Each week I review the short fiction from the latest issue of The New Yorker . However, since the issue comes out on Monday, and I get it any time between Wednesday and Saturday, sometimes the reviews are a bit late... (Okay, I'm reeeally far behind here, so this will be brief. This is the story from the Mar. 18th issue.) One of the great things about fiction, even in this age of hyper-available information, is that it can transport you to unfamiliar places or, even more significantly, show you life through an unfamiliar perspective. "Checking Out" is both of those. Set in working-class London, the story follows six months in the life of Obinze, a young man from Nigeria who has come to the country on his mother's student visa and is attempting to have a "sham marriage" as they call it in Britain, to a U.K. citizen in order to get his permanent papers. I know nothing about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie , other than that she's Nigerian and she writes i
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