Fans feel Chimamanda Adichie’s ‘Americanah’ isn’t a ‘great book’

This week, BBC ranked Chimamanda Adichie’s third novel, ‘Americanah‘ as one of the top 10 books of 2013. The New York Times also named the book as one of the 10 best books of 2013 but a handful of her fans feel the novel isn’t much of a ‘great book’.

Reacting to the New York Times feature, the general comments on several Nigerian websites (and mostly BellaNaija) suggest that readers and followers of the Enugu State born writer are NOT big fans of the book.

The number of negative comments (towards the book and not the writer) is alarming. Read below…

’twasnt a great book…a let down tbh compared to her other work #myhonestopinion’, a comment read. A response to that comment from another reader was ‘same here i gave it a weak 6.5‘.

‘I have been saying this. compared to purple hibiscus and half of a yellow sun, americanah is a huge let down‘, sefi-ann wrote.

Dan wrote ‘not her best. but still the best to make it on their top 10. i actually think it was better than her 1st book‘.

And the comments went on and on…

‘Totally agree with U guys. Bought the book and even got it autographed. Gave it out yet I still have my tattered copy of half of a yellow sun. Go figure‘, Shocked one wrote.

‘The book was WEAK! I tire for over hyping oooo. My biggest regret in books I bought this year was Americanah. As in I regret‘,

‘I thank God I listened to my friends and borrowed this book instead of buying it. Sincerely not her best book by any margin…Of course Oyibos will like it because it shows them some Africans or African Americans are capable of having intellectual conversations (whether coherent or not)… U will only understand my comment if u have read the book‘.

‘I didn’t love it. It felt preachy to me. Congratulations to her though‘.

‘I liked Americanah a lot, but it isn’t my favorite Adichie book. Purple Hibiscus still holds that spot‘.

‘The thing with Americanah is, it reads like the diary of a woman who eventuakky decided to spill all she had bottled up. Every Nigerian immigrant, especially international student in US America can relate to every page of that book…it is almost like she wrote a collage of every immigrant Nigerian’s – infact – African’s diary. So, while I think it is a brilliantly written book, it is too familiar for me to be in awe of it‘.