Americanah in PopSugar Reading Challenge en Español

Feb 19, 2017 Glire rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017-popsugar-reading-challenge, inmigracion

2017 PopSugar Reading Challenge #05: A book by a person of color.

Leí este libro hace un par de meses como parte de una lectura grupal en el PopSugar Reading Challenge y durante todo este tiempo estuve debatiendo acerca de como escribir esta reseña. Esta novela es un símbolo para muchos y quería que estuviese a la altura. Finalmente me di cuenta que nunca podría escribir una reseña a la altura de esas expectativas porque no las comparto. Para mí, Americanah está sobrevalorada.

¿Que es una

2017 PopSugar Reading Challenge #05: A book by a person of color.

Leí este libro hace un par de meses como parte de una lectura grupal en el PopSugar Reading Challenge y durante todo este tiempo estuve debatiendo acerca de como escribir esta reseña. Esta novela es un símbolo para muchos y quería que estuviese a la altura. Finalmente me di cuenta que nunca podría escribir una reseña a la altura de esas expectativas porque no las comparto. Para mí, Americanah está sobrevalorada.

¿Que es una historia universal de como la cultura es capaz de afectar nuestra visión del nacionalismo, emigración, racismo, sexualidad e, inclusive, la percepción de la propia identidad? Sí, seguro. Y se nota que Chimamanda ha dedicado tiempo a pensar y analizar cada tópico, resultando en un estudio concienzudo e inteligente.

El problema es que esperaba algo más que eso. Esperaba una historia de la Nigeria contemporánea real. ¡Pero es una historia de la Nigeria real!, exclamarán algunos y, pues, la verdad es que no. Podríamos sustituir "Nigeria" por cualquier otro país Tercermundista y nada cambiaría demasiado. Porque todos compartimos la misma percepción de la economía corrupta (view spoiler), la frustración de la pobreza (view spoiler), la visión del nacionalismo americano (view spoiler), el ansia de libertad y las complejidades de la emigración (view spoiler).

¿Dónde quedaron los pequeños detalles que podrían habernos sumergido de lleno en ese formidable país? ¿Dónde quedó la fuerza de convicción de Chimamanda? Voy a decirles donde: perdidos entre toda la autoglorificación de Ifemelu. Ella siempre tiene razón, no tú. Sus opiniones siempre son las correctas, no las tuyas. Sus pensamientos siempre son más profundos e inteligentes. Su moral más elevada. Sus problemas más graves y validos. Y te lo hace saber, una y otra y otra vez. A todo lo largo del libro, hasta el punto del hastío.

A esto se le suma, además, otros dos grandes inconvenientes:

1) Los personajes secundarios existen por y para Ifemelu. Sus vidas solo importan en torno a ella, y no se les da ningún cierre o propósito una vez cumplieron con su "utilidad". Lo que nos deja con varios agujeros y subtramas inconclusas.
2) El hecho de que una vez que Ifemelu se muda a Estados Unidos todo se lee como Sex & the City, pero enfocado en la raza en vez del sexo (Race & the City?). Tenemos "profundas" entradas de blog inspiradas en la raza, su vida en la ciudad y el amor, con todo y un Aiden, el novio perfecto que la ama por sobre todas las cosas pero al cual (view spoiler)[engaña (hide spoiler)] y un Mr. Big, ese amor "real" que desafía el tiempo y las circunstancias. Solo faltaron las amigas pero, seamos honestos, eso es culpa total de la personalidad de Ifemelu.

Es evidente que Chimamanda tiene mucho que decir sobre temas actuales y relevantes. Es una lastima que no se haya atrevido a hacerlo desde un angulo más personal (un ensayo en vez de una novela, tal vez) en el que sus propios personajes no se interpusieran en su camino. ...more

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Jul 08, 2017 Paloma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, reading-challenge-2017, 2017-popsugar-reading-challenge, reviewed-reseñados, literatura-africana

“You could have just said Ngozi is your tribal name and Ifemelu is your jungle name and throw in one more as your spiritual name. They’ll believe all kinds of shit about Africa.” -Americanah

Discovering African literature through the work of Chimamanda has been an amazing experience –a world unknown and yet not so different from the problems and concerns that we face in Latin America. Americanah was quite a revelation not only because it is a good novel –in terms of the writing style and the stru “You could have just said Ngozi is your tribal name and Ifemelu is your jungle name and throw in one more as your spiritual name. They’ll believe all kinds of shit about Africa.” -Americanah

Discovering African literature through the work of Chimamanda has been an amazing experience –a world unknown and yet not so different from the problems and concerns that we face in Latin America. Americanah was quite a revelation not only because it is a good novel –in terms of the writing style and the structure– but also because it addresses current political and social issues that most societies worldwide face. First, we find the two main characters –Ifemelu and Obinze– growing up on Nigeria and living in a society where there is always the risk of political unrest and corruption. Ngozi describes the Nigerian society, moving ahead but still dealing with third world problems. Then, the threat becomes real and both Ifemelu and Obinze, young lovers, should leave their country and look for other opportunities elsewhere (how many times we, Latin Americans, have also faced this situation?) That is when their ways part, and she ends up in the United States while Obinze goes to the United Kingdom –they separate for over 15 years.

