Has anyone out there read Americanah? Well, I laid my hands on it last month, and didn't put it down till I was done reading.

I must say though, that book has got so many people talking, and cheers to a writer who can achieve that.

In order to avoid this becoming a long post, I will just itemize the things I love, things I hate, and why I don't like Ifemelu, and what she represents.

Why I love Americanah

1. It boldly addresses racism, and the ugly truth about the idea of being color blind when the issues still stare us in the face.

2. It is easily relatable. I could totally relate with the blogging, and the African hair thingy, since I recently transitioned myself.

3. It tells a story of true love, however unbelievable, it still does.

4. It mildly displays where we are as a people. People are talking about Nigeria and how the govt keeps failing, but are not talking about where they really are. Imagine Ifemelu's friend Ranyi, who is praying to God for a husband, and wishes to be respected in the society, but has a sugar daddy.

5. I love raceteenth. Even though some of the writeups seemed like stuffs i've read online before. These few years, I've met some really intelligent nigerian girls online, and infact, the whole novel seemed like snatches of what they tend to talk about.

6. There's another good book out there, representing Nigeria... not really though. But atleast, it was written by a Nigerian.

7. I have a crush on Dike!

Why I hate Americanah

1. As usual, Chimamanda subjects us to a descriptive essay that seems too protracted, because, despite all the laborious descriptions, I couldn't find myself inside the book.

2. Ifemelu seems to be a grown up version, of the girl in Purple Hibiscus.

3. As usual, Chimmy spared no words, wen it came to clamping down on churches AGAIN. I'm beginning to think this woman has some childhood church issues she needs to let go of. I can't keep reading through her pains in all her books.

5. As beautiful as the concept of this book is, I find it disturbing... the way it all ties together, Obinze, and Ifemelu, finding theirselves... it's too easy, and too false.

Why I hate Ifemelu

Ifemelu happens to be the narrator in the book, except for when Obinze takes turn, to tell his own experiences and goings on...

1. Ifemelu is a pretentious prick. Honestly. She is always like "I'm Ifemelu, I'm unique, I hate everybody, including myself"

2. Ifemelu is not truly an independent woman. I'm happy for her that she found success through her blog, but a real feminist does much more than that. How can Blogging be the only thing she can boast of career wise, Feminists don't stay too long on their butt's yapping. Also, notice how she always feels the need to make a big change in her life, every time a relationship fails, or she wants out. When she decided to come home, it's because she already broke up with blaine in her mind.
I feel like Ifemelu finds it hard to put herself together, and define who she really is when there's no man in the picture.

3. Ifemelu wants to be the only one doing something unique. First, she disses her cowoker's sisterlocks. Sisterlocks are amazing protective styling for natural hair. It's nobody's fault that she had to get tight braids for God's sake.

4. Ifemelu is hopelessly negative. Everyone in the book suffered their dose of bashing by Ifemelu even Michelle Obama. Well, except for Obinze, who as far as she was concerned, was the epitome of every perfection a short man can bring to the table. In her eyes, he could do no wrong.

5. I don't trust the love she has with Obinze. It's all born out of their childhood memories, making it seem a lot more than it really is, and then due to the fact that it was their first, and that nasty case of unfinished business between them... their love is a psychological trick. when the honeymoon period is over, I'm curious to know, if Ifemelu has wrecked a home for nothing.

6. She's a bad liar too. She blogged about her friend. The details in the blog said "my friend who does this..." yet she said she was talking about her aunt.


I'm sorry it's longer than I thought it would be. .. well, despite that, all my thoughts on the book are still not here. Please comment, let me know how you feel about the book too.

The book is a good read. Ifemelu is an iconoclast thus the need to always try and seem different. I loved the fact that she wasn't the typical church loving, groomed to be perfect wife babe. She was a girl who liked sex and wasn't ashamed of it even as a teenager. She was sometimes very judgemental and had this unhealthy air of arrogance, at times feeling she was more evolved than her species.

Lol! I just had to take down a similar thread I just put up after seeing yours.
Here is mine:

After reading Purple Hibiscus, I couldn't help but love her style of writing. I then proceeded to HAlf of a Yellow Sun- another interesting book. And now Americannah. I like that she brings readers into her stories. You can feel, touch, laugh and even cry with the Characters. You can totally relate with the experiences, happiness, pain, mistakes of the characters.

Ifemelu, whom the story revolves around comes across as a complicated girl, smart, an agnostic and quite an observer.

Her dreams and her perception of things quite unique and extreme. At a point, I couldn't help but see her as a confused lady who probably doesn't know what she wants. No doubt I paused at a point to ponder on the kinda person she is. I tried imagining her as a friend, sister, classmate, co-worker. She comes across as a judgemental fellow, and self centered- well, she finally had it all at the end of the day.

Americannah left me with mixed feeling particularly with the ending. Lol, maybe because I started hating the characters. Obinze Character,(for personal reasons,i hate cheats. He was too into love which is uncommon for (nigerian)guys IMO especially when The love was just one sided, I feel Obinze loved her more IMO)

Ifemelu Character. (Kinda like who does she think she is?, so you think you can leave a man when you feel like and appear from nowhere after 15 years like nothing happened. Does that even happen? She criticized runs girls but was sleeping with a married man, hmm- a hypocrite). Hahaha!

And then we have KOSI(didn't know what to feel for her, pity? anger? just didn't know)- I see her in lots of nigerian women, the-see-no-evil, hear-no-evil lot. the perfect housewives, don't meddle in husbands affairs/business, lives and breathe to please hubby as long as the cash is still flowing and he is paying his dues, heartily embraced religion after marriage. She knew hubby was cheating but didn't bother (she prolly has the "I am the main chick and she is the side chick mentality" and chose to ignore)

In all, it was an interesting read, it brought out strong emotions which is very good. There are times I felt like slapping Ifemelu(especially when she cheated on Curt. I most point out I crushed on curt, hahaha!), giving Kosi a Hard knock on the head-(like a wake up and smell the cofee call) and spanking Obinze real hard for being such a sissy IMO.