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We Need New Names A Novel NoViolet Bulawayo Books

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We Need New Names A Novel NoViolet Bulawayo Books

I have read quite a few books about the tragedy that seems to be pervasive in Africa - would-be liberators from tyranny and corruption take over, only to become more tyrannical and corrupt than their predecessors. "We Need New Names" tells the same story, but from a new perspective, at least for me - that of a 10 year-old girl whose life "before" has vanished into poverty and an absence of structure of any sort. The first half of the book tells the story of Darling in this environment, and the second half brings her to live with her aunt in the United States - in "destroyed" Michigan. She is something of a lost soul in both locales, even as she adapts and seems to fit into both places as best she can.

Ms. Bulawayo's writing is beyond impressive - stark yet fluid, cynical yet sweet. The book seems so real (not that a 60+ white guy in Florida would know), and I must say that I agreed with the blurbs on the back cover, which use words like "powerful," "beauty," "laughter," "pain," "nihilstic," "feral," "feisty" and "funny." At the same time, I can't quite give it five stars because notwithstanding its reality it keeps the reader at a distance and doesn't really tell a story as such; the ending is consistent with this, as the book just sort of ends. At the same time, I recognize that the gulf between Darling's story and my own life may just be too wide to create the kind of engaging empathy that I found the book lacking. So I hope Ms. Bulawayo will forgive me if I "only" give this very good book 4.5 stars.

There seems to be a new crop of authors writing about Africans becoming strangers in a strange land - "Ghana Must Go" and "Americanah" among them - but it's going to be hard for any of them to top "We Need New Names," and I urge you to read it.


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We Need New Names A Novel NoViolet Bulawayo Books Reviews

NoViolet Bulawayo's debut novel WE NEED NEW NAMES is an original, and a stunning work.
It has been identified as a coming of age work--with the central character of Darling. It has been described as having a plot that moves from Darling's childhood in Zimbabwe, to her coming to America, and her experiences as she moves into adulthood.
I don't disagree with these descriptions; I just find them inadequate.
First, this is definitely not a plot driven work. Certainly you can follow a progressive story line--but the story being told is of an interior landscape rather than a series of external adventures.
Second, as the novel progresses, it settles into a shifting kaleidoscope of alternating focus--Darling's experiences; the larger geopolitical scene; and the interior anguish of people unmoored in their place in time and country.
This novel is not for the faint of heart. There was at least one chapter that, frankly, I would have rather not read. And the experiences of Darling in Zimbabwe are searing--as befits the current geopolitical scene. There is the genuine heartbreak of leaving and losing one's country.
One of the reviews--in the New York Times--wrote about the third chapter from the conclusion.
"At one point, in an effort to make Darling’s experiences broadly representative, Ms. Bulawayo writes an entire chapter using the plural pronoun “we” — speaking of the move to America, and the bitterness so many immigrants feel, as they are forced to take menial jobs or find their hopes frustrated...Such generalizations are the one misstep in this otherwise stunning novel. Not only because they try to project one point of view onto the experiences of a wide and varied group of immigrants, but also because they are not always true."
And as evidence of this assertion, the review writer points out that NoViolet Bulawayo has flourished as an immigrant.
TALK ABOUT MISSING THE POINT. Yes, this is a story of an immigrant, and of immigrants. But MORE SO--it is a story about losing one's country, one's connection to ancestors, one's place in the past and the future.
For just that near final chapter alone--titled "How They Lived"--WE NEED NEW NAMES is a most compelling work.
We Need New Names is a lush, language-rich narration by a young African girl who gradually becomes an expat in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The narrator's voice has a wonderful innocence, even as she and her playmates (I'd say schoolmates but the teachers have all left the country and the school closed) play such games as "Find Bin Laden." She also has a special gift for capturing expressions on other characters' faces "like she was hearing music inside her head and dancing to it" is a description of the expression of an aunt who has been complimented by an old flame who is marrying someone else.

The disintegration of the home country, the desperate desire to be somewhere else, and the bitterness of those left behind are rendered in muscular, lyrical prose studded with native ("our language" which is never identified) and childish phrases. The description of eating the guavas (on which she used to gorge herself as a child) for the first time since coming to the U.S. Is worth the price of admission funny, tender, voracious, and yearning.

The only piece of this novel that hit a sour note for me was a chapter at the end of the book narrated by a "we" rather than the "I" in every other chapter. It consisted of a lyrical, wild description of the labor of largely undocumented newcomers to the US. While beautiful in its own right, and easily capable of being a brilliant standalone essay, it was oddly out of place, especially as our narrator herself had barely begun to work. It sounded like an angry political squawk in an otherwise equally powerful but more subtle birdsong that is ultimately more personal and persuasive.
I have read quite a few books about the tragedy that seems to be pervasive in Africa - would-be liberators from tyranny and corruption take over, only to become more tyrannical and corrupt than their predecessors. "We Need New Names" tells the same story, but from a new perspective, at least for me - that of a 10 year-old girl whose life "before" has vanished into poverty and an absence of structure of any sort. The first half of the book tells the story of Darling in this environment, and the second half brings her to live with her aunt in the United States - in "destroyed" Michigan. She is something of a lost soul in both locales, even as she adapts and seems to fit into both places as best she can.

Ms. Bulawayo's writing is beyond impressive - stark yet fluid, cynical yet sweet. The book seems so real (not that a 60+ white guy in Florida would know), and I must say that I agreed with the blurbs on the back cover, which use words like "powerful," "beauty," "laughter," "pain," "nihilstic," "feral," "feisty" and "funny." At the same time, I can't quite give it five stars because notwithstanding its reality it keeps the reader at a distance and doesn't really tell a story as such; the ending is consistent with this, as the book just sort of ends. At the same time, I recognize that the gulf between Darling's story and my own life may just be too wide to create the kind of engaging empathy that I found the book lacking. So I hope Ms. Bulawayo will forgive me if I "only" give this very good book 4.5 stars.

There seems to be a new crop of authors writing about Africans becoming strangers in a strange land - "Ghana Must Go" and "Americanah" among them - but it's going to be hard for any of them to top "We Need New Names," and I urge you to read it.