merely hungry for for choice and certainty.”
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Americanah is an incredibly powerful book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with touching depth and insight into the human mind, emotion, ambition, desire, and whims.
It touches upon so many vital subjects, from race to gender relationships, social hierarchies, prejudices, covering both the “Western” and African perspective. What hit me as most poignant was how she handled the topic of immigration: feeling like an outsider in the foreign West, but also back home. The homesickness despite the corruption, judgment, and alienation that awaits, because home also means family, friends, familiarity, and opportunity. The yearning to escape, and yet condoning those who do leave. Having the curtain of delusion and expectation pulled apart so that neither side is seen in the same idealistic light any more. It is a book that might resonate the strongest with many immigrants going through similar emotions, caught in the duality between their homelands and their new adopted country.
Immediately gripping from the first chapter, Americanah is a funny, honest, and mesmerizing book that will leave you thinking, questioning, and feeling.
