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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
This book grew on me as I read it. A moving telling of a tale of immigration from Zimbabwe to the U.S. through the voice of a young woman from ten years old through the next ten years or so. A very intelligent voice for whom I felt enormous empathy and liking.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
didn't like it as well as i'd hoped - it was good for slice of life portraits, but the lack of story or narrative made it hard for me to connect.
A beautiful and heartbreaking story about living in a country going through a dangerous unrest and moving to American only to find out the life of an immigrant is not what everyone thinks is the "American dream."
The audiobook narrator was amazing. I'm thinking second only to Jim Dale, she was that good.
The audiobook narrator was amazing. I'm thinking second only to Jim Dale, she was that good.
It's funny, reading reviews of NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names. On the one hand, you have the fact that this was nominated for many awards, and won most of them. On the other hand, you have a lot of reviewers saying how they felt the book fell short or "wasn't that good."
And while it's true that a lot of award winners are often baffling to even the most critical of readers (I'm still looking at you, Tinkers), We Need New Names is deceptive.
Told in a series of vignettes, each story here focuses on Darling, who we meet as a 10-year-old in her home in Zimbabwe. Through the course of her story, we see the abject poverty she and her friends are growing up in. We see the nonchalant acceptance of children whose friend is pregnant as the result of rape, even knowing that the pregnancy she's carrying will likely kill her in childbirth. We see the perspective of the children when it comes to the relief organizations and how they "help" and the dream of America from an outsider's perspective... and then an illegal immigrant's perspective.
It's a story that seems very simple on its surface, and the language is all Darling's, her stilted English learned in school before she could no longer attend. Her slang-infused English once she gets to America and learns from television and her friends. But what I think most of these "what IS this?" readers are missing is that it's more than the surface. This is a no-holds-barred look at ourselves, at our First-World view of the world and the clay feet that are so hard to see in ourselves.
I read this not long after the 2016 presidential election, so my view may have already been in just the right place to receive the message here. Maybe I was ready to see those clay feet. Maybe I'd already seen them. It's a hard thing, to read such an unrelenting takedown of how much world culture has been affected by the American behemoth, and the reality of what it's like here for those "illegals" everyone seems sure are just sucking public assistance dry, but I'd encourage everyone to take the time to really see it. My eyes may have already been open, but We Need New Names showed me how much more there is to see.
And while it's true that a lot of award winners are often baffling to even the most critical of readers (I'm still looking at you, Tinkers), We Need New Names is deceptive.
Told in a series of vignettes, each story here focuses on Darling, who we meet as a 10-year-old in her home in Zimbabwe. Through the course of her story, we see the abject poverty she and her friends are growing up in. We see the nonchalant acceptance of children whose friend is pregnant as the result of rape, even knowing that the pregnancy she's carrying will likely kill her in childbirth. We see the perspective of the children when it comes to the relief organizations and how they "help" and the dream of America from an outsider's perspective... and then an illegal immigrant's perspective.
It's a story that seems very simple on its surface, and the language is all Darling's, her stilted English learned in school before she could no longer attend. Her slang-infused English once she gets to America and learns from television and her friends. But what I think most of these "what IS this?" readers are missing is that it's more than the surface. This is a no-holds-barred look at ourselves, at our First-World view of the world and the clay feet that are so hard to see in ourselves.
I read this not long after the 2016 presidential election, so my view may have already been in just the right place to receive the message here. Maybe I was ready to see those clay feet. Maybe I'd already seen them. It's a hard thing, to read such an unrelenting takedown of how much world culture has been affected by the American behemoth, and the reality of what it's like here for those "illegals" everyone seems sure are just sucking public assistance dry, but I'd encourage everyone to take the time to really see it. My eyes may have already been open, but We Need New Names showed me how much more there is to see.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I picked this up for work-related reasons, but it's just not for me. It's ok, but I just didn't want to pick it back up and there are too many other books to read so I'm stopping about 2/3rds of the way through.
