Buddy Read Carol, Sofia and Maya - June 5, 2016

[Sofia]

Good morning Carol and hope you woke up fine Maya :D

[Maya]

Morning, you two :)
Yay it's Friday!!!

Blaine - i am curious too, Carol. My bet is that he didn't call because she's an immigrant and he's African American and the difference scared him. But maybe it's something much more trivial, we'll see - as Sofia said we'll meet him again soon.

Curt: well, i think it's clear Ifemelu is preparing us for the break up. She's gradually getting to know him better and the things she liked before now annoy her. The incident with his emails to that other woman are not to be ignored too - he may just be seeking attention but that reveals certain selfishness and carelessness. Still last night when i read the end of chapter 22 when he said he wanted to be the love of her life my initial reaction was that ifemelu is not honest with what she's telling us about him, that he's way more sensitive and sagacious than she's letting on. I have doubts now, i guess i'll wait and see.

Reading about Obinze now.

[Sofia]

Part 3 I suppose Maya?

Yes ok - we only know the people here through Ifemelu's eyes all that is except Obinze.

[Maya]

yes, reading Part 3 - Obinze in London, will come back to comment when i'm done. It's not long.

[Maya]

end of Part 3/chapter 30
(view spoiler)[These chapters with Obinze were the most moving in the book so far for me. I don't know yet if it's because i sympathize more with him and less with Ifemelu of because his experience as an illegal immigrant was something that is too familiar to me because of the many people i know who have gone through the same but these chapters broke my heart.

The conversation on that dinner table in Emenike's home was so revealing of the way (some) people see immigrants. I wish i didn't understand what they were talking about, and i wish it wasn't true. As an Eastern European I am to these people what Mexicans are to Americans. (hide spoiler)]

[Sofia]

only read chap 23 - surprised - hidden layers

[Maya]

Sofia wrote: "only read chap 23 - surprised - hidden layers"

surprised?

[Maya]

chapter 31 - this is getting better and better for me. (view spoiler)[i am finally beginning to understand Ifemelu, her anger is rising to the surface, it makes her vulnerable and so easier for me to understand.

I completely understood what she meant that she could no loner be with Curt because she felt she did not know herself fully yet.

The hear metaphor blog post was great! (hide spoiler)]

[Sofia]

Maya wrote: "Sofia wrote: "only read chap 23 - surprised - hidden layers"

surprised?"

Clotilde - I only knew of Kosi

[Sofia]

I too love Obinze's voice, it's different from Ifemelu's.

I hear you Maya

I see much similarities here in the Nigerians outward looks. The outside being a better place which effect both those who leave and those who stay.

[Carol]

Maya wrote: "end of Part 3/chapter 30


Maya, I also loved chapter 30. (view spoiler)[ in my country, immigration is a huge topic right now and I think in this chapter there were some very thought-provoking observations about Europeans, Americans race and immigration. (hide spoiler)]

I am at chapter 34 right now. (view spoiler)[ we finally get to know about how she became a successful blogger and how she met Blaine again. (hide spoiler)]

[Sofia]

Good morning Girls.

We've spent a week with Adichie and I've gotten into a rhythm with it. It's a long book and not the sort i can gulp down quickly as i usually do.

I'm at chap 36 - quiet and listening.

Maya we had set The Orphan Master's Son for tomorrow. I don't know if we should postpone or read in tandem with this one. What do you think?

[Maya]

I am in chapter 41 and I think i'll finish tonight but even so it would be good to have a break between the two books.

I'm good to start any day from Monday on incl. Up to you :)

[Maya]

end of Part 4/chapter 41
(view spoiler)[I don't know what it is, I think when Ifemelu's with a man she's different. The compromises she makes in the relationship make her harder somehow and again I find her judgmental sometimes.

Clearly the relationship with Blaine was not going to work out even if she hadn't decided to go back to Nigeria. (hide spoiler)]

[Sofia]

Ok let's keep it for Monday then :D

[Carol]

I am still at chapter 34, but I will try to get a lot of reading done in between studying. :)

[Sofia]

Study first Carol, be good :-)

Chap 41 (view spoiler)[ i think inner comparing to Obinze does not help the men in her life. Nobody can be perfect and a 'foreigner' will never get all her little nuances. The thing is now she is not wholly Nigerian, she has a dash of American as well so i don't know if even Obinze will be the perfect one for her. (hide spoiler)]

[Maya]

I don't know, the more I read the more conflicted I feel about Ifemelu. Need to think on it.

Although I like how openly she criticizes life styles both in America and in Nigeria, her easy dismissal of opinions different to hers is ... well, quite arrogant.

[Maya]

I finished girls. Final chapters are intense.
Still trying to sort out my feelings about the book so I'm eager to chat with you.

