We Need New Names

Another book club selection. I found this book so painful to read. The lives of Darling and her friends are brutal, and Bulawayo tells the story with plainness and an attention to detail that does not spare the reader's squeamishness. On the other hand, Darling has a voice that is mischievous and curious, witty and imaginative, so that it is hard to stop reading about her. I had to take breaks from reading, but I always found I wanted to go back for more.

The story starts out in Zimbabwe, with Darling living in a shantytown, running wild with a bunch of other shantytown children. She's hungry and feral, but she knows who she is and how she belongs to her place. The second half of the book takes place in America, with Darling adjusting to life as a teenaged immigrant with an expired visa. She's aware that she's not at home, she's homesick, but she can't go back without giving up her chance to escape the brutal life she left behind. Both halves of the book are heartbreaking, but in a way the second half is more heartbreaking, even though it contains what we might think of as the hope that Darling might truly escape the brutality of her old life.

Most of the book is written in the voice of Darling, but there are a couple of chapters that are told from a collective voice. Although this book tells a painful story, there is a lot of pleasure in reading it, because of the precision and originality of NoViolet Bulawayo's writing.