Book review: Americanah

The best way for me to summarize “Americanah” by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is to describe the wonderful warm and fuzzy feeling after completing the book. Even though it was a work of fiction, the experiences described felt raw, personal and compelling in a way that could only come from someone who had been through all of them.

Americanah is the story of young lovers Ifemelu and Obinze who first met in high school in Nigeria which was then under military rule, a period dominated by upheavals and uncertainties that drove the poor as well as the well-educated locals to look elsewhere for greener pastures. Such circumstances inevitably forced them to search for better lives, Ifemelu to the U.S. and Obinze to England, and separated their fates.

While in foreign lands, their identities instantly transformed as they became African migrants confronted with new sets of problems they had never…