In one of the book’s most affecting scenes, he’s captured and deported, or, as his lawyer’s form states, “removed” like an object. Needless to say, things do not go according to plan.Īdichie is adept at describing her characters’ descent in dignity for the gambit of upward mobility. They haven’t emigrated out of desperation, but rather from “the need to escape from the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness.” Their plan is to come back together after making something of themselves. Obinze and Ifemelu led lives of relative privilege in Nigeria. Ifemelu sets off to the United States with a partial scholarship to a school in Philadelphia where she struggles to find a job and must stoop, at her lowest moment, to prostitution. Obinze packs up for London where he works cleaning toilets under a false name, squirreling away enough cash to make a bid at a sham marriage he hopes will gain him citizenship. Her lovers, Ifemelu and Obinze, fall for each other in secondary school, go off to university together secure, but then part ways when crippling strikes threaten their education in Nigeria. “Americanah” is social satire masquerading as romantic comedy. She does so in this new work with a ruthless honesty about the ugly and beautiful sides of both nations. So we are reminded by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s engaging third novel, “ Americanah.” Having spent a good chunk of time living in America as an adult and being a hawkeyed observer of manners and distinctions in class, Adichie is uniquely positioned to compare racial hierarchies in the United States to social striving in her native Nigeria. What’s as American as the invention of race? Self-invention.

Americanah chimamanda