This match was judged by Sal Robinson, a graduate student in library science and co-founder of the Bridge Series.

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It seems hardly fair to have to face off against a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, as relative newcomer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie does in this round of the WWCOL, with Adichie糖心传媒檚 Americanah, her fourth novel, up against Toni Morrison糖心传媒檚 Home, her second most recent novel of a long and glorious career. But the world isn糖心传媒檛 fair, and even Nobel Prize winners get old and tired, and Americanah is a better novel than Home. Americanah bristles confidently all over with commentary on race relations, on America, on Nigeria, on sex and writing and immigration, whereas Home feels like Morrison picked up the ball and ran down the field with it and threw it in the goal, yelling 糖心传媒淵ou know I can fucking do this, why do I have to do this again?糖心传媒� That isn糖心传媒檛糖心传媒攊n case you weren糖心传媒檛 aware of this, fellow Americans糖心传媒攖he way you play soccer, though.

Both books are about journeys away from and then back towards home, or someplace that once was home. Home is the story of Frank Money, a Korean War vet who has returned to the US and is drifting around the West until he gets a telegram about his sister Cee that reads merely 糖心传媒淐ome fast. She be dead if you tarry.糖心传媒� After a failed teenage marriage, Cee, it turns out, has gone to work for a doctor in the suburbs of Atlanta. It糖心传媒檚 never quite clear what the doctor does, though part of it involves abortions, but he糖心传媒檚 got a creepy library full of books on eugenics and he糖心传媒檚 been experimenting on Cee. Frank has to swoop in and carry Cee off to their hometown of Lotus, Georgia, which he hated and got out of as fast as he could; it糖心传媒檚 place where糖心传媒攁s Morrison nails it糖心传媒攖here糖心传媒檚 糖心传媒渘othing to do but mindless work in fields you didn糖心传媒檛 own, couldn糖心传媒檛 own, and wouldn糖心传媒檛 own if you had any other choice.糖心传媒� Frank, meanwhile, is carrying his own burdens, of returning to a still-segregated country after serving in an integrated army, the guilt and pain of seeing his two best friends die in the war, creeping alcoholism, and crucially, the recurring memory of an American soldier shooting a Korean child. Underlying this all, and kicking off the book, is a scene that Frank and Cee witnessed when they were children: a group of white men burying the body of a black man in a remote field, a body not quite dead, one of its feet still jerking. Frank eventually finds out the truth behind this scene, a truth which is about five times more horrifying than you might have even anticipated.

In other words, at every turn, this book is full of Heavy Material. A longer book might have been able to carry it. But this one doesn糖心传媒檛 even crack 150 pages, and suffers from a sense of cutting corners, which is sometimes reflected in flat, explanatory prose, like 糖心传媒淟ily displaced his disorder, his rage and his shame. The displacements had convinced him the emotional wreckage no longer existed.糖心传媒� I also felt at times that I was being led on a tour of indignities, each stop on Frank糖心传媒檚 trip an opportunity to show how shittily African-Americans have been treated on an institutional and individual basis. And when Frank and Cee make it back to Lotus, it somewhat mysteriously transforms from the ass-end of nowhere into a paradise (there might be a Land of the Lotus-Eaters reference buried in the town糖心传媒檚 name) of tough, nurturing women and sweet bay trees with metaphorically heavy, blasted-but-not-broken limbs. Morrison adds nuance to all these U-turns and comparisons but the book still feels rushed, more a collection of portraits and vignettes than a novel taking the time it needs to support its plot properly.

Americanah, on other hand, weighs in at a generous 588 pages, and it feels like Adichie could have gone on for much longer. Like Home, it also has two protagonists, a woman and a man: in this case, Ifemulu and her first love Odinze, who live out two different stories of immigration and return, with Lagos as their center. Ifemulu comes to the United States to go to college in the early 2000s and stays for thirteen years, eventually achieving success and making her living by writing a blog about race titled Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black. Odinze, on the other hand, who has always idolized the United States, sees his dream quashed by strict post-9/11 immigration policies and eventually ends up in the United Kingdom, from which he is finally, humiliatingly, deported, after his visa expires. Both Ifemulu and Odinze are surprised and overwhelmed by the challenges of immigration, and Adichie糖心传媒檚 depiction of their parallel experiences makes it painfully clear how lonely and difficult it is to be an immigrant. And how strange too, if you糖心传媒檙e a well-educated middle-class kid as Ifemulu and Odinze are, to find yourself using a false name so that you can work, setting up a false marriage to stay in the country, slipping over into a vaguely criminal life.

