My Americanah Experience

It all started on May 14, I got the call that my copy of Americanah was ready to be picked up from the local bookstore. I picked it up and headed straight to the library for some uninterrupted reading. [Obvi I snuck an instagram picture in.]

A little over 3 weeks later, on June 7 at 4:23am, I wrote this after finishing the book. It is not a review per say, just what I was feeling in that moment. I have not edited it. 

477 pages and 3 weeks later, I am finished. I just read the last sentence of Americanah and I am too happy to feel the sadness that I usually feel when I finish a book. My mind is racing because I feel like I am in Ikoyi with Ifem and Ceiling. I want to know more about their life and their love. I love them. I want Obinze to be real and I want to meet him and I want to love someone like him. I want to move back home.
It blows my mind that Chimamanda wrote about a girl who I can relate to so strongly. When I read about Ifem and all her feelings, I kept thinking of myself and my own life. It's like Chimamanda was writing to me. Like she was affirming me and all of the things I want and feel. I know many people can feel they can relate but I am so moved that it is hard to explain. Not only are the observations on race so well articulated and honest but they make me wish the blog really existed. There is still so much to say on that topic. Everything in this book was something I am familiar with. So many things that I have thought about. Things I am still thinking about. The enduring love of Ifem and Obinze. The way it was so complicated but you could feel it and you wanted it to work out. I felt like I was there and I smiled and I laughed with them and my heart swelled at the thought of their reunion. Chimamanda's writing evokes so much emotion and the imagery is so vivid that once again, I feel like I was in Nigeria, like it is a place I have been to often. The places, the people, the names, the music.....it all seems so familiar. I wonder how it is possible for someone to write so deeply to my soul. For me to see myself all over this book and all over Ifem. Blogger, natural haired, desperately wanting to go back home, works at a magazine (well not yet) but I mean my goodness, am I the African diaspora cliche? Anyway, another masterpiece by Chimamanda. Thank you.

This is what my book looked like at the end of it all. It got rained on one day because I insisted on taking it everywhere.

 Do something nice for yourself, read this book.