Book Review: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Although this book took me almost the whole summer to read, it is by far one of the best books I've ever read. Adichie is a master of writing, her words made reading feel like floating through the lives of Ifemelu and Obinze. 

This is the story of these two lovers who are separated by moving to the the United States and England. 

It was a little hard for me to get into, I'm not used to the very minute details of thought and description that Adichie creates, however this makes us really know the characters. Even with the side characters that we see just a paragraph of, Adichie has  created back stories and personalities for each of them. It made the book really deep and full. 

Once we progress past the struggles of immigration, Adichie uses Ifemelu to write a blog about race in the United States. This book opened my eyes to so many race issues that I face, that I see my friends face and that are huge problems in our society today. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a perspective on race relations, it is extremely blunt but true. 

From the dialogue, to the blog posts, Adichie captures the perspectives of Americans, immigrants, and African Americans that shows a well rounded understanding of the issues we face today. 

At the end of the novel, Ifem moves back to Lagos and we go on the journey of her trying to reclaim her life, and what used to be before she moved to the US. I found this a beautiful story of life struggles and will remember this book for a long long time.