Americanah

Ifemelu finds a job posting for a features editor at a women’s magazine, Zoe, and goes on an interview. She meets with Aunty Onenu, the editor-in-chief, a “well-preserved” (483) older woman whose husband indulgently bankrolls the magazine. Ifemelu treats the meeting like an American interview, full of ideas for how to change the magazine and increase readership. Ranyinudo is amused by this: “‘If you had not come from America, she would have fired you immediately’” (484).

Ifemelu gets the job, and keeps thinking she sees Obinze around town. She moves into a new house in a wealthy neighborhood, one she liked as a child. She hires workers to replace the tiles, but becomes enraged by their shoddy workmanship. She berates and threatens them, surprising herself. “Where had that come from, the false bravado, the easy resort to threats?” (487).

Obinze continues to send her emails, and she continues to reply, though she does not tell him she has moved back to Nigeria. 

Ifemelu spends the weekends with her parents, both of whom think she is still with Blaine, and that he will be visiting soon. She doesn’t correct them. She visits her old friends, but is not wholly comfortable with them, struggling to find “some remnants from her past that were no longer there” (490).