Americanah - Wyrms.de

library binding, 608 pages

Published March 4, 2014 by Turtleback Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-606-36721-9

(1 review)

Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.

([source][1])

[1]: www.chimamanda.com/book/americanah/

19 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Interesting discussions

4 stars

I was interested to see, when reading other reviews after having finished Americanah, that a lot of people didn't like the discussions and arguments about race or the imagined blog posts, preferring the Ifemelu-Obinze romance instead. Personally, once Ifemelu had left for America, I wasn't convinced by the apparent longings to resume their relationship and enjoyed reading the race discussions instead!

Americanah has a large cast of characters, some of which appear and reappear briefly so keeping track of everyone wasn't always easy. I did read the book over just a few days and think that if I had taken much longer, I could have gotten very lost. As a white Brit I did occasionally cringe at spotting things I have done or said being pulled up by Adichie. She has a wonderfully sharp eye and I love her ability to create such realism on the page. There are so …

I was interested to see, when reading other reviews after having finished Americanah, that a lot of people didn't like the discussions and arguments about race or the imagined blog posts, preferring the Ifemelu-Obinze romance instead. Personally, once Ifemelu had left for America, I wasn't convinced by the apparent longings to resume their relationship and enjoyed reading the race discussions instead!

Americanah has a large cast of characters, some of which appear and reappear briefly so keeping track of everyone wasn't always easy. I did read the book over just a few days and think that if I had taken much longer, I could have gotten very lost. As a white Brit I did occasionally cringe at spotting things I have done or said being pulled up by Adichie. She has a wonderfully sharp eye and I love her ability to create such realism on the page. There are so many different people speaking here, yet none felt false or overdrawn. Ifemelu herself is a fantastic creation - a proud confident and emotional woman who even without her blog's anonymity seemed able to speak as she saw. I was irritated by the ease in which her blogs took off though. How many of us bloggers have really got 1000 views for a third post without spending a single minute on promotion?!