Amerikána

Such a good book!! I do feel like the end was rushed and the middle a little too prolonged, but amazing book nonetheless.

I like the book but hate the characters. As a reader, I had to separate the art from the artist in order not to hate the whole, because if, by any chance, the views of Ifemelu were to be associated with those of Chimamanda, I would have hated the authoress as well. But art is not necessarily the reflection of the artist. The latter can sometimes express viewpoints and opinions opposed to his own through the medium of literature; hence the diversity of theories of interpretation and criticism. In view of this, my review is concerned with the characters, not the authoress whom I actually like, if not for the characters I find terrible, then, at least, for the pace and diversity of scenes which made the book quite enjoyable.One thing I, at once, like and dislike about this novel is the strong presence of race as a binary. It is essential for the experience of Africans to be recorded and analyzed by fellow Africans, but I find an intense adherence to the binary of Black and White, which in an African writer is a little disappointing. When one thinks of it, the otherness of the black race was created on the basis of their alleged difference, while the universality of Western White literature had surged from its normalization as the universal representative of all human experience. The book's endless reference to such a binary makee me wish the authoress had followed a slightly different course along the lines of Morrison who, as a black authoress, had questioned the white identity and its alleged universality. In Americanah, we see nothing of the kind, and are only presented with layers and layers of otherness and racial estrangement among characters that see in their own selves the vestiges of otherness.When it comes to characterization, the two focal characters hardly display, do, or say anything that can make me a little more sympathetic towards them. Starting at the beginning, Ifemelu had burnt the bridges of love which were her links to Obinze just because she couldn't tell him of her fleeting experience with prostitution, which is a perfect illustration of bad faith no matter how the novel romanticizes it.A similar detail is the way she had sulked when she found out about the emails which Curt had exchanged with another woman, while she treated her unfaithfulness as not much of a big deal or a valid reason to be called a whore or to be broken up with.My least favorite feat of these two is definitely their reunion after Ifemlu had returned to Nigeria. The entire novel puts their relationship on a pedestal of perfection, but what they did was simply a breach of trust towards another human being, namely Obinze's wife, and nothing can change that.On the bright side, the novel presents quite a number of vignettes that are culturally rich and informative on account of their being related and recorded from an African perspective in an environment that is mostly Western and white. Three stars for the book, none though for the characters!