Detailed plot synopsis reviews of Americanah |
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But then Obinze saw a huge pile of shit sitting on a toilet lid, and he felt like he had been punched in the jaw! Obinze had a mental breakdown and ran away. You think he would have seen shit before--certainly his own. But the quantity of this shit broke him. He quit that job, never to return.
But Obinze got a much better job, cleaning hallways in a detergent packing warehouse. Ha, ha! However, when the man whose government papers Obinze is using demands more of his salary, Obinze refuses and the man exposes Obinze, and he has to leave the job.
Obinze eventually gets arrested and gets deported back to Nigeria. This confused me because I thought he had gotten his sham marriage, but evidentially he hadn't gone through with it. The book does not make that clear.
Click here to see the rest of this reviewBack to Ifemelu. Curt has just broken up with her for letting another man bone her. What really outraged Curt was that Ifemelu fooled around with another white man! If he had been black, maybe Curt would have understood, heh heh.
Meanwhile Ifemelu had to deal with constant racism. When she was introduced as Curt's boyfriend (before she broke up with him), she felt white people looking at her with confusion, wondering why a white guy like Curt would date a black woman. Again, nobody ever said anything, so we have to rely on Ifemelu's mindreading abilities to understand that she is being subject to racist thought attacks.
Ifemelu is also angry at womens' magazines for having few pictures of black women. Since most women in America are not black, those magazines mostly have pictures of not-black people, but Ifemelu thinks magazines in America should be like magazines in Africa. More racism by white people!
Ifemelu starts writing a blog detailing all the way that white people in America are racist. The blog immediately becomes very popular. Very quickly she starts making money, a lot of it. This novel tediously features many of her columns describing the numerous ways that white people are racist. With all the money she makes from her blog, Ifemelu buy a condominium. America is so racist and yet Ifemelu is getting rich in racist America. How can that be possible?
Ifemelu meets a black American Yale professor named Blaine. Before long Blaine is boning Ifemelu. Ifemelu hates Blaine's sister Shan, who she feels looks down on African women like her. Shan is black but American black and she supposedly hates Africans, so does that make her racist too? I don't know, I'm so confused.
Ifemelu tires of Blaine, as she tired of all her previous boyfriends. Their sex becomes passionless, at least until Obama runs for president. Then their sex becomes wonderful again. It feels like Obama is in the room with them when they are having sex. I am not making that up, this is what is written in the book.
Ifemelu checks the news every day to see if Obama has been assassinated. She is convinced America is that racist. And yet Obama gets elected President without a single attempt on his life. America has elected a black president. But Ifemelu continues grinding out her blog describing how America (which just elected a black president) is still racist.
When Obama gets elected, Ifemelu has tears in her eyes, joyous that the new president is "black like me". For Ifemelu, skin color is the most important thing. She's clearly a black racist. Imagine if John McCain had won and a white voter cried because the new president was "white like me". That's the same kind of racism.
Meanwhile, Auntie Uju's son Dike tries to kill himself. We never ever find out why. Ifemelu is convinced it has something to do with racism, but she never talks to Dike about it (he recovers).
