Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Book Review

After I ripped off the UPS packaging, the first thing I noticed about Americanah was the cover art by its American publisher, Knopf. My first thought was "What is this?" If you grew up in Nigeria you can remember how we would wrap our textbooks in old calendar pages so that the cover would remain as good as new no matter how long the book was used or how badly the book was handled. Sometimes when there were no old calendars we used brown paper that came in sheets. You would cut a piece large enough to hide the entire book cover and leave a little extra brown paper to fold and tape to the inside of the book cover. Then we would write the name of the book on the brown paper with a black marker pen. That's my impression of the cover of the American edition of Americanah (pictured). A brown paper book cover that is simply a jacket for my hardcover copy. A brown paper book cover that is grossly unimaginative and underwhelming. Farafina, Adichie's Nigerian publisher, has a much better cover in comparison. I'm done judging Americanah by its cover. Let's proceed.

Americanah is centered around our protagonist, Ifemelu, and her love interest Obinze. For her luck in scoring a visa, a much prized ticket out of the heat and dysfunction of Nigeria, to the United States of America, Ifemelu's friends tease her about becoming an "Americanah". She gets to America and is disappointed by what she finds. Suddenly she is conscious of the color of her skin. Conscious of being "black", a thing that never crossed her mind in Nigeria. She experiences culture shock but there is no time to stand around acting bewildered. There's school to attend, she has bills to pay, and most importantly she needs to find a job. Somewhere along the line she discontinues communication with Obinze, and begins dating other guys. She dates Curt first. He's white, and way out of her league but he adores her. He's a godsend to her in a lot of ways but she wrecks their relationship. Concerning her relationship with Curt, she tells her friend Ginika, "There was a feeling I wanted to feel that I did not feel." Along comes Blaine. He's black, and well educated, a professor at Yale. He has his flaws but he loves her. Their relationship lasts a while before it hits the rocks. After thirteen years in America, she packs her bags and heads home, abandoning her profitable blog, and all the comforts of the western world. Back in Lagos Obinze is married to a beautiful wife and they have a little daughter, Buchi. He makes really good money and life is comfortable but he's not happy. They are both dissatisfied with what they have, and they gravitate towards each other to find that thing they can't find elsewhere.

One of the reasons I love this book is because I was able to relate to it. As a Nigerian who has lived in America for quite a while all of this is familiar. There were moments when I nodded in agreement to the many truths about living abroad, other times I shook my head knowingly, other times I laughed out loud. Adichie knows. Americanah is a huge lot more memorable than Adichie's third book The Thing Around Your Neck but it does not trump Purple Hibiscus, neither does it come close to the glory of Half Of A Yellow Sun (You can find my thoughts on Purple Hibiscus and Half Of A Yellow Sun here and here). I could quote Americanah all day:

"Ifemelu wished the dog were kept outside, which was where dogs belonged."

"...they did not say 'Sorry'. They said "Are you okay?' when it was obvious that you were not. And when you said 'Sorry' to them when they choked or tripped or encountered misfortune, they replied, eyes wide with surprise, 'Oh, it's not your fault'."

"To be given money in the Nigerian manner was to have it pushed into your hands, fists closed, eyes averted from yours, your effusive thanks - it had to be effusive - waved away, and you certainly did not count the money, sometimes did not even look at it until you were alone."

"She might have never visited her father's country, but he was convinced at that moment of her Africanness; how else would she be able to fling herself to the ground with that perfect dramatic flourish?"

"...she felt suddenly, guiltily grateful that she had a blue American passport in her bag. It shielded her from choicelessness."

"That girl never understood the first rule of life in this Lagos. You do not marry the man you love. You marry the man who can best maintain you."

I must admit that by page 90 I began thinking this was just a love story. Later on I realized it's also about race. Ifemelu's blog, "Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black",  is smart. Adichie's observation of the racial dynamics in America is eagle-eyed, and unvarnished. A while ago she noted that she was reading mostly British books during her childhood, and it wasn't until Achebe's work that she realized that people like her could exist in literature. All four of her books show that she has given back in the same way Achebe gave to her. We see ourselves in her works of literature. We see people we can identify with, persons whose concerns and worries are relatable. Characters whose ways of thinking we understand because they are our ways of thinking. Adichie is smart. Her prose is beautiful. It's like the late Chinua Achebe said, "Adichie came almost fully made".

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I visited Chimamanda Adichie & Chinua Achebe's old house on the University of Nigeria, Nsukka campus! Read my post HERE!
[Image via Goodreads]

"AMERiCANAH" Lagos Book Tour Kicks Off April 27th

"AMERiCANAH", Adichie's Fourth Novel Arrives This April!

