Book Review: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In the rarified air of Nigerian and American academia, Ifemelu and Obinze discuss race, politics, race, literature, and race with colleagues and family. Education and career destinations are America and England for Ifemelu and Obinze, but after a 15-year hiatus, they both end up back in Nigeria, where they first met and fell in love. How their identities changed through their expat experiences comprises Americanah’s story. Will these experiences lead them back to each other, or have they changed too much? That is the intrigue.

Adichie’s intelligent, insightful writing is a pleasure to read. Americanah is way more than a love story. It’s a study of personal and national identity. For example, Ifemelu’s Aunty Uju (pronounced oo-joo) immigrates first to the United States; when Ifemelu arrives, she notices Aunty Uju answers her phone, “Yes, this is Uju” pronouncing it you-joo because that’s how Americans pronounce her name. And when Ifemelu has trouble finding a job, a Nigerian girlfriend who has preceded her to the U.S. recommends she straighten her hair to not look so African. They make other accommodations in order to fit in, but sometimes they get tired of doing this and revert to their natural selves.

On the way to the romantic denouement, I enjoyed learning about American, Nigerian, and British customs and sensibilities through Adichie’s keen observations. Although not always blatant, fears about people different from us are never far from the surface in this novel. In Americanah, inevitable racism ~ blacks against whites and whites against blacks ~ slithers in and out of the story’s scenes like the snake it is. This is an edgy novel for me, because while I believe racial prejudice exists, I do not believe racism is inevitable and insurmountable, which seems to be the subtle theme of this novel. In that, I hope I have misjudged Americanah. That said, I recommend reading this novel, not just to enjoy an interesting story, well-told, but also to become more aware of how people of other cultures view us.