I don't really know what to say about Americanah, other than that I really enjoyed it and thought it was brilliant. It was...evocative is the best word I can think of, almost challengingly so in its embrace of certain stereotypes and absolute refusal to embrace others. A story that tells things as they are (for lack of a better term) and both aims for and subverts a kind of honesty about the world as it is.
It is also one of the best novels about race and racism in the 21st century that I have read in a while (which, to be fair, could just be a comment on my reading list). And it was funny. It was funny in that way that makes you want to cringe (and perhaps apologize for providing the fodder before you remember how terrible an idea that is) and yet I smiled through reading it anyway. Comedic roasts don't always make good novels, but this one - placing it somewhere between the story of being an immigrant and the story of falling in love - handles all three very well.