I love this book. The plot is a bit slow at first because the main characters are a bunch of aimless preteens who have nothing to do all day (it's Zimbabwe and the schools are shut down), but to play games and go to the wealthy part of town to steal guavas. Bulawayo paints the background scenery and develops the characters really well here as the plot builds. Some of the names of the characters are in fact colorful, some are more traditional: the narrator is Darling, her friends are Chip, Sbho, Bastard, Godknows, and Stina. And there is the fantastically-named preacher/prophet Revelations Bitchington Mboro, the madam MotherLove, Darling's grandmother Mother of Bones, a man named Bornfree, and his mother MaDube. The children try amuse themselves while the adults worry about the state of their country and their ability to survive. The plot starts to pick up pace about a third of the way through the book, and it is touching and compelling.
Then you hit the chapter called For Real. Prior to that chapter, her writing is great. Witty, insightful, clever, meaty prose, and an interesting plot. For Real is a game changer. Her prose explodes. For Real is an amazing piece of writing. The plot and prose turn from compelling to pugilistic. It's stark and riveting; it begs to be painted,performed, acted, danced and sung. If you hadn't already fallen for the book, For Real wakes you up. The intensity of For Real can't (and shouldn't) be maintained through the rest of the book, but at that point I read with much more clarity and even more investment in Darling and her life.
Overall: read it.
Then you hit the chapter called For Real. Prior to that chapter, her writing is great. Witty, insightful, clever, meaty prose, and an interesting plot. For Real is a game changer. Her prose explodes. For Real is an amazing piece of writing. The plot and prose turn from compelling to pugilistic. It's stark and riveting; it begs to be painted,performed, acted, danced and sung. If you hadn't already fallen for the book, For Real wakes you up. The intensity of For Real can't (and shouldn't) be maintained through the rest of the book, but at that point I read with much more clarity and even more investment in Darling and her life.
Overall: read it.
I found this book rather lackluster, to be frank. It certainly did not tug at my heartstrings as I expected it would when I first read the book's description. Perhaps the fault can be found in the choice of narrator or in the disjointed storytelling technique. Perhaps the fault is with the reader. While I remain sympathetic to illegal immigrants fleeing death and destruction in their homelands, I found nothing in Darling's story that I have not found better expressed elsewhere. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie comes to mind; I gave that one a four star rating.
In this book our narrator is a ten-year-old girl who has been displaced by war. Although it takes much too long for the author to reveal this, Darling enjoyed what sounds like a fairly middle class existence before her home was destroyed. Her father disappears and she ends up living with her mother and grandmother in what I believe is a refuge camp with little to no basic comforts, which is why the book opens on Darling and her friends stealing guavas in nearby neighborhoods. Without offering up any spoilers, Darling spends half the book showcasing the difficulties of displacement and continuing political and social unrest.
The second half of the book is a disjointed collage of experiences Darling has after she joins her aunt in America. In addition, there are chapters dedicated to the heartaches caused by being unable to return home, but they tell of sorrows and frustrations instead of thrusting the reader into Darling's own emotional landscape. A missed opportunity, in my opinion.
All in all, an okay read but not something I would recommend to anyone.
In this book our narrator is a ten-year-old girl who has been displaced by war. Although it takes much too long for the author to reveal this, Darling enjoyed what sounds like a fairly middle class existence before her home was destroyed. Her father disappears and she ends up living with her mother and grandmother in what I believe is a refuge camp with little to no basic comforts, which is why the book opens on Darling and her friends stealing guavas in nearby neighborhoods. Without offering up any spoilers, Darling spends half the book showcasing the difficulties of displacement and continuing political and social unrest.
The second half of the book is a disjointed collage of experiences Darling has after she joins her aunt in America. In addition, there are chapters dedicated to the heartaches caused by being unable to return home, but they tell of sorrows and frustrations instead of thrusting the reader into Darling's own emotional landscape. A missed opportunity, in my opinion.
All in all, an okay read but not something I would recommend to anyone.