From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a powerful story of love, race and identity.
As teenagers in Lagos, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America. There she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.
Thirteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a blogger. But after so long apart and so many changes, will they find the courage to meet again, face to face?
Fearless, gripping, spanning three continents and numerous lives, 'Americanah' is a richly told story of love and expectation set in today's globalized world.
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[Princeton, in the summer, smelled of nothing, and although Ifemelu liked the tranquil greenness of the many trees, the clean streets and stately homes, the delicately overpriced shops and the quiet, abiding air of grace, it was this, the lack of a smell, that most appealed to her, perhaps because the other American cities she knew had all smelled distinctly](4 th Estate, 27 February 2014, borrowed from my library)
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I read this for 2017 Popsugar Reading Challenge. The category is 'a book about an immigrant or a refugee'.***
I loved, absolutely loved Americanah (my second read by the author, I also loved Half of a Yellow Sun).
One of the most enjoyable things about this book is how it brings the culture of Nigeria to vivid life. I felt like I was really there, with the characters, living and breathing and seeing everything they did. The sense of place in the novel is pretty amazing.
I really liked the contrast between Ifemelu's life in Nigeria and her life in American, how vastly different they are. Her blog, in America about race and culture forces her to realise she never thought of herself as black before and really only saw black as her identity when she came to America.
I thought the love story between Ifemelu and Obinze when they are young is raw and beautifully written. There is no love like first love.
