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A review by kalimccullough
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
3.0
I enjoyed this book because of its roots in nonfiction and the author's own experience. It was different from most books I've read (I admit I haven't read much African literature, aside from poetry) and I appreciated the change of pace. However, I feel like I wanted more from the book as a whole.
The narrator's voice is unflinching and real, and her narration alternates between heartbreaking and hilarious, between naive and insightful, between kind beyond her age and downright mean. I tend to love narrators/authors who are honest with themselves and, by proxy, with the reader; I loved the scenes with Darling and her friends stealing guavas, acting out in front of the philanthropists, and spying on the funeral of a victim of the political fallout because of the believable grit in Darling's voice as she relayed the true-to-life and un-embellished events that took place.
Still, the voice wasn't enough to carry the book through to become one of my favorites. Maybe I'm just sensitive and internally reeling from the revelation of The Real World in this book, where 11-year-old girls get pregnant in Zimbabwe and young kids watch hardcore porn in their aunt's Michigan basement when no one is home. That's a world I've never experienced, so it's possible that it didn't resonate with me because of my lack of experience.
Either way, We Need New Names was appreciated by critics and consumers alike, so it has to be doing something right.
The narrator's voice is unflinching and real, and her narration alternates between heartbreaking and hilarious, between naive and insightful, between kind beyond her age and downright mean. I tend to love narrators/authors who are honest with themselves and, by proxy, with the reader; I loved the scenes with Darling and her friends stealing guavas, acting out in front of the philanthropists, and spying on the funeral of a victim of the political fallout because of the believable grit in Darling's voice as she relayed the true-to-life and un-embellished events that took place.
Still, the voice wasn't enough to carry the book through to become one of my favorites. Maybe I'm just sensitive and internally reeling from the revelation of The Real World in this book, where 11-year-old girls get pregnant in Zimbabwe and young kids watch hardcore porn in their aunt's Michigan basement when no one is home. That's a world I've never experienced, so it's possible that it didn't resonate with me because of my lack of experience.
Either way, We Need New Names was appreciated by critics and consumers alike, so it has to be doing something right.