Americanah

Ahhh, so that's why people read novels. What else have I been missing!?!?

Long ago, maybe in 2008, I stopped reading literary and mainstream fiction. I discovered non-fiction and sci-fi, and could never suspend my disbelief very easily again. “What's the point?!” I'd rant as I paged torturously through stories of modern people doing mundane, modern things. I hated, with the passion of a thousand suns, the faddish “quirky” titles of lame mainstream pop fiction, The Adventures of the Dog In the Moonlight, A Tragedy of Small Things, The Sisterhood of Pancakes. I hated (and still hate) the high-minded but fundamentally stupid books of Fancy Entitled Older Dudes, like Martin Amis or Ian McEwan or Salman Rushdie or John Updike or that whole stupid “Fond Memories of Vagina” bullshit. NO ONE CARES. Or I don't, at least. Uggghhhh. I could sort of tolerate post-colonial stuff (which, of course, Americanah is) because I am a bleeding heart Orientalist, but even some of that just seemed like cheap, dumb shit. As Ifemelu would say, what rubbish!!

So I decided perhaps novels were no longer for me, and became a bitter shell.

But I knew - and friends told me, and research showed - that there is a special something to be found in sharply observed, well-told novels. And Americanah is a novel so sharply observed, so smartly told, that I found myself often shaking my head, smiling, at its genius. And such wide-ranging genius! I recognized hidden-in-plain-sight truths about Dar es Salaam and Accra (and Delhi) in the portrayal of Lagos. I recognized similar realities about American college life, and the life of an immigrant in the US, and culture shock going every which way, and white liberal guilt, and the insidiousness of racism in America. It feels so banal to say that this book is about race, globalization, migration, modern life, post-colonialism, and LURRRVVEEE?! And yet - IT IS! And it revealed things that have always been in front of me, and did it in a way that felt grand and big. The moment when one character, in a hair salon in Trenton, New Jersey, sends an e-mail to the old love of her life in Lagos, and he reads it on his Blackberry in the busy, buzzing traffic of the city - COULD ANYTHING BE MORE EPIC? MORE DIVINE? The answer is no.

Briefly, Americanah is a love story between two Nigerian kids: Ifemelu and Obinze. It follows them from fun teenage blush to an epic-ly adult yearning. From the 1990s to the 2010s? Ifemelu is snarky and bold and clearly she must be a stand-in for the author?! Obinze, instead, is mellow, thoughtful, a deep reservoir of empathy. In 1980s/1990s Nigeria, when the country is under military dictatorship, Ifemelu gets a scholarship to a US liberal arts college in Philly. The vague plan is that Obinze will join her. Instead, life happens; and Obinze ends up trying (and failing) to emigrate to the UK, eventually getting deported back.

While the love story is the core - and it is an epic love story, hot damn - there's SO MUCH going on in this book that you sometimes forget that's what it's basically about. America, the UK, and Nigeria are portrayed so well - aghh. I especially loved all the details about Lagos as an explosive, rapidly changing city, a white hot molten core of nakedly capitalist hustle. The observations of returnees' alienation resonated with what an Indian-American friend once told me about going back to Delhi: you return and return to an increasingly changed place, you no longer recognize it. My “native place” is a small town in Italy which, thanks to Europe's refugee crisis, has also been greatly changed. DO I SENSE A MAINSTREAM NOVEL IN ME? Gosh, I could only dream of having Adichie's eye for detail and human behavior.

A side note: I read this book's moving portrayal of Obama's 2008 victory last night (did I mention the genius of this book in its precise observations of race and class in America and OMG HOW COULD I FORGET OBAMA HAPPENED!?!), just when Obama started giving his farewell address in Chicago. The interplay of life and art - WHOA.

Another side note: I “read” this using my new favorite format for everything, the audiobook! And the Audible reader, Adjoa Andoh, did an amazing job navigating all the accents and characters. Her American accent was just OK/shaky, but her Nigerian accent was delightful, as were her different UK accents - the Cockney (?) friend of Obinze, Nigel, and the posh accents of those London people. Is the internet going to shame me if I admit that I liked practicing the accents myself?!?! WHAT, I FIND ACCENTS CHARMING AND LINGUISTICALLY INTERESTING, DON'T JUDGE ME. Don't even get me started on Indian English, especially Hinglish, or how this blog is so hilarious.

The last side note: There is apparently supposed to be a movie adaptation, starring Lupita Nyong'o as Ifemelu and David Oyelowo as Obinze. David Oyelowo has kinda already stolen my heart as a mellow, thoughtful, Good Dude in The Queen of Katwe, so PLEASE, universe/Hollywood people, make this movie happen! Also, please find a role for Chiwetel Ejiofor - he can play Blaine (okay, it'd be ironic to have the Nigerian-British actor playing the American in a movie about Nigeria, but he's meant to be hot, right?!). Just think of that Trenton-Lagos smartphone-Blackberry cross-cut?! My heart is aflutter.