Americanah

She came back to Lagos and the hair salon became a novel. Best opening scene in years.

In America she was suddenly Black, a category she had to enroll in. Adichie explains immigration like physics.

Ifemelu's blog, Raceteenth, said what the room wouldn't. The book is the blog's best post.

Obinze in London, working with someone else's papers. The dignity of the undocumented, written plainly.

The accent she put on, then took off. Assimilation as a costume with a zipper.

Kimberly's liberal guilt served at dinner. The book seasons it and lets it sit.

Blaine's perfection was a curriculum she failed. Even love has prerequisites he authored.

Auntie Uju in Brooklyn, the accent drop and the morgue shifts. The American dream's night shift.

Dear Non-American Black, the blog post that read me first.

Carried out of it: home is not where you're tolerated. It's where you're legible.