[Carol]

I am finished with chapter 46 now. (view spoiler)[ I was very shocked to learn about Dike's suicide attempt. I wish we got a closer look on why he did it.
I am conflicted about Ifemelu, because she is so strong-opinionated and righteous in a way. But perhaps I am only jealous of her confidence, I am not sure. I just keep thinking that being her friend would be really tiresome. (I also did not like Blaine or Shan for this reason).
Right now, I am thinking about how much she has changed. I do not know if she and Obinze really should get together any more. I am not sure if I will buy into the upcoming continuation of their romance. It just seems like something done out of nostalgia. And Obinze has a family to think of. (hide spoiler)]

I think I will finish this evening, so we can chat. :)

[Maya]

Carol, I see we have very similar feelings about Ifemelu. I even went ahead and read a couple of positive and a couple of negative reviews of the book and I found point in both that I completely agree with.

But you're about to read the most intense part of the book (imo) so it's best that we discuss after, I think, when we all have the full picture.

[Sofia]

I'm starting part 7 hope I can talk tonight. I'm trying to keep an objective view of Ifemelu - we'll see.

[Carol]

I have finished, too. :) (view spoiler)[ I liked the final chapters, and the author actually managed to convince me of this old-new romance between Ifemelu and Obinze/ a love which has survived these long periods of no contact/these personal changes.
I discovered that I like Ifemelu a lot more, when she is with Obinze. He kind of mellows her. And I like him a lot, of the two I really could identify more easily with Obinze.

Final opinion? I am glad that I read this with you guys. It taught me some exciting new ideas/showed me some aspects of Nigerian culture I really like and made me more curious about African culture in general.

It also helped in my understanding of the more subtle kinds of racism/ to be more alert to those problems. It also made me a litte bit more aware of the difficulties immigrants face in Europe/America.

So I liked Americanah a lot, but it is not going on my favorite-shelf. I am always extremely subjective in my book reviews, going with my emotions, and it just felt too long for me. I think, partly, this stems from the fact that I have not read any serious/longer novel in the past months.

But the judgy tone of Ifemelu was also very exhausting after some time. I was always glad when Obinze became the narrator.

(hide spoiler)]

I am extremely interested in your final verdict.:)

BTW, this is the blog about what comes after the ending: https://americanahblog.com/

[Sofia]

Finished too just now.

I've read your notes Carol and nodded.

I :
Could not read this for long stretches. If it had been shorter it might have been tighter. On the otherhand the long approach gave us a real feel of the people.

I liked Obinze more than Ifemelu. She is one with strong opinions and often these are not gentle, or compassionate. At the same time i liked reading her blog observations.

Their story did not remain idyllic because of Obinze's marriage but any otber outcome would not have felt true. At the same time i wish that Ifem had loved both of them enough to jump over that night.

Waiting to see what i think of it after i sleep on it.

[Maya]

I spent a couple of hours last night watching videos of Adichie talking about Americanah and I think this helped me clarify some things for my experience with the book. Clearly, Ifemelu is a controversial character and my impression is that Adichie wrote her like that with the intent to provoke. She said she knowing wrote Ifemelu as a deeply flawed character.

What was very interesting in these interviews is that she said she wanted Ifemelu to be the opposite of the female characters that were in the romances she read as a teen where the women never acted but had to wait for the men to make advances i.e. the development of the relationship was always in the hands of the men. And at the same time she wanted that happy ending that such romances had but the way the characters reached that ending had to be completely different. So Ifemelu is not only open about her sexuality but she takes the initiative, if she is attracted to a man she acts. In one of the interviews she asked: what if Ifemelu was the male character? Would that change our perspective and dislike of her? And I think she definitely has a point here. It is a different question, of course, if Adichie succeeded to present this message convincingly with her writing – I think maybe not entirely.

She talked about the typical Nigerian woman and how she’s raised to desire marriage and be a good wife when it is also typical for the Nigerian husband to have a mistress. And I think that was Kosi in the book – complete opposite of Ifemelu who in the end begs her husband to stay on her knees with no dignity left. And we saw Aunty Uju and other friends of Ifemelu in the roles of the mistress.

Adichie said that her Nigerian readers criticized her the most about writing Ifemelu stealing Kosi’s husband while at the same time they never thought Obinze was at fault for ruining the marriage. She was also criticized about writing such good boyfriends for Ifemelu – always caring and sweet men who Ifemelu left with no good reason and again she said that was on purpose. Which again, I think she aimed to make a very point that the woman can break up a relationship for no other reason than simply not feeling good or completely herself in that relationship but for me again remains the question if she wrote that convincingly or if my not fully understanding Ifemelu’s actions was because of my view of intimate relationships.

So I understand what Adichie goal was with Ifemelu but at the same time Ifemelu being mostly the observer in the book, a characters that usually seems so removed from the events (with the exception of when the story is about Dike and Obinze) made it difficult to connect.

