Review: Americanah

Synopsis

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?

Review 

Once in a while there comes a book that changes your life and for me this is it. The cover is simple, beautiful in its simplicity, its not hiding behind pretty colors or models, its as if the author wants you to look past the surface, daring you to take a chance. I brought this book a while ago, struggled to get past the first page however last week as I gallivanting around Surrey (on a job), freezing and wet from the unstoppable rain, I picked it once again from a sea of books on my over crowded Kindle. It took me by surprise this time with a different frame of mind I couldn't put it down. It is based Ifemelu and Obinze (names I struggled with), they are childhood sweethearts and they are in love but when Ifemelu moves to America, their relationship is tested and inevitably ends. In America, Ifemelu struggles with race, love and becoming a woman in her own right but along the way she discovers her own sexuality, her own persona and most importantly finds out who she wants to be and who she wants to be with. Obinze on the other hand is married with a child also struggled with his mundane life, his lackluster wife and longs for his long lost childhood sweet heart. 

The author is a brilliant storyteller, a literal genius with  a fine and beautiful way of shaping the story.  Americanah can easily be typecast as a book about race since race is on the surface the main component however after careful consideration, Americanah is about immigration, love and to an extent the state of being Limbo, knowing that you can never fit into a particular society or country, but trying nonetheless.  

Although I loved this book, there was an underlying thought that popped into my brain every once in while that because the book was written for a foreign audience, there is an assumption that every detail is required for example the vivid descriptions of hair salons, details I as a black woman did not really need or want as I am very familiar with such hair dressers, the author assumes that her audience is clueless which I found insulting. I also felt as though she was describing Nigeria to Europeans, not to Africans who understand the mannerisms and the weather and the little things that make Africa the great continent it is.

 Apart from that, I thought it was a wonderful story told beautifully. It thought provoking, addressing issues that I as a black woman face every day. Americanah changed my life in that it made me think about who I was and where I fit in the England. It is not just another book about race, it is a book about understanding yourself as a black woman in a multicultural society and how others see you.