Americanah

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013

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Chapters 51-53Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 51 Summary

Ifemelu finally calls Obinze and tells him that she is back in Nigeria. They agree to meet at a local bookstore café, and hug when they see each other. “[H]e pulled her ever so slightly close to him, and for a moment too long, as though to say he was not being chummy-chummy” (528). They sit in the café and talk, she telling him about Aunty Uju and Dike, he telling her about his family and his discomfort with his newfound wealth. They discuss Ifemelu’s race blog, too, and the ways she’s changed. Obinze tells her, “‘You’re more self-aware. Maybe more guarded” (534). She learns that he no longer adores America, and feels a “pang” when she realizes “he had visited America and she had not known” (536). He tells her about Emenike, who never visited when Obinze was deported, but has begun calling now that Obinze is rich. Then, Obinze leaves, needing to get back to work.

They have lunch that weekend and discuss her new returnee blog in more detail. He offers to invest money in the blog, but she turns him down. At Ifemelu’s house, they watch a peacock, then discuss books and the village boys Obinze is putting through school. They kiss gently, “then their tongues were touching and she felt boneless against him” (542). He pulls away and asks her why she cut off all contact in America. Hesitantly, she tells him the story of the tennis coach. He sympathizes with her and says he wishes she had told him. Ifemelu collapses in sobs, finally feeling “safe” (543).

Chapter 52 Summary

While driving around with Ifemelu, Obinze suggests they play table tennis at a local club. Afterwards, they have lunch at the attached restaurant, where she checks her blog stats too often. They agree to meet the next day, though Obinze seems “hesitant to come too close or to hold her, as though afraid of being defeated by their attraction” (546). The next day at lunch, Ifemelu complains about the smoking in the restaurant and that the fries are made from frozen potatoes, complaints Obinze sees as solidly American. Later, she asks if he has condoms. He does not, and Ifemelu is suddenly angry, “furious that he would drop her off and go home to his other life” (549). He asks if she is still with Blaine, and she asks whether his wife knows where he goes. He leaves for a few minutes, then returns. He apologizes, and there was “a weightless, seamless desire” between them. They have sex. He does not sleep over, but he calls her the next morning.

Chapter 53 Summary

Ifemelu is happier than she has been in years. She and Obinze fall into a steady routine. “This was love, to be eager for tomorrow” (553). Still, she resents the time he must spend with his wife, resents all their lost years and what could have been. “He was determined to give their relationship as much dignity as he could” (554), but he can never stay overnight. One night, as he cooks for them, he tries to explain to Ifemelu the duty he has to Kosi, but she does not want to hear it. She asks him to leave, but he doesn’t, and she is glad he stayed. He invites her to come with him to Abuja, where he has work meetings. She agrees. The next day, he sends her a text rescinding the invitation. “I need some time to think things through. I love you” (557). She sends him a text back, calling him a coward. He visits her apartment and tries to explain, but she sends him away.

Chapter 51-53 Analysis

Now that Obinze and Ifemelu are in a relationship again, albeit a secret one, Ifemelu inevitably finds herself regressing to her secondary school days. She has unburdened her secret about the tennis instructor to Obinze and he has accepted her, so she is “safe” (543) and in some ways, seems to act like her silence and their years apart never happened. “This was love” (553), she says. “To be eager for tomorrow” (553). This line directly parallels her earlier line about depression being a state in which you are “unable to visualize tomorrow” (187) and so her relationship with Obinze is the epitome of happiness, just as depression is the antithesis of happiness. She experiences mood swings, moving between great joy, great worry, and great jealous. “Had she felt this way as a teenager? The emotions seemed absurd” (553).

While their relationship causes Ifemelu to replay the college years they might have had together if she hadn’t left for America, it causes Obinze to reassess his entire life. These responses are in keeping with their respective characters; Ifemelu is outspoken while Obinze, as Ifemelu herself notes, is reflective and careful. “He often paused before he spoke…as though he had such regard for his listeners that he wanted his words strung together in the best way possible” (533). Though he knows Kosi is not his true love like Ifemelu is, and that he “‘married her when [he] was feeling vulnerable’” (555), he is cautious in his decision-making, impressing on Ifemelu the gravity of breaking up a family.

In Chapter 51, Ifemelu says to Obinze about Lagos, “‘I kept thinking that things should have waited for me but they hadn’t’” (530). This simple statement takes on greater weight once she and Obinze begin their affair. She is jealous of Kosi, angry that Obinze will not stay the night, obsessed with how he negotiates both relationships and anxious of where she ranks. It is not just Lagos that Ifemelu expected to wait for her; it is Obinze, as well.