Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
New York : Anchor Books, a division of Random House LLC, 2014.
588 p. ; 21 cm.
The thing I loved about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah is the author's ability to subtly recreate in her fiction those nuanced threads of race, identity, class, politics (and longing) that make up the patchwork of cultures in a country. It makes me think of the way that scientists sometimes identify invisible particles by studying their tracks.
When her main character, Ifemelu, is in New Haven with her Black Yale professor partner the reader can feel the bubble of intellectual snobbery and conformity that one often encounters around academics. Adiche does this while also describing the overarching issues of racism that define the US. When her main character is back in Nigeria, Adiche's immerses us in a world of crass materialism, pretension, and the endless/meaningless pursuit of wealth.
There is so much one could say about this novel. It touches on issues of race, wealth, internationalism, immigration, romance, family, corruption, and appearance v. reality. Adiche does all this while also telling a great tale of young love, exile, disillusion, return, and love pursued. It's a long read, but a great tale. This is a book that I could see recommending to students who know of Adiche through her short book, We Should All Be Feminists. I also would recommend it to students interested in fiction about contemporary African life since much of the novel occurs in Lagos, Nigeria.
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