So, it’s been a month since we last posted. WTF?! If you were wondering (as some people have – we’ve even gotten Etsy messages asking us to come back to blogging!) Justine and I both of “real” jobs, run our Etsy shop, and each have 2 kids! So, in all of our spare time (har har har) we try to read books AND review them for you all. So, sorry that this hasn’t been happening more often AND we’re glad to be back!
Bringing me back is We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo, a novel that was gifted to me this past Christmas. Here is the synopsis from its Goodreads page:
A remarkable literary debut — shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize! The unflinching and powerful story of a young girl’s journey out of Zimbabwe and to America.
Darling is only ten 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.
What I love the most about a book is when I really, truly learn something from it. I love how books can inspire compassion in me (and hopefully in others too) by how they expose you to other people, other countries, other cultures, etc. I hope my kids enjoy reading for this reason: I want them to be non-judgmental, loving, and accepting of all kinds of people and I think reading can show you other worlds you wouldn’t encounter without them. Some books that make this list for me include The Fault in our Stars by John Green (I will never say trite, clichéd things to a person with cancer or any other illness again), Sisters in Sanity by Gayle Forman (troubled teens are troubled for a reason – get to the bottom of it instead of mindlessly punishing them), and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.
This book did this for me in a way I didn’t see coming: it taught me not to pity or condescend to someone foreign, specifically someone from perhaps a “more-poor” culture or country. In this novel, Darling is born and grows up in Zimbabwe until around 14 when she moves to the United States to live with her aunt and uncle. Even while she is in Zimbabwe, she sees the Invisible Children and Save Darfur workers cock their heads when she laughs and plays with her friends, the UNICEF workers her drop off food and take pictures only to leave.
When she moves to the United States it only worsens. She loves her culture, as different as it may be, but immigrates to a place that pressures her to disown it. She feels expected to be thankful for the bountiful food, which she is, but she also misses hunting for guavas with her friends to fill their starving bellies. She quickly finds out that her childhood is assumed to be only one of war-torn, child-soldier roots when, although it wasn’t easy, is far from the truth. She learns that the discipline style of her country that taught children the wisdom of their grandparents is considered abuse in the United States. When she tells strangers about where she’s from, she gets only a “Oh, you poor thing. How very awful for you. I’m sure you are so glad to be here and away from that awful awful country.” in response.
Another thing I love about this book is how simple her language is. She doesn’t jump to conclusions or pass judgment – she leaves it up to the reader.
The thing I learned about culture from this book is that it is ALWAYS a part of you, the good and the bad. And that growing and changing doesn’t have to mean leaving the bad behind, you can fully embrace it as a part of your childhood, a part of your life, and do so with pride. She craved those guavas after a few years in bitter cold Michigan. She missed the sound of her friend’s cackling laughs so much it hurt. She was tired of the confusing and exhausting ways Americans acted happy and polite all the time when they didn’t mean it. She was tired of bottling her emotions inside instead of the loud and passionate expressions of her country.
The second to last chapter is a total masterpiece. I wish I had this as an e-book so that I could copy and paste it here. It read like an essay on reclaiming yourself, it should be required reading for humanity. Truly beautiful and really brought the message behind the novel home. I will never, ever condescend to someone from a different country, regardless of how impoverished or foreign its stereotypes may be. Funny thing is that this chapter is also what kind of threw the book off for me and is causing me to give it 5 stars on goodreads instead of 4. It spliced the novel and took me out of the stories and away from the characters. I almost wish that she had sprinkled the sentences from this essay throughout the novel for the story’s sake, although it works so powerfully altogether as well. I guess I’m being fickle!
Have you ever moved to a place and experienced “culture-shock”? Do you know of any books that also taught you valuable lessons or ideals? Let me know in the comments!
