Published: 2013, Vintage
Genre: Fiction
Themes: Zimbabwe, shanty towns, childhood, america
My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤
The author, NoViolet Bulawayo, was born in Zimbabwe a year after independence from British colonial rule, and when she was eighteen she moved to Michigan in the United States. She has used her own experiences to create this extraordinary novel that begins with a group of children living in a shanty town in Africa and ends in urban America..
The opening paragraph of the book introduces us to six children who are called; Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho, Stina and Darling. They are all living in the Shanty town of Paradise, after being driven from their rightful homes by men with bulldozers, and we follow their eventful lives through the eyes of ten year old Darling. The children are often left to make their own amusement and they make up games they can all play together, or head over to the town of Budapest to steal guavas from white people's gardens.
Life is very hard for all the families in the shanty town, as almost all their possessions were left behind when their homes were destroyed, and all they have left is what they were able to carry along the road. Some of the men have left the shanty to look for paid work elsewhere and Darling's father went to South Africa but since he left there has never been any word or money to help them buy food.
Despite all the hardships, there is still some sense of order in the children's world as they are taught to respect their elders and to accept the traditions of their grandparents' generation. Most people dream of a day when they will be able to leave the shanty to join relatives who have already managed to get away, and Darling is waiiting for the day when she can travel to America to live with her Aunt Fostalina. in 'DestroyedMichygen'. Everyone in the community sees America as a place of great comfort and riches and certainly the answer to all their problems.
Eventually Darling arrives in America on a visitor's visa and remains with her aunt as an illegal immigrant. NoViolet Bulawayo then uses the storyline to demonstrate how Africans living on the fringes of society have simply swapped one set of problems for another, and America is not the heavenly paradise that was imagined back home. People gorge on unhealthy food, waste time on television and the Internet, suffer from mental health disorders and have little respect for other people's possessions. The elderly are sent to old people's homes and small children are indulged so much that they have no respect for their elders. Many times Darling finds herself longing for the friends and landscape she has left behind.
This is a powerful novel, as it skillfully incorporates many of the issues in society both in Africa and America, and I found it fascinating to read the contrasts written by someone who has personally experienced both sides. The story does not shy away from difficult topics and gives just enough detail for us to appreciate the horror without wallowing in it. In this case less is definitely more and this is a very well written debut novel.
Comments
Post a Comment