Never Look an American in the Eye: A Memoir of Flying Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the Making of a Nigerian American Paperback – September 12, 2017

Okey is brilliant, and his observations are really amazing. I loved this book and seeing it reviewed on TV before I bought it. Highly recommended!

Recommended read for those interested in great storytelling that combines a historical account of Nigeria with an analysis of race, colonialism, war, friendship, struggle, and love.

Great book and I really liked it. Got it fast.

Few Americans consider what newcomers experience before they arrive here. Okey paints that picture and entertains us at the same time.

This is a very difficult book to write a review on. First of all, this is a genre that I only dabble in, but I have always been fascinated by the experiences that other people have when they are first part of something that is my "normal." I think it opens one's eyes to how different we all are, and that one person's normal is another person's "completely insane." This is why I felt compelled to grab a book by a writer I'd never heard of, about a transition I'd never go through, to learn about a land I'll likely never be able to visit.Okey Ndibe is an author who has written a few books, however rather than being a fiction novel, this is a personal series of essays - his own "Coming to America" only without Eddie Murphy and with a little more class. Each of these essays is in itself very well written and thought provoking. Most of the essays are interesting, I personally enjoyed the stories of his still being in Africa the most. Africa is a continent filled with a multitude of cultures, levels of socio-economic development, and various levels of political unrest. I was fortunate enough to have brushed over some African history while in high school, however much of that is now relegated to the back of my mind somewhere between the "I think I heard something about that once" section and "That sounds vaguely familiar." So to get back to the review - I found the essays that took place in Africa to be very interesting, as well as the essays on his father (which included a lot of Nigerian History that I will read more on later). His first experience of winter was also entertaining. Each of these essays is written with love of his new country for all of it's mysteries, strangeness, and different cultures. To the American reader it can be fun to see how things we take for granted as normal life to every one, can be so foreign to others.Where I found that I could not give this book the 4 or 5 stars that my soul wanted to, was the rather jarring and disjointed flow from one essay to another. Perhaps this was meant to be read a single essay at a time, with time between to soak up the feelings and ideas presented. But I read this from beginning to end on a flight from Detroit to LA, and followed it up with the new Neil Gaimen novel (I should have brought more books for the trip home). It was in the oddness in how the essays flowed that kept jerking me out of the happy reader cloud I was in while reading the actual essays. An example - before he leaves his homeland, his aunt asks him not to marry an American woman - so that they will be able to talk with his wife once he finds one. A few short essays later, he's clearly married and we have no idea where this woman came from or who she is... is she an "American woman?" or did he find someone from his homeland. Who is she? She seems like she should have gotten a little more page time because I assume the dating world in the US might have been a little different and could easily have played into the themes of the book. Then suddenly we get to the end where he meets his wife. Still almost no information about her whatsoever.Even though the book as a whole felt disjointed - one can't argue with the writing of the individual essays. They are a fascinating look into the experience of becoming an American. And even though I'm giving this book 3 stars (I'm still wavering between 3 and 4) I still think some of the essays (particularly the first one) should be mandatory high school reads.

What happens when a person's perceptions of the United States are determined by watching vintage American Western movies?The result is "Never Look an American in the Eye", Okey Ndibe's multi-faceted tale of his immigration to the U.S. in 1988. Ranging from the humorous to the to the sharply serious, Ndibe uses a series of anecdotes to explain how and why he chose to leave his native Nigeria, and what happened on his arrival here.American culture is disseminated to the world in often enigmatic ways. Often it is through media, particularly television and movies. Needless to say this can give viewers on the other side of the world a very different idea on what the "real" America is like. The result can be a shocking wake-up call to the newly arrived potential citizen.Ndibe does an excellent job of conveying this inevitable culture shock, and the emotional effect it can have on the hopeful immigrant. Between his stories of feeling lost in the swirling tide of new sights and experiences, he also injects bits of humor: the similarity between the pronunciation of his first name, Okey, and the common English exclamation "okay" leads to some exchanges worthy of Abbott and Costello. Examples of American misconceptions about Africa and Africans also serve to lighten the mood while illustrating our cultural indifference.Amd the mood can be exceedingly dark as well. His tale of being the victim of racial proiling by the police, hampered by his less than perfect grasp of the American justice system (he thought he was being questioned for looking the policeman in the eye) echoes an uncomfortable reality for many Americans, not just the most recent arrivals.Throughout this portrayal, Ndibe reinforces the certainty that underneath the cosmetic differences, we are all people just trying to make our way. Towards the end of the book, where he relates the death of his father and his return to Nigeria for the funeral, we see a fellow human being, dealing with the pain and emotion that cuts across racial and ethnic lines."Never Look an American in the Eye" points out our preconconceptions about immigrants and immigration without beating us up with them, but refuses to ignore them. The United States is an immigrant country, yet we sometimes turn a blind eye to that fact. Okey Ndibe reminds us that there are still people around the world who dream of a better life in the United States, just as our forefathers did, and that they have much they can contribute to our country and our culture.

Item as described.

The narrator has confidence that crosses the line to arrogance. An American who seeks to change the customs of a country would be called an “ugly” American. What do you call a Nigerian who comes to America with that mindset? The diction is”florid” as one friend said. Lots of impressive Nigerian writing these days. This isn’t a good example. Repetitive in places.