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awalkinthebooks 's review for:
Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes about love, relationships, and multi-culturalism with such maturity. Moreover, I found myself thinking about the other works this novel is in conversation with: The Great Gatsby regarding dreams and the past, the works of Jane Austen regarding social class and love, and Things Fall Apart regarding ambition, colonialism, exile, immigration, return, and the formation and embracing of one's true self. Not to mention the conversations it has with current American discourse on race. Adichie is the novelist for our generation, expressing what these things mean in the 21st century so beautifully.
So why didn't I give this book 4 stars? Honestly? Because Purple Hibiscus was better...and I think this would have made a better story had it been about 150 pages shorter. Several sections of the book seemed to exist only for the author to get something off of her mind - it detracted from the character growth and even muddied some of the social commentary. I'm not saying it was bad (it really wasn't, it was amazing...I'm just saying that it could have been even better with more heartless editing down.
So why didn't I give this book 4 stars? Honestly? Because Purple Hibiscus was better...and I think this would have made a better story had it been about 150 pages shorter. Several sections of the book seemed to exist only for the author to get something off of her mind - it detracted from the character growth and even muddied some of the social commentary. I'm not saying it was bad (it really wasn't, it was amazing...I'm just saying that it could have been even better with more heartless editing down.