Fionnáin reviewed Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Strong Undercurrents
3 stars
Americanah sets out to do what so much great literature does: tell a great human story with an undercurrent of theory. In this, it is the story of young love in Nigeria separated by emigration of the two protagonists: Ifemelu to America and Obinze to England. They experience the dissonance of being non-nationals and racially other in two contexts while also learning to live and becoming themselves.
Only that doesn't really happen. In both stories, the protagonists are like blank canvases surrounded by caricatures of people who are actually alive but are slightly unbelievable. Our heroes observe those around them and summarise their traits as if human beings all present their entire personalities in one quick gesture or comment. The story is interspersed with blog posts written by Ifemelu that feel like the writing of Ta-Nahesi Coates – sharp, witty and unashamedly Black. The undercurrent of theory thus bubbles up …
Americanah sets out to do what so much great literature does: tell a great human story with an undercurrent of theory. In this, it is the story of young love in Nigeria separated by emigration of the two protagonists: Ifemelu to America and Obinze to England. They experience the dissonance of being non-nationals and racially other in two contexts while also learning to live and becoming themselves.
Only that doesn't really happen. In both stories, the protagonists are like blank canvases surrounded by caricatures of people who are actually alive but are slightly unbelievable. Our heroes observe those around them and summarise their traits as if human beings all present their entire personalities in one quick gesture or comment. The story is interspersed with blog posts written by Ifemelu that feel like the writing of Ta-Nahesi Coates – sharp, witty and unashamedly Black. The undercurrent of theory thus bubbles up constantly to the surface, sometimes angrily, and always justifiably, and so Adichie manages to put more theory into this work of literature than can be found in many works of theory. This is admirable and educational. So it is a pity that they story falls short.
The final section, the return to their home country of a duo who have changed but have not really grown, is the best written section of the book. It suddenly becomes exciting all too late as the ghosts of a past relationship haunt Obinze's marriage and Ifemelu's independence. Maybe there is something to this too – two lives that cannot escape those waves of theory that always run beneath. Imperfect but important.