Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

9 reviews

mackenziem12's review against another edition

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4.5


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mildlypretentiousreader's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“Racism should never have happened and so you don’t get a cookie for reducing it.”

“Relaxing your hair is like being in prison. You’re caged in.”

Americanah chronologies the lives of Nigerian immigrants, Ifemelu and Obinze, an engaged couple. Ifemelu legally enters the United States of America, while Obinze swiftly becomes an undocumented immigrant in London, England. The couple is soon separated by unforeseen circumstances and must rely on themselves to adjust to their new lives. Wrapped in the romance of the two main characters, the readers are thrown into the lives of numerous African immigrants as they navigate America and the UK. 

An impressive number of issues are touched upon in Americanah. We watch the African immigrants grapple with the foreign concept of race and adjust and adapt their thinking towards other black ethnic groups in America and the UK. We watch how the pressures placed on immigrant teens can wreak havoc on their personal lives, resulting in suicide attempts. We witness the devaluation and degradation of black men and the over-sexualization of black women. We read about the victims of colorism and the constant and insistent hold texurism has on white society. All of these discussions are handled with nuance and grace. 

I was not too drawn in by the plot of romance between Ifemelu and Obinze. I found it uninteresting and rather predictable. I also found that almost all the characters sucked, one way or another. Many lacked intersectionality and could not look past their own opinions. Others were habitual cheaters who lacked empathy. I was more into the political aspect of the Americanah than anything. 

If I recall correctly, there were also mentions of Asian people that appeared to uphold the  “model minority myth.” This rubbed me the wrong. 

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liblady0308's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book will stay with me for a long time. It was really eye-opening, beautifully written, with poignant observations of the world and love.

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katherinemonroe's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This was a great read, though perhaps a bit slow to get through. I was assigned this book for summer reading, but I’m definitely glad to have read it. Adichie’s writing is honest and simple without being plain (i.e. not overly pretentious). It’s very readable and well-written, with plenty of astute observations regarding race, class, gender, and love in both America and Nigeria. The main character, Ifemelu, is a self-assured young Nigerian woman from a working class family who comes to the United States to study. She is likable, compelling, realistic, and relatable. Although the novel touches on many relavent social issues, I would categorize it mainly as realistic contemporary fiction. The plot follows Ifemelu (and her former boyfriend, Obinze,) in her experiences in America, her romantic relationships, friendships, family relationships, studies, and day-to-day experiences. Overall, I think it’s a book that everyone should read. My only complaint would be that the ending (though it is a satisfying, albeit a little predictable conclusion) felt a little less nuanced than the rest of the book.

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the_literarylinguist's review

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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tachyondecay's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense slow-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


Unlike Half of a Yellow Sun, which is a historical novel, Americanah is a more literary offering. Adichie examines how where we live—where we grow up, where we work, where we find relationships—affects how we relate to other people. In particular, this is a book about race and Blackness as a construct of American society.


Trigger warnings in this book for anti-Black racism, anti-Semitism, suicide, infidelity, sexual harrassment.


Ifemelu and Obinze grow up together in Nigeria, each other’s first loves. She moves to the United States; he moves to England. They struggle to adapt to their new countries—or rather, their new countries try to adapt them. Ifemelu meets with more success, albeit perhaps at greater cost. She becomes, in the eyes of some of her fellow Nigerians, an eponymous Americanah: someone who adapts too well to her American setting, so that she isn’t fully Nigerian any more. Obinze has a rougher time with his immigration status, eventually returning to Nigeria years before Ifemelu finds her way back there. Adichie tells the bulk of the story in a flashback mode—we begin with Ifemelu leaving the United States for Nigeria, and then we flash back to hers and Obinze’s childhood together. We watch them grow and grow apart and see the trials they face before they are reunited. But even then, finding happiness is far from assured.


There’s a lot about this novel that isn’t my thing. The on/off romance, the relationships between the characters … this is why I usually prefer genre fiction, which offers more to its plot than a narrator telling me why a character is unhappy at this point in their life. But what makes Americanah a little more interesting, of course, is the way Adichie weaves nuances of race throughout the story.


While in the United States, Ifemelu writes a blog called Raceteenth, where she teaches non-American Blacks about life in America. In this way, Adichie creates a distinction that many non-Black Americans (or Canadians, in my case) might not think about: Black people who grew up in the United States are quite different from Black people who immigrate from elsewhere. Ifemelu points out that, until she came to the United States, she didn’t have any conception of race or of Blackness. What Adichie is doing here is gently explaining to readers this idea of racialization. Someone is racialized when their race, as determined by our society, is the minority in a given place. Consider how race versus ethnicity functions: in the United States, Ifemelu is seen as Black—she identifies more closely with other African Black people more so than African Americans—and her ethnicity as Igbo is largely irrelevant. In contrast, when she returns to Nigeria, her Blackness is entirely unremarkable, and her status as Igbo matters more.


So, I obviously can’t speak for how Black people of various origins would interpret this novel. As I white woman in Canada, I wanted to observe the way Adichie discusses race, and particularly Ifemelu’s experience of race in Nigeria. There are two white characters who caught my attention: Kimberly and Laura. Kimberly hires Ifemelu to be a babysitter/nanny for her two children. She does charity/NGO work related to Africa, and she is one portrait of a well-meaning, progressive white person: she always tries to say the right thing, try to be respectful of Ifemelu as a person—but as Ifemelu observes, she is anxious to please in this way. Laura, Kimberly’s friend, is another portrayal of a progressive white person: she’s too confident of her own wokeness, too ready to make pronouncements that Ifemelu can belie from her own experiences, offending Laura’s white fragility in the process. I like how Adichie carefully shapes these distinctive white women to show us various ways that white women treat Black women (and in particular, African women) in the United States.


This richness of the interactions of characters of various races and racializations is what makes Americanah so interesting, at least to me. There are many other examples: Ifemelu’s interactions with the other African women who work at the salon she visits; Obinze’s relationships to other Nigerians who go to England to make their fortune; Aunty Uju’s tenuous attempts to find another husband, to raise her son well in the United States. And so on. I wasn’t all that bothered by the underlying romance between Ifemelu and Obinze, but I was very happy to explore all these nuances of race.


A little long and drags a little in parts, Americanah is nevertheless thoughtful and quite successful at what it sets out to do. It showcases Adichie’s endearing talent at creating characters who move beyond the single story, as she cautions against in her TED talk. And it remains relevant in a post-Obama America, which is not a post-racial America like some hoped or pretended. As we challenge and dismantle white supremacy, it’s worth remembering that race (and in particular, Blackness) is not a universal, monolithic idea. Like any social construct, it is real, but its meanings and barriers and boundaries are fluid, and that must be taken into account.

Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.

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arlangrey17's review against another edition

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challenging emotional slow-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I don't know how I feel about this quite yet. The writing was lovely. But I wasn't a huge fan of the end. 

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arminam's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful relaxing medium-paced
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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hannahlamond's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

One of the best book I've read this year! An amazingly written exploration of race, sexuality and gender. Most books of this length I find hard to keep going with, or think they could've been edited down, but this book deserved every page. The characters were so nuanced and believable and it gave such an insight into life as a black woman in America (as a white women this is a great book to help educate yourself on racism and black experiences). My only tiiiiny complaint was that I didn't find the romance very believable. I understand it was used as a plot device to explore wider themes but would have liked to believe in their love story slightly more, and the ending also felt rushed in contrast to the rest of the book taking it's time so well. Would 100% recommend to everyone though and can't wait to read more of Adichie's work.  

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