{"id":1156,"date":"2016-02-15T22:50:44","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T17:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fableandi.com\/?p=1156"},"modified":"2020-02-23T18:46:34","modified_gmt":"2020-02-23T13:16:34","slug":"book-review-we-need-new-names-by-noviolet-bulawayo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebooksatchel.com\/book-review-we-need-new-names-by-noviolet-bulawayo\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darling and her friends live in a fictional place called Paradise in Africa, which is poverty stricken unlike its name. The children enjoy a life of adventure and mischief and all of them dream of \u00a0staying in an actual paradise of a developed country. As much as the political turmoil makes life hell for them (for their parents atleast), life becomes more amusing with the antics they have to perform to win the goodwill of the NGOs. Darling has hopes to go to America and live a ‘good’ life and in the bargain loses some things.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The story is narrated by Darling, a ten year old girl living in a fictional place called Paradise with her mother and grandmother. Her father has left for South Africa for work and has not returned. Darling spends her days roaming around Budapest (where wealthy whites and Africans reside) with her friends – \u00a0Chipo (eleven years old and pregnant on being raped by her grandfather), Bastard, GodKnows, Sbho and Stina. They live inventing games like \u201cFind Bin Laden\u201d and stealing guavas from Budapest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The choice of a young narrator on the verge of adolescence is a commendable effort on the part of Bulawayo. \u00a0Darling\u2019s observations on her life and surroundings, her country\u2019s political situation and American culture are insightful and often very funny.\u00a0The plight of the white Africans who are subjected to an immigrant-like life in their own land is very amusing (and horrifying). Darling also remarks about the NGOs that come offering help that they like the African children better when poorly dressed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Book
We need new names<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eventually, Darling\u2019s Aunt Fostalina brings her to America where she becomes a victim of the culture shock. The story takes another turn when it becomes one of a girl coming of age in an alien culture. \u00a0Suddenly she sees people obsessed with being skinny in spite of having large amounts of food to eat, children who don\u2019t obey their parents, people sending their aging parents to be cared for by strangers, and so on. As Darling becomes a high school student, she becomes more American than African.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The book is a collection of moments narrated by Darling, with an occasional injection of omniscient “they” essays to provide commentary beyond the level of a little girl’s understanding.\u00a0I found this style of writing very refreshing. In one chapter named \u201cHow They Lived\u201d, Bulawayo captures what it is like to come to America as an immigrant and mourns all that has been lost. In another chapter when Darling, as a teenager, talks to her friends back at Paradise after a long time, she is unable to fathom how much time has passed and how they have grown older. When she hears they have named Chipo\u2019s baby Darling in her memory she wonders if in their minds she is dead or whether in her mind she ever wants to go back. The phone conversation is more like a monologue – \u00a0her friend at home describes all the sights and sounds outside their shack; but when asked about the happenings outside her American house, Darling replies \u2018nothing\u2019 which portrays how her spirit has died bit by bit and a new person has evolved in its place in America.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Book
We need new names<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Perhaps Bulawayo should not have tried to deal with so many themes (political turmoil, AIDS, NGOs at Africa, white Africans not welcome anymore in Africa, immigrant experience, child abuse etc etc) at the same time. The staggering burden of the themes often dissuaded my interest along the course of the book. The chapters before and after the transfer to an American world seem non coherent, more stand alone in nature. At certain points it began to feel like \u2018yet another immigrant story\u2019 so often written in contemporary literature.\u00a0There were portions that I immensely enjoyed and there were some chapters that felt very boring which made my overall rating of the book go down. However I would still recommend this book because the language is lovely and Bulawayo has exposed so many harsh realities in a \u2018white world\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Title : We Need New Names
\nAuthor : NoViolet Bulawayo
\nPublisher : RHUK
\nPublished : 2013
\nLanguage : English
\nPages : 304
\nRating : 3.5\/5<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Darling and her friends live in poverty stricken conditions in a fictional…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6307,16],"tags":[1765,6369,43,431,89,87,77],"thb-sponsors":[],"yoast_head":"\nBook Review: We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo | The Book Satchel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo talks of a young girl, her adventures in Africa and her immigrant experience in America.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebooksatchel.com\/book-review-we-need-new-names-by-noviolet-bulawayo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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