Open City Summary
Teju Cole

Open City Overview

Open City, a novel by Teju Cole, centers on the character of Julius, a 28-year-old Nigerian man who has moved to the U.S. and is now a fellow in psychiatry at Columbia Presbyterian hospital in New York. In order to relieve the stress of his demanding job, Julius wanders through the various neighbors of the city. The novel consists mainly of his reflections on the experiences the Americans, immigrants, and visitors he meets in his travels, each of whom reflects the complexities of the city’s racial and colonial history. Julius, it turns out, has some dark reasons to be wandering through the city, distracting himself from elements of his own past. The novel’s main themes are avoidance, guilt, racial violence and assimilation.