Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie


That makes Americanah a new kind of migration story, one that reflects a political shift and suggests a literary one. It’s one of the better novels I’ve read about life in contemporary America, but I’m not tempted to call it a Great American Novel. Instead, it strikes me as an early, imperfect, admirable stab at something new: a Great Global Novel. Ifemelu was well on her way to becoming an American—that promise dangled before, and coveted by, so much of the world for so long. She chooses, instead, to become an Americanah: an identity predicated on experience rather than nationality, trajectory rather than place. It’s an open question whether identities like that will change the world for the better. But, in Adichie, they have already done so for literature.

ENJOY

2 comments:

  1. According to my opinion, this is not meant to be an American novel but a novel in which every African living outside the Mother Continent can find the space to reflect on his/her state of being as a black person. I as an African black woman find it very refreshing.

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  2. I loved this novel but not for what some so easily believe is the true tale within. I believe what is most important are the experiences Ifemelu and Obinze go through while they are apart, and in result providing chances for readers to spectate the morality of the reality within this seemingly non-fiction novel. The content is so true and realistic, that no excerpts seem false.

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