dobbydoo22 's review for:

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

5.0

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This is a moving book that portrays the complexities of immigrant life. It is a series of related, chronological stories that begin with the narrator's childhood in an unnamed but tumultuous African country (the author is from Zimbabwe, but specifically avoids naming the country within the book). Although that life is full of undeniable hardship, it becomes clear once she immigrates to America that there are many things back home that she misses and can't replace. Both her identity and her relationship with her own history become more complex and confusing, and she illustrates that being uprooted to a new place, despite the opportunities that brings for new connections, sometimes means being even more isolated than ever, removed from the old culture but never fully fitting into the new. The story that I found to be the most moving, 'The Way They Lived,' should be required reading for everyone, given the current firestorm of conversation about immigration and immigrants in the media. Also, her incisive observations about American culture are entertaining and thought-provoking.