Americanah

Adichie's most recent novel, Americanah, won the 2013 National Book Critics Award for Fiction in March 2014. 

Her novel was published in late 2013 with ideas of culture changes between the United States and Nigeria.

Rumor has it that this novel might be made into a film. More information is coming soon.

Evaluation

This book is by far the most "Americanized" out of Adichie's novels which is why the title fits perfectly. The novel shows that Adichie has been taking more time in America because her style is a lot more like America: mixed with diversity, originality and freedom. Adichie begins on the easy side of style with Purple Hibiscus' traditional structure and simple storyline then evolves into her own idea of American culture in Americanah. 

Word Choice

The style shows America through Adichie's word choice. In Purple Hibiscus, the author dropped Igbo dialect throughout the novel with contextual translations in between. Adichie's first novel sounds as if she came straight from Nigeria with a warm and nostalgic feeling of her hometown. In Adichie's second novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, she used Igbo but not as much as her first novel because her native country, Nigeria, was under war. The Nigerian author might have done this to show character being uncomfortable to speak Igbo with the chaos causing the nation to almost split apart.  In Americanah, however, there is little to no Igbo at all, resembling in the change in American culture. Her characters along with her style are beginning to assimilate into a new culture. The change could also resemble Adichie hiding her culture which she describes through Ifemelu is very common for foreigners to do in America. Immigrants hide their ethnicity as much as possible becuase they want to blend in with Americans. Ifemelu is described as wanting to remove her African accent so American people can stop discriminating her as being ignorant. 

Stereotypes

Adichie uses some stereotypes to show one country through the eyes of different people. Ifemelu's side of her experience with America is described as stressful and believes america is not all what it appears to be. However, the second main character, Obinze, dreams of being in America and admires anything American like novels and shows. The idea of a story having more than one side is importnat to Adichie as she describes in her TED Talk, "The Danger of a Single Story."

Race

Race plays a crucial role in Americanah with descriptions from other Africans that are in the United States. Ifemelu, the ambitious Nigerian woman, depicts how the entire continent of Africa is combined into one nation when describing ethnicity in America. She experiences this when she gets her done by a woman from Senegal. The woman has lived in Senegal for over 15 years and explains how Americans do not even know where African countries like Ghana and Mali are. Adichie uses this character to poke fun at American ignorance when it comes to other cultures. 

Figurative Language

Americanah also resembles a unique form of figurative language just like in her previous two novels. The language remains vivid with pictures and imagery throughout the novel. The descriptions include items that were not normally heard on a daily basis since the main character, Ifemelu, describes how different America is from Nigeria.  

Overall, the novel shows a different side of America that is not normally heard.