“Americanah” is a compelling and witty novel about love, race, and immigrant life. It was Adichie’s third novel, written in a non-linear style, making its readability engaging. Readers are introduced to a Nigerian who travels to the United States to study. The young Nigerian woman Ifemelu is captured by the differences between her country and her new home away from home. She discovers that the contemporary society she finds herself living in is emotionally and culturally distant, and it misunderstands her identity.
Readers follow Ifemelu’s life back in Nigeria, then her experiences in America, and her return back home to Nigeria. Ifemelu’s love affair with her childhood sweetheart Obinze is not quite the focus of this novel (Ifemelu even dated other men while living in America like Blaine, the professor at Yale, and Curt), much as is the character’s sense of belonging and finding her voice in Princeton, New Jersey. The distance between them tests their relationship as expected; Obinze had made attempts to join her in The U.S., but his visa was denied. They grow apart and continue learning about the world, and although readers follow events primarily through Ifemelu’s eyes, Obinze’s perspective does also feature. Together, apart, they navigate their ideas of race and identity and the complex spaces between them.
She memorized the finer details of places; Princeton, she thought, had no smell, unlike other places. Eventually, she was acclimatized to her environment. The main underlying theme in the novel is the appreciation of one’s culture, as well as, interestingly, the evolving nature of culture itself.
