Purchase Price: $12.99 on Amazon.ca
We Need New Names [Kindle Edition]
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Authors of Color, Women's Fiction, Fictional Memoir, Cultural Experiences
Book Description: Darling is only 10 years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo's belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen, before the school closed, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad. But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America.
She travels to this new land in search of America's famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few. NoViolet Bulawayo's debut calls to mind the great storytellers of displacement and arrival who have come before her--from Zadie Smith to Monica Ali to J.M. Coetzee--while she tells a vivid, raw story all her own.
Review:
We Need New Names was nothing that I could have anticipated, and it was everything one could wish for when reading contemporary non-fiction. NoViolet Bulawayo intrigues with a unique writing style that alternates from the honest observations of her main protagonist, 10 year old Darling, and then spliced in sections that pertain more to the group experience of living in a country where there is political decay, civil war, and poverty to the extreme. She takes both these styles and weaves the tale of Darling, as she lives in a Zimbabwean shanty town called 'Paradise', and later as she comes to America to live with her Aunt, and her Auntie's family.
Although it takes you a while to adjust to her writing style, lack of punctuation, and stream of consciousness mode of expression, NoViolet Bulawayo quickly draws you in with her honest and innocent portrayal of young Darling as she navigates the dangerous terrain of the Shanty Town, it's broken people, and the constant hunger that plagues her and all her friends. The innocence of a child combined with the real desperation of a people suffering from political upheaval and civil breakdown, give you such a clear view of exactly who Darling is. While she and her friends wander the streets and steal guavas from the local gated community populated by affluent foreigners, there is so much that breaks your heart for these children. They are roaming un-monitored since schools have been closed down, and they try to think about games to play as they make observations about the world around them, and speak about what they will be when they are grown.
Meanwhile, Darling finally makes it to America and lives with her aunt and 'uncle', and her cousin who was born in the States. Her adjustment to this new and strange country is described with the true culture shock one might only imagine, but observed through Darling's eyes, it is somehow more real, more sad, more heartbreaking. She is bullied at school, has to adjust to using English - and at the same time adopt the slang and accent of her peers so as to fit in. A huge task for anyone, but particularly a young girl, coming of age, torn from a country she loves and the people and culture she knows. It is amazing just how many aspects of her life she is forced to alter, yet on the inside, she stays the same observant and honest soul.
This book verges on poetry more often than not. No sugar coating, there is so much pain expressed about the immigrant experience that I had never really considered. As a nurse, I have treated patients from all over the world, many of them refugees to Canada, who have very little experience with the language. Yet these new-comers are expected to communicate clearly even during the most stressful of situations, and it is hard to find translators in an emergency. I never really took all these items into account, but now I see that the children they deliver on my obstetrics unit represent so much more than a new baby, it gives them a tie to their new home. This book will forever change the way I interact with these patients.
At many points in the novel, I found myself wanting to cover my eyes and scream, "Please no, please no, please no!"; which makes no sense until you read about the horrors and the violence NoViolet describes with such startling clarity. I won't spoil these parts by describing them, but placed next to the innocent and inquiring nature of Darling, they are than much more shocking. This book picks up speed as it rages on, and you will have difficulty putting it down.
Fired Up Rating: 5/5 Flames
Bottom Line: I recommend this novel to anyone who works with new immigrants to America, or any other country that takes in refugees and students visa's into it's embrace. My eyes were thrown wide open to issues I had never considered, and I had a pretty solid idea of how difficult the transitions can be to begin with, working in the area of nursing I do, Obstetrics. It is more than a story about a girl's journey to America, it is a story about loss, true sorrow, fractured families, and the cruelty of the "Promise" of the American Dream. There is good and bad in both the before and the after parts of Darling's journey, but it is her unflinching honesty and manner of observing the world that makes this book such a winner. NoViolet Bulawayo is one to watch, a "must read" for me.
** This Review is based on an ARC obtained through Goodreads First Reads Giveaways. The opinions expressed are my own and are in no way influences by Goodreads, The Author, or the Publisher of this material. **
