I am slowly making my way through this list of books I said I wanted to read.
We Need New Names has been the most polarizing one. Lots of mixed, mainly negative, reviews from fellow Zimbabweans, especially. I started reading this book and it has been very emotional. I was not expecting all these feelings to come up but they have. I have found myself overcome with sadness at some points. This book is fiction but only fiction in the sense that what is described did not happen EXACTLY as it does in the book. The events of the story come from a painfully real place.
The writing is fantastic, NoViolet's technical skill is on full display. She takes all these complicated and nuanced facets of a difficult time in our (Zimbabwean) history and presents them through the innocent childlike-perspective of Darling and her friends, in a beautiful way. While some have criticized the book as just "poverty porn," I strongly disagree. It is much more than that.
--Sidebar--
NoViolet Bulawayo (real name Elizabeth Tshele) is nominated for Britian's prestigious literary award, the Man Booker Prize. She is the first black African woman to be nominated for the prize. Also nominated is one of my personal favorites, Jhumpa Lahiri. The winner will be announced tomorrow, October 15.
The writing is fantastic, NoViolet's technical skill is on full display. She takes all these complicated and nuanced facets of a difficult time in our (Zimbabwean) history and presents them through the innocent childlike-perspective of Darling and her friends, in a beautiful way. While some have criticized the book as just "poverty porn," I strongly disagree. It is much more than that.
--Sidebar--
NoViolet Bulawayo (real name Elizabeth Tshele) is nominated for Britian's prestigious literary award, the Man Booker Prize. She is the first black African woman to be nominated for the prize. Also nominated is one of my personal favorites, Jhumpa Lahiri. The winner will be announced tomorrow, October 15.
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