Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Oh my gosh is this book great.  First of all, the author is fantastic.  I will never forget her TED talk about Chinua Achebe and how important it was for her to see that there were authors who told stories about the life that she led growing up in Nigeria.  She was a well read child, but the world she read about was a European world and nothing like the life she was living.  As a writer, it appears that she is writing about the world within which she lives.

Unlike her previous two novels, there is not a lot of what I would consider to be traditional trauma.  This book is about being an immigrant in the United States, and specifically about being black and not American.  The Booker Prize short list book 'We Need New Names' by NoViolet Bulawayo covers similar territory, but this book is more powerful and better written. 

The gist of the story is this--that everything about America comes as a shock.  The first is that it often really isn't the land of opportunity for the recent immigrant--if you come with an education, or you get one here, than it can be, but even for an immigrant with some college, an undocumented laborer has few shoices.  It is the land of opportunity for the next generation--but even that comes with a few caveats.  The kids grow up in America and are influenced by American values, which may impede their future success.  Then there is the issue of race, which is huge.  Africans are shocked by how much of a problem race is in America.  Adichie manages to address this complex emotionally charged subject in a way that is gentle and illuminating.  This is a fantastic book.