Farafina is proud to announce the Nigerian edition of AMERICANAH, the highly anticipated novel by award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Release date is April 21, 2013 in Lagos. In the months following the release, the author will go on a national book tour with stops in major cities across Nigeria.

ABOUT THE BOOK
AMERICANAH is a fearless novel set in Nigeria, England and America. It boldly takes on issues both big and small: love, race, home, hair, Obama, immigration, and self-invention. In the early 1990s, under Abacha’s government, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. People are leaving the country if they can and Ifemelu leaves for America, where alongside defeats and triumphs, she confronts the inevitable question of race. Obinze, unable to join her in America, goes on to live as an illegal immigrant in London. After several years they have both achieved success -- Ifemelu as a popular blogger about race, and Obinze as a wealthy man in the now democratic Nigeria. When Ifemelu decides to return to Nigeria, she and Obinze must both make the biggest decision of their lives.

REVIEWS

“Fearless. A towering achievement...From the place of Africans in the race politics in America, to love across continents, AMERICANAH dares to bring us a world of a confident and self-made woman making her way in these complicated times. This is the Africa of our future. Sublime,

powerful and the most political of Chimamanda's novels. She continues to blaze the way forward.”  -Binyavanga Wainaina, Caine Prize winner and author of "One Day I Will Write About This Place". 

“Adichie is a word-by-word virtuoso with a sure grasp of social conundrums in Nigeria, East Coast America, and England; an omnivorous eye for resonant detail; a gift for authentic characters; pyrotechnic wit; and deep humanitarianism. AMERICANAH is a courageous, world-class novel about independence, integrity, community, and love—and what it takes to become a ‘full human being.’” - Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association

"As she did so masterfully with Half of a Yellow Sun, Adichie paints on a grand canvas, boldly and confidently…This is a very funny, very warm and moving intergenerational epic that confirms Adiche’s virtuosity, boundless empathy and searing social acuity." - Dave Eggers, Pulitzer prize finalist, and author of "What Is The What". 

“Adichie’s great gift is that she has always brought us into the territory of the previously unexplored. She writes about that which others have kept silent. AMERICANAH is no exception. This is not just a story that unfolds across three different continents, it is also a keenly observed examination of race, identity and belonging in the global landscapes of Africans and Americans.” - Colum McCann, IMPAC award winner and author of "Let The Great World Spin". 

AMERICANAH can be pre-ordered by emailing orders@kachifo.com, calling +2348077364217 or tweeting us: @farafinabooks

Price: Hardback N5000, Paperback N2500.

Upon release, AMERICANAH will be available in all major bookstores across the country.

Details of national book tour will be announced later.

This press release was provided by Farafina Books

305 Marguerite Cartwright Avenue, University of Nigeria Nsukka

Does the address ring a bell? Even here on the Nsukka campus of the University of Nigeria, very few students can readily recognize the address. Some time ago, that was the house address of Chinua Achebe, the internationally celebrated writer of the classic “Things Fall Apart”. The interesting bit is after he moved out of the building, the Adichie family moved into the residence with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She grew up and is now the author of two wonderful books - Purple Hibiscus (Winner of the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Best First Book Prize) and Half of a Yellow Sun (Winner of the coveted Orange Prize for fiction). Imagine that! Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie lived in the same house at different points in time. This coincidence has intrigued thousands of fans including my colleagues and I, and so we set off one evening to see the building that at various times sheltered two of the greatest literary influences on our generation.

Eromo Egbejule, Onyeka Nwelue and I walked down Marguerite Cartwright Avenue, searching for house number 305. Looking eagerly from one side of the street to the other, we increased our pace, perhaps individually hoping to be the first to spot the house. We got confused at a point because the number of the house was not clear and so through the wire mesh, I asked the two men taking down a telephone pole if the house was number 305. Both of them had no knowledge of what number the house was, they were just there to work. We crossed the street and knocked on house number 306 to enquire. A young woman answered the door, stared curiously at us after we queried her and then pointed at the very house we were coming from. And so we went back across the street this time with our eyes out for interesting details.

We walked to the house slowly and my eyes ran over everything. The house seemed to be undergoing renovation, as there was a heap of broken asbestos ceiling boards in the corner next to plenty pieces of wood. We walked up to the front door, exchanged glances and then not sure what sort of welcome to expect I knocked.

We waited a while then a young boy of about ten answered. Before I could ask him to fetch an older family member, Eromo recognised him as the younger brother of a friend and sent him to fetch her. When Chinaza Madukwe surfaced my hope of getting a guided tour both inside and around the historic house rose but was dashed seconds later when Chinaza said she couldn’t let us into the house, neither would she let us walk around the yard. I was crushed. Disappointed, we resorted to asking her questions. “Did you meet any piece of furniture in the house?”, “Have any of the previous inhabitants visited?” She replied negatively. “Have you read Purple Hibiscus?”, “Have you read Half of a Yellow Sun?” Her answer to these two questions surprised me. I stared incredulously at her when she said she hadn’t read Purple Hibiscus and that she had read only a little of Half of a Yellow Sun.

