"Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a book you will either love or put down after the first few pages. The prose is beautiful and the plot slow-burning, so if you're in the mood for a boom-boom-boom James Patterson thriller, you might not have the patience for "Americanah". And yet, it's well worth digging into it for the author's keen observations and spot-on comments on the life of an immigrant, race, and culture. In a way, a more descriptive title might have been "Africanah", because the novel provides a glimpse of the life in Nigeria, not to mention hair rotines for "curly" hair.
Blurb:
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.
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