As for Obnze – she said she wrote him as the perfect vision of a boyfriend she has and I think we can feel that in the book, the author loved his characters and she transferred that love to me as a reader.

[Maya]

Oh, two more things :)

About her social commentary - the discussions on race and immigration - I loved all of these including the blog posts and the hair metaphors. I saw in some reviews people saying that all the commentary happened in conversations with faceless characters that disappeared as soon as they appeared on page and that maybe Adichie should have thought of other ways to present these comments and I definitely think they have a point here but I must say this didn't take away from my reading experience.

I also think the secondary characters suffered from Ifemelu's tendency to judge quickly and simply present us with her view of them when instead we could've made these observations by ourselves, and that for me is one of the weaknesses of the book. Especially when it comes to Curt, Blaine and Aunty Uju.

[Sofia]

I agree with your thoughts Maya. I agree that maybe the execution could have been better and that Ifem's role as observer clashed with her ro'll e as a main character.

Did you come across her wanting this to be a humorous book, i came across it in a review? I did not find it so.

Another point. When we read Baldwin he talks about how the history of the American Black is closer to the American white than to the African Black. This was really evident her. I'm thinking of the Mr White incident how Ifem did not attend. I still wonder why she didn't.
I

[Maya]

re Mr White I was thinking two things:
First: she couldn't/didn't want to let go of her personal dislike of him.
Second: she got annoyed that Blaine assumed this cause was as important to her as it was for him and that she undoubtedly would be there. So her choice not to attend was to show Blaine her opinion can be different than his.

[Sofia]

So she treated Mr White like she would have treated any other Nigerian back home. A person whom she can either like or dislike. No elevation because he was a victim.

[Maya]

I think so. This wasn't her fight to begin with plus she mocked the way academics chose to protest. I think in one of the blog posts she wrote that the only salvation was love between individuals of different races, the rest she thought would not bring results.

[Sofia]

That would be ideal. I hope they can get rid of the extra baggage to do that.

[Carol]

Thank you, Maya, for all this background information! I wonder whether I really would have reacted differently to Ifemelu, if she had been a man. I think not, but I cannot say for sure.

Sofia, I also did not think that the book was humorous. It had way too many difficult experiences and tragic events in it.
Some of the blog posts were funny, but in a harsh/biting way.

I just read "Things Fall Apart", and I can recommend it, too. It is about an Igbo-tribe around 1900 and what happens to it with the advent of British colonialism.

[Maya]

btw, that blog Carol found - did Adichie wrote it or fans of the book? I didn't like it at all.

I'm going with 4 stars for this one. Despite its flaws I was always eager to return to the book when I had to put it down and I'm even a little sad it's over.

[Carol]

Apparently it was her: http://www.okayafrica.com/culture-2/a...

I also did not read it, because the blog entries did not interest me enough. Sometimes I do not want to know what happens after the end of a book.

[Sofia]

It is going to be a four star for me as well. It was a good experience with food for thought.

I'm interested in reading her Purple Hibiscus

You're a quick reader Carol :-)

[Maya]

I am curious about Greene's The Heart of the Matter but I'm not sure if I can handle it. When years ago I watched The End of the Affair it destroyed me, I don't think a piece of art has ever been able to upset me so much. So I've been avoiding Greene.

[Maya]

I'm in for Purple Hibiscus. Should we read it together is a few months?

[Carol]

Thanks, Sofia. :) To be honest, it was a pretty short book.
I am also interested in The Heart of the Matter. I only read The third Man when I stayed in Vienna for some months. It was okay, but not especially brilliant or moving.

[Carol]

Maya wrote: "I'm in for Purple Hibiscus. Should we read it together is a few months?"

yes, sounds interesting. I'm in.

[Maya]

Carol wrote: "Apparently it was her: http://www.okayafrica.com/culture-2/a...

I also did not read it, because the blog entries did not interest me..."

thanks, Carol. I read couple of the blogs in the Ceiling and Ifem section and I wish I didn't. The Kosi hate was unnecessary.

[Sofia]

Great I'll take a note of it then :D

I'll hold your hand on The Heart of The Matter as well Maya. I've never read him.

[Sofia]

You know I just found out that Nigeria was a British colony just like us. So that's why I felt a certain familiarity to the language,mannerisms, traditions, way of thinking.

[Carol]

That's interesting. I did not know that about Malta. BTW, totally jealous that you live there. It seems so beautiful. :)
And yes, in Things Fall Apart, it is British missionaries and ambassadors disrupting the life of those Igbo tribes.

[Sofia]

Thank you Carol, it is beautiful. Unfortunately we were a British Colony from 1800 till 1964, although they delayed leaving until 1979.

[Ubi]

Hey am new here how do I read my books ?

[Sofia]

Hi Ubi. What books? Usually we get books in the usual way buy or borrow them then we come and talk about them here :D