Then, their experiences become rather different. In the novel, it is definitely the voice of Ifemelu the one that stands out because I assume Chimamanda was eager to describe the American experience for an immigrant. It amazes me how many of the things describes by Ifemelu are familiar to things that one, as a Latin American, might have experience and which is namely, racism. Because, just as the recent events of August 2017 have shown with the protests of white supremacists, racism is still alive in the United States. Ifemelu as Nigerian, as African, had never been aware she was black until she went to the US; she wasn’t are it was wrong to use to world ‘nigger’ to address others, simply because being black was the norm in Africa. In the US, the history of slavery weighs heavily in the society just as the shadow of racism does, and everyone gets easily offended –either American blacks or American whites.

Ifemelu becomes a famous blogger about being African in the States and about what she learns on racism and through the book there are excerpts from her blog, which are small essays in which I think we more clearly find Chmamanda’s opinion. The texts are at sometimes satirical, but full of truths about the U.S. experience. Personally, I would have liked to read more of these thoughts, not in the novel though but perhaps on a collection of essays, because as I said at the beginning of the review, Americanah includes stories that most of the people that have lived or travelled to the U.S. for some time, understand:

“Hispanic means the frequent companions of American blacks in poverty rankings, Hispanic means a slight step above American Blacks in the American race ladder, Hispanic means the chocolate-skinned woman from Peru, Hispanic means the indigenous people of Mexico. Hispanic means the biracial-looking folks from the Dominican Republic. Hispanic means the paler folks from Puerto Rico. Hispanic also means the blond, blue-eyed guide from Argentina. All you need to be is Spanish-speaking but not from Spain and voliá, you’re a race called Hispanic”.

What I also enjoyed greatly from the book is that, regardless of the fact that this novel contains a lot of political and social critique and comments, it is in no way a book that tries to teach you or convince you of something. Chimamanda is able to perfectly blend elements that make the story able to convey a strong and interesting political opinion while being a literary piece. It is probably through Obinze that we find that human perspective on hope, loss, “choicelessness” and the turns of fate. There is also definitely, a love story there –of a love that does not fades away with time – but for some reason, this wasn’t the most interesting part for me (considering I am a hopeless romantic). Perhaps it was because, in this area, I hated Ifemelu (she was basically a bitch towards Obinze) and her behavior, when it came to relationships was erratic and childish. Then again, how many people are great at the professional level but keep messing up their personal lives? Ifemelu was the tough one in the relation, while Obinze was more sensible.

In all, I enjoyed Americanah for the interesting way it presents difficult social issues in the United States, Africa (and the world) and because it is a novel that shows the desires and hopes of the soul –love, deception, loss, nostalgia, and the fact that we can outgrow our fears and move ahead. There are some passages of the novel which are outstanding as I believe they are common to everybody’s experience:

“…she had begun, finally, to grasp the power books had over him. His longing for Ibadan because of ‘Ibadan’ had puzzled her; how could a string of words make a person ache for a place he did not know?” ...more

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Mar 04, 2019 Eliana Rivero rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

"Americanah" es una historia de amor entre dos personajes, Ifemelu y Obinze, que se desarrolla en Nigeria, Londres y Estados Unidos. Esta premisa que parece un poco básica, conlleva a un montón de cuestionamientos sociales y personales ante las condiciones de vida que les toca vivir (ya sea por destino o qué) a nuestros protagonistas.

Me gustaron los personajes, aunque me parece que los masculinos son demasiado meh (Obinze es en exceso "perfecto"). Ifemelu me gusta más, porque es contradictoria, ...more

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Jun 28, 2020 eri b.❀ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, cazacapitulos2020, stars-5

“You know what I have felt for so long? As if I was waiting to be happy.”

Americanah has to be one of the most beautiful and impactful stories I have read in my life. I have to say that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has a smart, tactful yet still critical way to portray different issues, especially about Nigeria and race, but I don't want my review to focus solely on the how technically beautiful this book was when there are so many things to love on it.

Still, I do need to make that emphasis beca

“You know what I have felt for so long? As if I was waiting to be happy.”

Americanah has to be one of the most beautiful and impactful stories I have read in my life. I have to say that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has a smart, tactful yet still critical way to portray different issues, especially about Nigeria and race, but I don't want my review to focus solely on the how technically beautiful this book was when there are so many things to love on it.

