Ifemelu lives a frustrated life in Nigeria, her college classes constantly cancelled due to strikes. Seeing no end to the tumult, she joins her cousin in America--and discovers race. Suddenly she is black, and that fact has a total effect on her new life. It changes her relationships, her job prospects, the way she relates to her family back in Nigeria.
Ifemelu's college boyfriend, Obinze, finds himself struggling to make a life in the UK where, despite his intellectual inclinations, he is forced to work for shipping company after shipping company, never able to stay in one place for long and hoping that his employers never discover his undocumented status.
Fifteen years later, Ifemelu prepares to move back to Nigeria, where Obinze has long since returned to live a wealthy, superficial life among corruption and loveless relationships.
Over the course of years, Adichie follows the breaking of her protagonists' connection, and the process of trying to reforge it, all amongst the twisted, centuries-old, beautiful, horrifying mess of race in America from the unique perspective of an outsider upon whom this complex burden has been forced without context.
And Adichie certainly has put her writing prowess to good use! She has created a witty, defiant, deep, real examination of race in America through Ifemelu. It's a unique perspective, that of an immigrant who has not grown up surrounded by the old, complicated insitutions of racism but who has them forced upon her because all that matters to America is that she is not white. Such a situation perfectly sets up Adichie--herself a Nigerian woman for whom, I suspect, the story of Ifemelu is semi-autobiographical--to study racism through Ifemelu. Ifemelu starts a blog dedicated to observing race in her new country, and many chapters end with posts from her blog. The blog leads to her getting speaking gigs at companies and such, where she learns even more about things like the truth about "diversity workshops". Ifemelu's is an incredibly eye-opening perspective as she takes on and examines everything that Americans take for granted on the subject of race and asks questions that only an outsider would think to ask.
But Ifemelu's experiences with race are not simply, of course, speculation stemming from observation. She must experience it all herself, too. Adichie explores such topics as hair and romantic relationships. Ifemelu slowly learns that employers have very harsh requirements for the hairstyles of black women, and realizes that she can hardly hope to have a career if she doesn't get rid of the long braids she loves. Ifemelu has the experience of both a white American boyfriend and a black American boyfriend, and the differences between those two--as well as the differences between her American boyfriends and Obinze--further develop her process of learning about race in America and about how people relate to each other. It's subtle but fascinating.
One of the things that I'm really looking forward to examining with my partner in our project for school (we have to do a presentation on conflict in our novel) is the identity struggles of Dike, the son of Ifemelu's counsin in America, Aunty Uju. At one point, Ifemelu says that when she got back to Nigeria, she felt like she stopped being black. Well, Aunty Uju never started being black, not even in the US. And so Dike, who has known almost nothing but the US and being black there, feels confused by the mixed messages he receives. He feels just like a black American, but his mother tells him he is not black. It doesn't help that no one will tell him the truth about his father and why he has his mother's last name, not his father's. The climax of Dike's identity crisis is well-placed in the novel and absolutely agonizing.
Then there is the brilliancy of Adichie's self-awareness. The paragraph near the end: "'You can't write an honest novel about race in this country. If you write about how people are really affected by race, it'll be too obvious. ...you have to make sure it's so lyrical and subtle that the reader who doesn't read between the lines won't even know it's about race,'" says Shan, the author-sister of Ifemelu's black boyfriend (416-417). Then their friend Grace says, "'Or just find a white writer. White writers can be blunt about race and get all activist because their anger isn't threatening,'" (417). Need I say more?
(Another note before I move on--Obama. Adichie sets her timeline such that Ifemelu gets to experience the election of Barack Obama. It's not a major part of the book, but it's there, it's interesting, and it's sort of horrible to read after our most recent election.)
Adichie's contrast of place adds depth to both America and Nigeria. She's in a position to be able to comment on the good and bad parts of both countries. The contrast and comparison develops the general themes of the book very well, and also connects to one experience that Ifemelu has in America, with a woman whose children she babysits. The woman obsessively compliments the beauty of black women--even those who don't look particularly great--and refers to Ifemelu's name as coming from a "wondeful rich culture". She exemplifies white Westerners who try to show how accepting they are by overexaggerating the good parts of non-white, non-Western people, places, and cultures. An example of how not to be an ally, and how to be a white savior instead! Adichie's handling of this is brilliant and made me smile.
I liked the timeline of the story. It begins when Ifemelu is preparing to return to Nigeria, and then goes into her childhood in Nigeria and then her time in America, with a break for Obinze's story. It ends in Nigeria, split between Ifemelu and Obinze. And the end...oh, it's so satisfying! I was a little worried how Adichie might handle what she had set up for herself, but she did it so well. The storylines are not entirely resolved, but that just keeps the energy of the book high to the very end and is perfectly in character with the rest of it. After all, are any of the happenings of the book really resolved in real life? Hardly.
Finally, let's discuss our amazing main character. Ifemelu is brilliant, funny, and deep. She doesn't understand all of herself and she makes some questionable choices and has some dark, nasty thoughts. She is so thoroughly real and relatable, even for this white American. (; I loved her. Adichie could not have created a better character to carry the majority of her story. Obinze was wonderful too; he and his mother reminded me a little of my family.
In short, I would recommend Americanah to anyone who would like to learn.