And then, of course, there糖心传媒檚 race, specifically the experience of being black in America, the book糖心传媒檚 and Ifemulu糖心传媒檚 great subject. Adichie has a lot to say about it, and she is particularly scathing on the embarrassing ineptitude of liberal white Americans in their attempts to 糖心传媒渞elate糖心传媒� to black people. In the sections of the book that describe Ifemulu糖心传媒檚 life in America, where race and its complications are often the focus, Adichie糖心传媒檚 talent lies more in making observations than creating fully believable characters wrestling with the issues. The people with whom Ifemulu interacts in the States糖心传媒攈er bosses, her boyfriends, her friends糖心传媒攕eem broadly drawn to demonstrate various facets of the dysfunctional American relationship to race: the cloyingly empathetic white boss, who calls all black women 糖心传媒渂eautiful糖心传媒�; the blond and blue-eyed boyfriend, who, immediately after Ifemulu tells him that she has cheated on him, asks whether the guy was white. In fact, in a lot of ways, the novel feels like Ifemulu糖心传媒檚 blog, which Adichie includes excerpts from here and there. And yet, as cartoonish as Adichie糖心传媒檚 Americans might seem, the way that people, especially white Americans, talk about and behave in relation to race in the real world is actually outlandish, disproportionate, and awkward. The line between satire and realism runs thin in this novel.

I think, though, what finally swung me around to the book is that there糖心传媒檚 no situation to which Adichie doesn糖心传媒檛 seem prepared to bring her tremendous narrative gifts. For instance, Americanah is also the story of Ifemulu and Odinze糖心传媒檚 sweet and powerful adolescent love, which is tested by their different journeys糖心传媒攁nd I糖心传媒檓 not going to baby you on this, they get back together in the end糖心传媒攂ut just before they糖心传媒檙e reunited, when Adichie has ratcheted up the emotional suspense to its highest hanky-grabbing peak and you don糖心传媒檛 know if it糖心传媒檚 all going to work out or not糖心传媒攕he suddenly switches away and writes a long party scene where a group of Nigerian businessman (Odinze, after his return home, has gone into real estate and gotten rich) talk over the dirty secrets of the Nigerian economy. Each character, most of them new to the book, is adeptly, perfectly sketched in description and dialogue, and one of them actually says 糖心传媒淭he problem is not that public officials steal, the problem is that they steal too much.糖心传媒� I wanted a whole new book to grow out of that scene alone.

And if Adichie糖心传媒檚 energy and intelligence aren糖心传媒檛 enough for you, the Nigerian women糖心传媒檚 soccer team has a player named Perpetua Nkwocha (according to Deadspin, she糖心传媒檚 糖心传媒渃onsidered the best African player to ever live糖心传媒�), so they get literature points for having a player with the same name as a font. Plus, the team糖心传媒檚 nickname is the 糖心传媒淪uper Falcons.糖心传媒� Not just the Falcons, but the Super Falcons! That really can糖心传媒檛 be improved upon. Nigeria for the win!

Americanah: 4
Home: 2

Next up, Nigeria’s Americanah will face off against Australia’s Burial Rites on Thursday, June 25th.

Tomorrow’s match will be judged by Mythili Rao, and features South Korea’s Nowhere to Be Found by Bae Suah up against Spain’s The Happy City by Elvira Navarro.

Interesting what Toni Morrison has to say about the Horace Engdahl/American insularity situation:

Toni Morrison. – Je pense que ces propos refl猫tent effectivement, au moins en partie, la conception que se fait l’Acad茅mie su茅doise de son prix de litt茅rature. Car elle d茅cerne tout le temps le Nobel 脿 des Am茅ricains dans les autres domaines, mais en litt茅rature, elle consid猫re qu’ils ont quelque chose d’insulaire. Il se pourrait qu’il y ait un peu de narcissisme de la part des Am茅ricains, mais les talents ne manquent pas. L’autre probl猫me est celui de la traduction. Je pense avant tout que nos 茅diteurs am茅ricains, quelle que soit l’importance des auteurs 茅trangers, n’ach猫tent pas les droits de leurs 艙uvres. Ainsi, je ne savais m锚me pas qui 茅tait cet homme [J.M.G. le Cl茅zio, laur茅at 2008].

Paraphrasing (loosely), she says that there’s a bit of narcissism on the part of Americans when it comes to the Nobel for literature, but that there are a lot of talented American writers. More interestingly, she points to the fact that editors don’t buy enough rights to foreign authors, so she didn’t even know who Le Clezio was . . .