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shannon97 's review for:
We Need New Names
by NoViolet Bulawayo
I loved this book. Bulawayo vividly portrays not just the main character Darling, but her circle of friends and their lives in Zimbabwe. It is the view of the country through Darling’s acute gaze - their games, their dangerous trips to steal fruit from the trees of the wealthy, the religious rituals, the despair of the adults around them - that gives life to the novel. The second half of the novel takes place in the US. It is a masterful commentary on the immigrant experience. The hardship of no longer truly belonging to either place. One of the most powerful scenes is when Darling tries to talk to her friends on the phone - friends she misses and longs for - but there is so much she can’t really describe about her new life, so many imperfections about America she doesn’t want to admit to, so many experiences she no longer shares with them - that she can’t find anything to say.
Her chapters that directly talk about what many immigrants have in common, the jobs they take and the dreams they put away, the family they try to support, but cannot visit because they don’t have papers -these are the most powerful chapters in the book. Her language is beautiful - almost poetic - and very moving.
Her chapters that directly talk about what many immigrants have in common, the jobs they take and the dreams they put away, the family they try to support, but cannot visit because they don’t have papers -these are the most powerful chapters in the book. Her language is beautiful - almost poetic - and very moving.