Problematic Black Love Stories: Americanah Review

Americanah is a novel written by Chimamanda Adichie  

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This novel was complicated, to say the least. First, I want to say the storytelling was fantastic; Chimamanda’s storytelling skills are unmatched. She’s a beautiful writer. The story was succinct and moving in a way that was nostalgic and deeply uncomfortable. Her skill of crafting personal, multi-dimensional characters was just pure brilliance. But my issue is with the plot. I was uncomfortable for forty percent of this book, sometimes in a way that was pushing me to think, and then other times in a way that was just plain uncomfortable and ugly.

My thoughts

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The novel’s setting was simple. It follows the life of Ifemelu, a Nigerian woman and her journey to adulthood and finding herself while migrating to America. The first half of the story sets up a solid foundation and gives you insight into both her past and her future (I particularly got a kick out of the dual perspective). It really sets you up to understand where she is now, and where she was. I particularly liked the scenes where she was a young school girl in Nigeria and her first meetings with Obinze (the love interest). There was something palpable and familiar about this that leaped off the pages in those scenes. It wasn’t all pumpkin and carriages though; there were sprinkles of anecdotes about the culture and her life that were depressing, to say the least, but it was real.

I mostly start to feel that deep-seated uncomfortableness when she moves to America. To condense a large section, I’ll just say there were times where I empathize in a way with Ifemelu that was bone deep and so real, and then there were times where I was repulsed by her. Some of her actions to me were morally reprehensible. That might sound harsh, but it’s just the unapologetic way that she does things and talks about them that makes me the most uncomfortable. Her lack of remorse for doing occasionally terrible things was crazy to me. It’s not what we expect of women in literature, we expect them to make mistakes but then repent for the rest of their days about the horribleness of their character. Ifemelu’s inability to do that both invigorated me and annoyed me. She wore her mistakes with an air of authority and I found several flaws in her character. She was so flawed in a way that made it hard for me to idolize her, which was infuriating.

Something that stood out to me was a looming feeling of dissatisfaction when she got to America. We got to see her go through some horrid things that were hard to read, but then we got to see her come-up. Even when things were looking up for her and I thought “yes, this is the inspirational part” she just constantly radiated an air of dissatisfaction. It made me on edge waiting for that moment. I just kept waiting for that gratification, and I didn’t really get it.

When she finally moved back to Nigeria, we were cutting it quite close to the end, and I knew I wasn’t gonna get my perfect ending. She seemed more satisfied; not fully, but enough. However, the whole time I was I was waiting for my love story and that was tarnished for me because of multiple reasons (it goes back to that love-hate relationship with her unapologetic-ness). Ultimately, I’m glad we got to see her and Obinze as their present self but it just made me sad, is this my African love story? (so filled with deceit and discontentedness). I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. We got them together in the end, but I still didn’t feel that satisfaction.

Final takeaways

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Overall, hats off to the writing! it kept me firmly placed in the story. This book isn’t your cookie cutter read, yes, you will get loads of culture insights (both American and Nigerian), and you will get startlingly true and sometimes pretentious commentary. You’ll also get raw characters. You probably won’t always agree with them and you definitely won’t always like them, but it’s important to read because of this feeling. It’s easy to read about people you understand, but it’s also important to read characters that rattle you in a way that makes you re-examine your thoughts and actions for better or for worse. I loved this book, and it would have been a five star if it wasn’t for that nagging dissatisfaction.

I gave this book a four out of five stars because I have mixed feelings. But if your ready for the emotional labor of reading this book, you should give it a shot!