Americanah

As thoughtful, nuanced, incisive commentary and reflection, it is difficult to find fault with this work. As a work of narrative fiction, however, it does have its limitations. It's hard to escape the feeling that the narrative arc is only a vessel for the observational aspects. I can't help but think that what the author really wanted to do was to write an incisive essay about these issues, or perhaps a series of short stories that examined the intersection of race and national identity through a more personal lens, but knowing that essays and short stories don't get broad attention and readership, she had to find a way to craft a novel instead. This results in an awkward narrative structure, where too much time is put into expositional dialogue that feels like it has been written to explain rather than to reveal. The result is that the work feels bloated and the pace plodding at times. The snippets of blog posts seem to be the most authentic, well written and visceral parts of the book, but it just feels like what she really wanted to do was write a book of the blog content, and felt forced to turn it into literary fiction.

I do recommend this book. I did enjoy reading it, and appreciated it's thoughtfulness, but couldn't love it as a complete novel.