What does Ndibe think of New York, his first stop in America, as noted in the memoir, Never Look an American in the Eye: A Memoir of Flying Turtles, Colonial Ghosts, and the Making of a Nigerian American?

New York City strikes Ndibe as full of extremes and excess. He is overwhelmed by the icy cold of the New York winter, the "dizzying parade of material objects" he sees in Uwazurike's apartment, and by the number of people traveling on the subway.