She did not reveal much personal information. In summary, her family moved in about a year ago. Her father is a Professor of Agric Extension and the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture here in the University of Nigeria. While Chinaza conversed with Eromo, Onyeka and I looked around the side of the house. We stood on the lawn very close to the car port, and I stared eagerly at what had once been Chinua Achebe’s backyard and then later Chimamanda Adichie’s. While Eromo and Onyeka discussed similarities between Aunty Ifeoma’s house and this house, my roving eyes fell on the bright red mangoes at the very top of the tree in the backyard. I wondered if Chimamanda had ever climbed that tree. Then I remembered when she mentioned how she and other kids played in the neighbourhood in her essay “Tiny Wonders”. I turned to the street. It was empty. It was evening so I expected that by now kids would be hanging out, riding bikes, playing and yelling at each other. There was no such activity. I asked Chinaza about the neighbourhood kids and she said most of the families who lived on the street had big kids who had left home.

Our sojourn was declared over after a while and the three of us walked away from the dull white house towards the empty street. By the pile of wood, so inconspicuous I nearly missed it, was a plant with large red flowers and I picked it. It thought it looked a little like the flower on the cover of my copy of Purple Hibiscus (British publisher). After examining the petals I sniffed it. It had no scent. I dropped it and went on.

As I walked back the way I came, I ticked off all the similarities Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie shared that I could remember, the petty and the significant. Chinua is an indigene of Anambra State, Chimamanda is an indigene of Anambra State, but from a different area; Both their names begin with the same three letters “Chi”; Middle names not inclusive, they both have the same initials C.A, C.A; they both called 305 Marguerite Cartwright Avenue, University of Nigeria, Nsukka Campus home at one time in their lives; they both currently reside in the United States and they are both very important literary personalities in Nigeria and beyond its borders.

In a few days, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) will celebrate 50 years of THINGS FALL APART. The theme: Telling the world the African story. It kicked off 6 days ago in Lagos on the 12th of April and will end April 26th here on the Nsukka campus of the University of Nigeria. The keynote speaker is Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and the special guest of honour is the remarkable Nelson Mandela. People are expected to arrive Nigeria from various corners of the earth to celebrate what Chinua Achebe has done for African literature. If you are as interested as I am in Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie, when you arrive you will stop, even if it's briefly, and stare curiously at house number 305 on Marguerite Cartwright Avenue, Nsukka Campus, University of Nigeria.

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READ Onyeka Nwelue's version of this trip here
READ Eromo Egbejule's version of this trip here
READ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's personal account of family life at 305 Marguerite Cartwright Avenue, University of Nigeria, Nsukka here.
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UPDATE: Celebration of 50 Years of Things Fall Apart by the Association of Nigerian Authors
Post includes photos, quotes, and the keynote address by Professor Ernest Emenyonu

Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie - My Thoughts

Half of a Yellow Sun easily outshines the profusion of books published in the year 2006. Despite of the gravity of issues Chimamanda deals with here, she soothes the readers’ soul with her witty writing.

Half of a Yellow Sun hits you hard with terrific imagery describing suffering, the magnanimity of a million losses, tears and immeasurable pain; then drains you, leaving you wondering if you could have survived that period, and how your parents and grandparents did. It will have you futilely hoping such horrors never cross anyone’s path.

It's beautiful, soul stirring and poignant. Adichie leaves her characters emotions fully explored.

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I visited Chimamanda Adichie & Chinua Achebe's old house on the University of Nigeria, Nsukka campus! Read my post HERE!

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie- My Thoughts

I had heard so much about Chimamanda Adichie's books (Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun) that I decided to purchase them and see what all the buzz was about. I haven't regretted that decision. Her books have affected me and the way I write. After reading Purple Hibiscus, I penned this down:

None of the reviews I read before beginning Purple Hibiscus prepared me for this phenomenal novel. An avid reader, I have never come across a book this powerful. I fell out of its pages sapped of my strength and close to tears. "Poignant" doesn't quite describe the story, "breathing" doesn't capture the characters, "exquisite" in no way describes the way Adichie writes. I have never seen anything like it. Adichie writes the way I dream of writing when I dream. Only The Times review manages to capture Purple Hibiscus - 'Immensely powerful'.

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I visited Chimamanda Adichie & Chinua Achebe's old house on the University of Nigeria, Nsukka campus! Read my post HERE!