Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I recently finished this brilliant novel which seems especially pertinent this year as the discussions about race continue. Adichie speaks with beautiful clarity and wit about this topic, both challenging and confirming our views of race and colourism. As The Guardian says: "Some novels tell a great story and others make you change the way you look at the world. Americanah does both". This is a beautiful, honest, moving description of the trials and opportunities of immigration.

The novel follows the story of Ifemelu and her high-school love, Obinze, who are forced to flee military-ruled Nigeria, separated from each other in completely new countries. Alone and isolated in spite of her academic success in the starkly different America, Ifemelu has to quickly adapt to a new way of life and a new identity imposed upon her by US society. America is a world away from her beloved Nigeria with its different houses, people, and ideas. Having never thought of herself as black, Ifemelu has to learn what her skin colour means to this new society, adapting to a new set of rules and regulations in order to stand a chance of fitting in with the people around her.

I loved this storyline as it offered a completely different view of race that I had never thought of before. Living in modern British society, race and the problem of racism has always been something that I've been aware of, but I had never thought that for some people in some countries, the idea of race doesn't really exist. However, this does make sense because, as Adichie explores through the character of Ifemelu, skin colour wasn't really thought of or prominent in Nigeria because all their skin was the same colour, whereas as soon as she became a minority in a new country, she became

acutely aware of her race as the thing that defined her and defined others' expectations of how she would behave and think. Adichie describes with compassion and empathy the profound effect that having to adapt to such unjust, stringent regulations just because of melanin can have on someone, highlighting just how acute the problem of racism is. Yet Adichie also adds some light humour to the novel through Ifemelu's blog, "Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as N******) by a Non-American Black" where she expresses her astonishment at the behaviour of those around her. This is an ingenious technique used by Adichie in which the reader can perhaps identify the situations she describes, be amused at how absurd they are, but then crucially learn about why they are strange or wrong, allowing us to educate ourselves. The America that is so often viewed to be an amazing opportunity by the characters in the novel, is revealed to be an unharmonious clash of both prospects and problems, the 'American dream' only available to those willing to change to the American expectations and way of life.

Obinze experiences similar discrimination in England, and he seems to never really find his feet as Ifemelu does in America. England is presented, in my opinion, in quite an oppressive, dingy way, full of gloom and sadness. Obinze is never truly happy there, constantly being given the worst jobs, facing put-downs and failure everywhere he turns. While Obinze perhaps doesn't express his anger at the blatant racism he experiences as openly as Ifemelu, it is still very much a prominent issue in his life, shown through the more depressed tone the novel adopts when describing Obinze's time in England. Adiche presents the darker sides of both America and Britain, showing how hostile, distant, and unwelcoming they can appear to immigrants and the difficulties they face in trying to fit in.

'Americanah' is just as much about love as it is race, and the tantalizing romance of Ifemelu and Obinze is exquisitely described. Although they spend most of the novel

apart, living entirely different lives, their need for each other is always evident, tinging each moment as it happens. While many of their friends seem to flourish, adapting to what their new environments demand of them, Ifemelu and Obinze never seem to reach complete happiness apart. They need each other just as much as they need the air they breathe (a modern Heathcliff and Catherine, if you will) and so everything they achieve is tinted with sadness that they are not together.

I highly recommend that you read this book as it is both a wonderfully written novel while also educating you about such an important and prevalent issue. Filled with sadness, happiness, and everything in between, this lightly humorous yet emotive novel is a masterpiece of the written work, highlighting just how incredibly wise and talented Adichie is. Reviews describe her book as "urgent and important" (The Sunday Telegraph) and "a tour de force" (Mail On Sunday); it is a page-turning, must-read novel which will both enlighten and move you.