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BOOKS I READ: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013). A young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, travels to Princeton, fulfilling a dream of going to college in America. She leaves behind her family, and friends, including Obinze, her confidant and soulmate. She becomes a successful blogger on race, focusing on tips for non-American Blacks. After America spits her back out to her homeland, she’s determined to make a life for herself in Lagos. She’s long lost touch with Obinze, who is now a member of the moneyed class in Nigeria after an embarrassing period in London performing odd jobs, including cleaning toilets, before he’s deported in handcuffs. He’s married, now, with a daughter, and still in love with Ifemelu.
There are a number of astute comments about immigrants in Adichie’s novel, such as a character showing the “exaggerated gratitude that came from immigrant insecurity.” Ifemelu’s blog posts can be biting and hilarious. “Understanding America for the Non-American Black. What Hispanic Means” is one of those. She groups, among others, a “chocolate-skinned woman from Peru” with a “blue-eyed guy from Argentina,” concluding that as long as you speak Spanish, “but not from Spain and voilá, you’re a race called Hispanic.”
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