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A review by morgob
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4.0
I did enjoy this book. Maybe enjoy is too strong a word. This book made me feel a lot of things, but not many of them were good. It's a very contemporary novel, I guess I should say. Not so much in style, but in topics. Unhappy marriages, failed relationships, the life of an immigrant, depression. All very real things, which was a switch after reading fantasy for the last few books. That's not to say it was a bad book. I did enjoy reading it and after the first fifty pages or so, I fell right in. I just wanted so desperately to get out from that point on.
I'll start with the bad. This book made me feel very sad for a lot of different reasons. I have grown enough to realize that is not a good reason to give a book fewer stars. It took a while to find my stride with the story, if you get my meaning. It starts off with one character's perspective, and we don't get to hear the other character's story until well over halfway through. There are a lot of time skips, but those are pretty easy to catch on to. For me, the story was about Ifemelu. Obinze seems more like a background character, which is fine unless the author was trying to make it about both of them equally. Also, I read a review before starting this (mistake) that said it was written in vignettes, and that is not true at all. Definitely not vignettes here. At times, the writing was a bit slow, and towards the end I found myself skimming bits that weren't dialogue. It almost seemed to be too little too late for a lot of description. The first half or so, we don't get a lot of description. It's not until the last chunk of the book in Nigeria that is pretty detailed. It almost felt like a different story towards the end when the writing shifted.
Now onto the good. This book put me in the shoes of not one but two different immigrant stories, one in London and one in the United States. Both stories were heartbreaking to read. I think one of the most valuable parts of the book were the blog entries that Ifemelu wrote. They gave me a lot of things to think about regarding race and how we treat race. I know a lot of people say this book had little story and was just trying to be bits of lecture on race, but I don't think that way at all. I think it was a really convincing story about a woman coming to America and learning about race and racism, and since a lot of her time was spent in an academic setting, we get those conversations about race in a more academic way. I suppose that can maybe feel like a lecture, but to me it was more of an intellectual discussion. It's the same way with how people say the author is obsessed with Barack Obama because she included him so much. This takes place during the time period in which he ran for president and was elected, so it makes sense to include him in the story so much. It's part of the overarching story that has to do with an African woman in America learning about why the color of her skin matters, and also why the color of Obama's skin matters so much to so many people. I did also learn a lot more about a black person's experiences in this country. Not that I'm making a generalization that this is how every black person's experiences are, but I think the author did a good job showing quite a few different experiences of people of color, to show that not everyone is the same and not everyone experiences race the same way. It does make me want to read a whole lot more on race and more critical discussions of race and racism, because, after all, this is a fictional story, but it is a story based off of real life experiences.
I struggled a bit with Ifemelu. She does come off as very judgmental and even hateful, but I think that is honestly just who she is as a person. I don't think you have to completely like her because that's not how the world or people work. Were there parts of her I liked? Yes. But I did not like every aspect of her personality, which is okay because I think it just makes her more realistic and shows the author spent a lot of time thinking about her.
I am very glad I read this book and that it was on my summer reading list. It's one of those that will weigh on you for a while, but I think it's worth it. I really appreciated the story even though it does make me feel heavy inside.
I'll start with the bad. This book made me feel very sad for a lot of different reasons. I have grown enough to realize that is not a good reason to give a book fewer stars. It took a while to find my stride with the story, if you get my meaning. It starts off with one character's perspective, and we don't get to hear the other character's story until well over halfway through. There are a lot of time skips, but those are pretty easy to catch on to. For me, the story was about Ifemelu. Obinze seems more like a background character, which is fine unless the author was trying to make it about both of them equally. Also, I read a review before starting this (mistake) that said it was written in vignettes, and that is not true at all. Definitely not vignettes here. At times, the writing was a bit slow, and towards the end I found myself skimming bits that weren't dialogue. It almost seemed to be too little too late for a lot of description. The first half or so, we don't get a lot of description. It's not until the last chunk of the book in Nigeria that is pretty detailed. It almost felt like a different story towards the end when the writing shifted.
Now onto the good. This book put me in the shoes of not one but two different immigrant stories, one in London and one in the United States. Both stories were heartbreaking to read. I think one of the most valuable parts of the book were the blog entries that Ifemelu wrote. They gave me a lot of things to think about regarding race and how we treat race. I know a lot of people say this book had little story and was just trying to be bits of lecture on race, but I don't think that way at all. I think it was a really convincing story about a woman coming to America and learning about race and racism, and since a lot of her time was spent in an academic setting, we get those conversations about race in a more academic way. I suppose that can maybe feel like a lecture, but to me it was more of an intellectual discussion. It's the same way with how people say the author is obsessed with Barack Obama because she included him so much. This takes place during the time period in which he ran for president and was elected, so it makes sense to include him in the story so much. It's part of the overarching story that has to do with an African woman in America learning about why the color of her skin matters, and also why the color of Obama's skin matters so much to so many people. I did also learn a lot more about a black person's experiences in this country. Not that I'm making a generalization that this is how every black person's experiences are, but I think the author did a good job showing quite a few different experiences of people of color, to show that not everyone is the same and not everyone experiences race the same way. It does make me want to read a whole lot more on race and more critical discussions of race and racism, because, after all, this is a fictional story, but it is a story based off of real life experiences.
I struggled a bit with Ifemelu. She does come off as very judgmental and even hateful, but I think that is honestly just who she is as a person. I don't think you have to completely like her because that's not how the world or people work. Were there parts of her I liked? Yes. But I did not like every aspect of her personality, which is okay because I think it just makes her more realistic and shows the author spent a lot of time thinking about her.
I am very glad I read this book and that it was on my summer reading list. It's one of those that will weigh on you for a while, but I think it's worth it. I really appreciated the story even though it does make me feel heavy inside.