Americanah

Obinze sits in a bookstore café, eating and reading, hoping to “become Obinze again” (317). He reads American novels rather than British newspapers, trying to “find a resonance, a shaping of his longings” (317). He worries about his forthcoming sham marriage. He has given money to several brokers, but has nothing to show for it. A Bangladeshi mother and her nine-year-old son sit down next to him, as the café is full. He strikes up a conversation with them and learns that they are visiting the Tate Museum. The boy’s father died recently, and this is the family’s first annual trip to London without him. He is attracted to the mother, which makes him think of Ifemelu and also of Tendai, a woman he has recently slept with. He leaves the café and texts Tendai. He sees a newspaper headline, full of fears about immigrants and asylum seekers, and tries to see the crisis from the British point of view, “illegal immigrants who were overcrowding an already crowded island” (320). He thinks again of Ifemelu. “He had never felt so lonely” (321).