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I really admired how this book balanced so many things: polemic with very human stories, Africa with America (with even some Europe thrown in), inwards and outwards criticism, humor and the addressing of serious issues... I also admire that she doesn't take the easy route to build sympathy: Obinze isn't a fleeing anything that's generally accepted as terrible when he stays in London illegally, but just a lack of options - and she makes you understand how terrible that can be, too.
But I also simp ...more
But I also simp ...more

I'm very late to the party on this - it was on my to-read list for ages and I never got to it. I think I expected it to be depressing. But it's completely engrossing - the characters feel very real, and I couldn't put it down. As Ifemelu says of Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter, "It's real literature, the kind of human story people will read in two hundred years." (Note to self: read more Graham Greene.) Americanah is that kind of human story.
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Jul 23, 2014
Nicole
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Nov 28, 2014
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Nikki
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May 18, 2016
Kate Andrews
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Jul 10, 2016
Colleen
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Nov 09, 2016
Patris
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Feb 21, 2017
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Lindsey
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Mar 16, 2017
Obo H.
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Apr 16, 2017
Meredith
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