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Citizen asked this question about Americanah:
Why is this book so popular when it is a lengthy, rambling mess of stories interspersed with lectures about race, society and culture? What happened to the idea of a great STORY, characters the reader can care about, conflict, rising action, etc.???
Anna Funny how condescending most answers, from people who presumably liked the book, to this question are! I'll assume you really wanted to open a discuss…moreFunny how condescending most answers, from people who presumably liked the book, to this question are! I'll assume you really wanted to open a discussion about the hype about this book vs. your own disappointment with it.

I had the same problem as you. I find precisely that the ratio of story to lecture leaves me wanting more story or less lecture. Especially, I found the lecture bits repetitive and not all that insightful, if you have ever thought about race at all. And the large cast of "single use" characters that are only introduced so that Ifemelu can lecture them some more just bogs down what little narrative there is. It was s also hard to believe that anybody could make a living off such banal and patronising blog posts (maybe that's part of the fiction in the book?).

What I did like was the comparison of non-American blacks to African Americans as this is a topic that I have not really engaged with before. I also liked the first part of the book that is set in Nigeria.

There is a lot of mention of the switches in time and place in the book. There are a lot of these although it was always very clear who was talking and when.

To attempt to answer you real question: I don't know why this is so popular. People who didn't like this book have praised her previous books. And when Adichie actually bothered to tell a story in this book, I found it compelling, although stretched too thin by the polemic. And otherwise, maybe they genuinely liked the book? Maybe the racial issues were actually new (or not lessened by constant repitition) to the fans of the book? I also find that often fans of a writer will just love everything of that same writer.

I don't know if I am interested enough to read any of Adichie's other books (this really exasperated me), but if so I'll try Half of a Yellow Sun.(less)
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Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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