marcynewman 's review for:

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

4.0

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I really love this book. I think I gobbled it up to quickly and I need to go back and reread it, but I just adore the voice of Darling, the protagonist. I love the way readers are taken inside her mind and get to see how she observes the world. I especially love the way she smiles--often the forced type that she is asked to do when the NGOs come to take photographs or when she's at a wedding and she's cornered in bathroom with a litany of questions about Africa so these guests can try to figure out which sob story to associate with her. And I especially love the last couple of chapters where she talks about what it's like to live as an undocumented person in the U.S. and all the others from around the globe whose story is not altogether different from hers. The coming-of-age voice of Darling is intoxicating.