Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi

Libby, Linda, Paige, Maddy, Margie, and Joan met at Mary Lib’s house on February 26 to share opinions, perspectives, and new insights about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, Americanah. 

True confession here: I simply forgot to take notes, which means I’ll be unable to clearly convey thoughts expressed by specific individuals that day. Instead, I’ll summarize based on my unreliable memory. 

Adichie said in an interview that this book was about love. She called it an old-fashioned love story. She also said it was about race and how we reinvent ourselves. While I’m not sure we would have primarily identified the book as an old fashioned love story, it was fun to explore her perspective.

Exploring the theme of love, yes, we watched Ifemelu learn about love as she moved into and through young adulthood. We felt overall that her relationship with Obinze set a high bar for what she expected from a long-term relationship.  Her understanding of relationships and her own needs mature during her time with Curt, her time alone, and her time with Blaine. But ultimately, the draw of the deep, emotional bond she shared with Obinze draws her back to him. 

The discussion about relationships, though, led us to talk about Aunty Uju and Obinze, who chose relationships based more on survival than on love. No one really cast judgment on these decisions; instead, we recognized that circumstances lead people to make decisions that none of us would choose to have to make.

Adichie’s exploration of racism in America from the perspective of a non-American black person was perhaps the most stimulating concept found in this book. As she identified actions and language by whites towards blacks that she considered to somewhat clueless and shallow, many of us realized we could have said some of the same things that resembled her examples. No one really criticized her for being overly sensitive; instead, we all felt she brought some important perspectives to our understanding of this complicated issue.

The theme of reinventing herself was a fascinating one.  We talked about lessons learned when we leave the comfort of our own homes. When that departure is amplified by leaving not only one’s home but also one’s country and culture, the lessons of course intensify. Ifemelu gained a deep-seated appreciation of Nigeria from her time away. She returned with eyes wide open about strengths and weaknesses within her country, appreciating the comfort of the deep-seated familiarity of people, places, and norms.

Yes, we talked about hair! This fascinating and complicated topic is currently in the news, so the relevance of hair was heightened.  We felt dismay when confronted with the realities of hair straightening. The pain, the damage to skin and health…

Most of us agreed that we were glad we had read this well-written book because it was thought-provoking and enlightening.

Mary Lib