Still, I do need to make that emphasis because Americanah is impossibly sharp in a way that won't leave you unchanged. It forces you to realize things that you might have not been aware before but certainly exist, but not with an agenda: it wants you to think and think and think and the way it manages to do so it's absolutely brilliant. There are many, many good lessons in this book but I will talk about the one I needed to hear the most: the oversimplification of African lives by non-African people, putting a thousand of different experiences and upbringings in a single box. The way *we* easily think about Africa as a whole, generalizing because we didn't take the time to properly learn about lives that are not our own, and how foolish and hurtful this mentality is.

I also loved the commentary of being American Black and Non-American Black, the big differences against the small intersections of these two groups of people. For a while, I had struggled to pinpoint why I couldn't like most of the books by Mexican-American people that talked about the Mexican identity, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie managed to capture very well this uncomfortability: how much it is assumed that we have many things in common when the reality is that we have lived very different lives for many years, and our experiences are just not shared because of the colour of our skin or the similarity of our last names.

Alexa, and the other guests, and perhaps even Georgina, all understood the fleeing from war, from the kind of poverty that crushed human souls, but they would not understand the need to escape from the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness. They would not understand why people like him, who were raised well fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction, conditioned from birth to look towards somewhere else, eternally convinced that real lives happened in that somewhere else, were now resolved to do dangerous things, illegal things, so as to leave, none of them starving, or raped, or from burned villages, but merely hungry for choice and certainty.

So I applaud the technical aspect of this book, but in reality what captured me since the very beginning was the delightful writing style and the compelling characters. There were many characters I disliked, but none I didn't understand or didn't have redeeming qualities, even if hidden from the eyes of our protagonists. I fell in love with the people Ifemelu and Obinze fell in love, while also felt the continuous uncontent for the love that was missing.

I think I could talk about this book for ages, carefully examining all the things in my that were not there when I started reading, and praising all the beautiful simple lines that made me feel all kind of things while reading, but I still wouldn't make it justice and I can't encourage you enough to start reading it instead. ...more

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May 02, 2018 Paola rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, libros-que-tengo, autoras, en-otro-idioma, recomendados-por-alguien, contemporary

Popsugar reading challenge #35: Un libro que haya ganado el Goodreads choice Awards.

AHHHHHH, este libro, tan pero tan bello libro. Me encantó desde la primera página, la narración es simplemente extraordinaria... me atrapó instantáneamente y no quería que se terminara el libro. Lo recomiendo 100% y espero que si tienen una oportunidad de leerlo lo hagan porque no van a perder su tiempo. Es una novela llena de enseñanzas, sabiduría y es entretenida a la vez, lo cual no se ve todos los días. Creo ...more

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May 25, 2024 Cudeyo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Ifemelu es una mujer nigeriana que tras años viviendo en Estados Unidos decide volver a Nigeria. Mientras prepara el viaje recuerda su infancia y juventud allí, su gran amor Obinze y sus primeros años en Estados Unidos. Con ella conocemos el choque cultural que supuso pasar de Nigeria a Estados Unidos y de nuevo el regreso a Nigeria, cuando ya se había "americanizado".

Cuando deja su país en busca de una vida mejor en Estados Unidos, lo hace obnubilada por el sueño americano, por los libros y la ...more

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Apr 20, 2019 Mafer Barron rated it liked it · review of another edition

“Puedes amar sin hacer el amor.” .
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“Empezaban a existir las cosas sólo cuando se les ponía nombre.” .
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#bookquotes .
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Ifenelu es una joven nigeriana que llega a Estados Unidos a mitad de los noventa a tratar de conseguir un mejor futuro del que su país de origen le podría ofrecer.
En su peregrinaje va a dejar y encontrar amores, enfrentar episodios de soledad y depresión, escasez y casi plenitud económica, inclusión, discriminación y mucha realidad. .
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Más que una novela, es un manifiesto. ...more

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Mar 09, 2017 Isabel Jazmín rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Es una historia de iniciación, de descubrimiento y de amor. Las dos primeras características se relacionan con el paso de la juventud a la adultez y son narradas ágilmente. Sin embargo la tercera no me acaba de convencer: el amor de la pubertad-adolescencia es efímero pero luego vuelve: no se sabe si el brillo es real o nada más el recuerdo. Me disgustó que en el desenlace en lugar de centrarse en su vida profesional o privada individual, se centra nada más en si tiene o no pareja: al final sigu ...more

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Mar 27, 2018 Mariana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-popsugar

El problema de cuando escuchás tantas maravillas acerca de un libro es que te pone las expectativas muy altas y la lectura se ve sujeta a ellas. Esto me pasó con Americanah. Por alguna razón pensé que se trataba de otra cosa, y ver que, end definitiva, es una historia de amor (y una historia de amor que no logró conmoverme), me desilusionó un poco. Me encantaron, sin embargo, todas las apreciaciones que hace ella sobre las diferencias culturales, en una voz muy aguda, despierta, crítica. Las ent ...more

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