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trin 's review for:
We Need New Names
by NoViolet Bulawayo
Powerful, emotionally potent novel about a young girl's childhood in Zimbabwe and teenage years in Michigan, and how neither home holds up to fantasy or nostalgia; in neither does the girl, Darling, find a place where she fits. It's a painful, unforgiving book, although not without humor -- you can feel Bulawayo's immense skill in the slyness of that, and her excellent POV work.
However, I found the book a bit scattered; there's no real thrust to the narrative, just a series of incidents. This is probably more true to life than the conventions of most novels, but it doesn't necessarily make for the best reading experience. Likewise, Darling's rage is blistering and realistic and earned, even/especially as a child of deprivation toward people she later encounters with a wide variety of eating disorders. But I personally found those parts incredibly hard to read, and they take up a not insignificant part of the book.
In spite of these reservations, I am eager to see what Bulawayo writes next.
However, I found the book a bit scattered; there's no real thrust to the narrative, just a series of incidents. This is probably more true to life than the conventions of most novels, but it doesn't necessarily make for the best reading experience. Likewise, Darling's rage is blistering and realistic and earned, even/especially as a child of deprivation toward people she later encounters with a wide variety of eating disorders. But I personally found those parts incredibly hard to read, and they take up a not insignificant part of the book.
In spite of these reservations, I am eager to see what Bulawayo writes next.