Americanah in Around the World in 80 Books

Dec 14, 2013 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: womens-day, fiction, literary-schmiterary, 1001-books

I loved this book. I was so emotionally engaged with the story, I cared so much about these characters and each night I couldn't wait to get back to this book, I felt wrung out when I finished.

There's not a lot of plot, this is basically a love story between two people who grew up in Nigeria and met in a Lagos high school. The story mostly follows Ifemelu as she moves to the USA, gets a communications degree from a University in Philadelphia, and starts blogging; we also see some of Obinze's sto ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Mar 28, 2014 Rachel rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, africa, libraryebook

I was all set to give this 3 stars. A good three stars, but three stars. She's an excellent writer, all of her stories seem so true. I wasn't absolutely impressed until I really fell for the love story.

Also: Obi Mu O is an amazing song. I looked it up on Youtube to see if it was real and fell in love with it. I may not listen to another song in at least 2.5 weeks!

Ok no, I changed it back to 3 stars. It's hard to say what is dragging me down on this one, it's like I liked what she had to say, bu ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jul 13, 2013 Katie rated it really liked it

Shelves: ___africa, female-author, _nigeria

Americanah is an insightful commentary on race and national identity in the United States. Ifemelu, the main character in this novel, is a Nigerian woman who comes to the United States to attend college. Race suddenly becomes an issue for Ifemelu, whereas it never was in her home country. After a number of years struggling in America, she becomes a successful blogger, writing about race, racism, and all its complexities. All of this in the context of a love story between Ifemelu and her high sch ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 27, 2014 Madeleine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favs

Everything Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes is brilliant. As is her TED talk on the "danger of a single story."

I wonder somewhat about whether Adichie's popularity and brilliance are leading some [progressive, well-meaning, mostly white and/or USian/European] of her readers to take *her* work as a kind of "single story" of Nigeria or Africa, though. And yes, I wonder if I do this myself. I guess a solution to this potential problem is just, read more books. By more authors. Not an unpleasant sol ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 27, 2019 Anie rated it really liked it

Shelves: female-author, female-protagonist, fiction, own, audiobook, 2019

This is a truly excellent book. That last line, oh wow. It's a beautiful love story, all wrapped up in discussions of expat life, race and class, and all sorts of other "serious" topics -- what a delightful combination. ...more

1 like · Like · see review