Gender matters everywhere in the world. And I would like today to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and women who are truer to themselves. I am a mostly passive feminist. I am definitely a feminist. I believe women have the right to equal rights and equal opportunities. I believe people should be able to be the people they are and not have to fit within prescribed cultural gender roles. […]
Avoiding a single story through many stories
I’ve been super enthralled with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie this CBR, and I thought I needed to read her collection of short stories to make the reading experience complete. As it turns out, there’s a speech/essay published called “We Should All be Feminists,” so I’ll read that too. But I do feel glad for reading her short story collection, as I have more teaching ideas for the next year and beyond. The Thing Around Your Neck focuses on many of the same themes, ideas, or settings […]
Adichie just needs to write all the books.
Do you remember when I raved about Purple Hibiscus? Or Half of a Yellow Sun? Child’s play. Both novels totally pale in comparison to the incredible scope and complexity that make up Americanah. I actually am seriously considering changing up my fall class reading list so that I can include Americanah. And Adichie is definitely one of my favorite contemporary authors. The novel focuses on two Nigerian teenagers, Ifemelu and Obinze, who fall in love and want a life that will bring them beyond the […]
We could have had it all
Americanah centers on a love story between Ifemelu, beautiful and outspoken, and Obinze, self-assured and thoughtful. They fall head over heals for each other as teenagers in troubled Nigeria, still under military dictatorship. Constant strikes put strain on the educational system so Ifemelu heads to college in the United States while Obinze stays in Africa. In the States, Ifemelu deals with culture shock, isolation, and depression. Eventually she starts a successful blog where she writes about race from the perspective of a non-American black person. […]
A beautiful, elegaic book in which to Cannonball.
Oh, this book. This beautiful, sad, moving book. I can’t even imagine my literary life without Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in it. Americanah is going straight to my to-read list. If you’ve never read anything by hers, do yourself a favor and read this book. Half of a Yellow Sun takes place when Biafra is asserting its independence from Nigeria. It follows a beautifully complex array of characters: a teenager, Ugwu who comes to work as a houseboy for a professor, Odenigbo; the professor himself; Olanna, […]
This should have just been a TED Talk.
Edit to add: I have no idea why all my paragraphs are messed up below! Sorry! I just didn’t really care for this book. I know. I’m sorry. I wanted to like it. Everyone else loves it! I tried. There were whole sections I liked a lot! I love her other books! But at the end, I put it down and felt like I’d just finished my assigned reading for an undergraduate course on racism in America. Not in a “wow, what a thought-provoking novel!” kind of way. […]
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