Review: Americanah

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An affecting love story at heart (and speaking of which, I really liked the ending monologue), but I think what this book gets most attention for is the observations and articles on American race relations written by the main character, a Nigerian immigrant who spends the better part of a decade adapting to life in America before moving back home. I'll admit at times that I thought these observations felt a little disjoint from the main plot thread (that is, the love story), but they're definitely a major component of this book, so they're worth addressing as part of the main product anyway.

To be honest, it feels weird reading this after the 2016 election, because looking at the way things are now, I feel like the people who would benefit the most from reading this are also the least likely to be receptive to the attitudes expressed in this book. I think it appeals really well to people like myself who are already inclined to be receptive to its messages-- but I mean honestly, a lot of the 'lessons about race for non-black Americans' have started to become 'common sense' for us the past few years, so a lot of this was basically regurgitating things I already knew, but at least done so in an easy to digest format and it's always useful to have that.

But others may well take issue with the attitude Ifemelu takes when she expresses these views, in a way that almost can feel condescending and judgmental to someone who doesn't already know or agree with these things. This was much moreso the case with her blog articles (randomly scattered throughout the book), but even in regular character interactions in the second half, there were moments where I had trouble accepting the conclusions Ifemelu herself would draw about people when she realized she didn't like them. Like, something in this scene didn't quite follow logically for me, and I feel like I'm missing a subtle undercurrent here from one or both sides, and did these characters even fully deserve the treatment that they got from her in return?

Well okay, maybe some of them did. But still, there were literally scenes that I had to re-read multiple times to get to that point, and it made me wonder how much effort others would be willing to expend, and moreover how much effort can we reasonably expect people to expend to understand each other when we're all frustrated at the same time. How do you effectively convey to another person whose American experience is so different from yours the magnitude and reality of that difference? How do you expect them to even be able to understand something they haven't experienced themselves?

But it's good to remember that not all of us have the luxury of time and convenience to even be able to think about how "well" we can explain this when black Americans in this country have had to deal with it far longer than many of us have even realized it existed. At the least, I appreciate this book for trying to start somewhere, with its own unique perspective at that. And it's not a bad place to start.