Overall, superb; a magnificently well-written novel. Its brilliance is simultaneously that of the micro aspects of narrative - a carefully balanced scene, the momentary rush of emotion, and of a broader and impressively balanced narrative time. Perhaps the thing I loved most about it was the pace at which we come to know and inhabit its two central figures, Ifemelu and Obinze. Rather than straightforwardly telling us their story and then their present, or even taking a straightforwardly episodic approach to narrative, Adichie weaves masterfully between past and present, one figure and the other, such that their becoming known to us becomes something symphonic. It has an immense scale, and manages between its macroscopic interests and intense emotional and individual attention with an unusual deftness. Unfortunately, though, I found that its achievements are limited largely to its first four hundred pages. In the last section of the book its balance fell apart. Adichie feels as though she is suddenly rushing towards an end whose simplicity feels a reduction of all that the book has been to this point; even ending on a more uncertain note would have afforded the conclusion more profundity, I think.