They would not understand why people like him, who were raised well-fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction. ' understood the fleeing from war, from the kind of poverty that crushed human souls, but they would not understand the need to escape from the ominous lethargy of choicelessness. As Ifemelu tells us, in Nigeria, she was categorized, if at all, by tribe, not by race but in America she 'had become black.' Ifemelu's cornrows and Afro puffs play a big part in her transformation from person to racial category. Americanah may be the most hair-conscious contribution yet to the canon of contemporary immigrant literature. During that time we'll hear a fair amount about hair (including a painful flashback to the time that Ifemelu decided to relax her hair to get that 'white-girl swing' and land her first white-collar job).

It will take Ifemelu six hours of sitting in a hot salon to get the medium kinky twist with extensions that she wants.

That's why she opens her new novel, Americanah, with a scene in which her main character, a young Nigerian woman named Ifemelu, must take the commuter train from Princeton, where she's living on a post-graduate fellowship, into Trenton just to get her hair done. How?įirst things first: Can we talk about hair? Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written a big knockout of a novel about immigration, American dreams, the power of first love, and the shifting meanings of skin color but, as Adichie has said in interviews, she also knows that black women's hair can speak volumes about racial politics. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Americanah Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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