Americanah

I want to sit on a park bench with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and have her tell me the story of everyone that walks by. In Americanah she is scathing, witty and honest. With fine detail she manages to capture the gum snapping New Jersey girl at the hair salon, desperate to land a husband; to the newly moneyed, smug liberals at a dinner party.

I found myself reading it in small snippets, poring over every phrase. Even now I can flip to any random page and there find something finely wrought. No one better writes of the “water” we all swim in.