It’s been 12 years since Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie published her last novel, Americanah, to overwhelming acclaim. In the time since, she’s delivered a viral TED talk on feminism, been sampled by Beyoncé, been denounced by students for anti-trans speech, and denounced those students in turn for cancel culture. Now, at last, Adichie has finally released a new novel: Dream Count.
Sometimes it’s hard to read Dream Count cleanly. It feels as though you have to scrub away the cultural silt that has accumulated over its author’s image to meet the text in good faith. In places, it reads as though Adichie feels the same way. She keeps having her characters go on bitter tangents about the piety and hypocrisy of American liberals, or recite ex-tempore speeches on Feminism 101. (“Dear men, I understand that you don’t like abortion, but the best way to reduce abortion is if you take responsibility for where your male bodily fluids…