Remember the post I had a few days back about what I was READING?! Well so far I got through Chimamanda's Americanah and now am onto NoViolet's We Need New Names. In short, Americanah was fantastic as expected, but now that I'm about halfway through the other book I don't feel the way I would have been expected to feel about it according to reviews I read about it (from one of my favorite African lit review blogs). It certainly is written in a different style and unique voice, but I think because I am Zimbabwean and it is set there (although almost fictional), I do not recognize the voice. The word selections and phrasings used by the characters seem to be caricatures or imitations of something else or maybe were directly translated from Ndebele so somehow they sound awkward in English. I know the point was for them to seem so because the group of children are in the most literate country in Africa, but their studies were interrupted due to instability yadi yadi yada. There are so many points in the book where I find myself reading a sentence and having to go over it a few times and then translating it into Ndebele in my mind and it makes so much more sense without the feeling, be it serious or funny, being lost. Anywhoooo I'll keep reading to the end.
Between that last post and this one, I've added 2 more to the list. The other day I went to the same cafe where I get my favorite salad and browsed the outside sale table of books at the bookstore next door. I found Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. I definitely missed it when the hype was still going on circa 2003, but seeing it awoke my curiosity so I got it - 10 years later! It was also a whopping $5.98!! I love a great book on sale!
Theeeen my super awesome boss with whom I sometimes shoot the breeze with about style, music, and now books sent me this book in the mail yesterday all the way from Massachusetts after she finished reading it herself!! Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi. I cannot wait to get to and through it. When I do i'll certainly indulge you on my thoughts about the author and the book itself.
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*@afropolitaine*
Between that last post and this one, I've added 2 more to the list. The other day I went to the same cafe where I get my favorite salad and browsed the outside sale table of books at the bookstore next door. I found Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. I definitely missed it when the hype was still going on circa 2003, but seeing it awoke my curiosity so I got it - 10 years later! It was also a whopping $5.98!! I love a great book on sale!
Theeeen my super awesome boss with whom I sometimes shoot the breeze with about style, music, and now books sent me this book in the mail yesterday all the way from Massachusetts after she finished reading it herself!! Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi. I cannot wait to get to and through it. When I do i'll certainly indulge you on my thoughts about the author and the book itself.
______________
*@afropolitaine*
I'm finding that a lot of Zimbabweans are struggling with We Need New Names especially after reading Americanah. I'm yet to read it but we shall see.
ReplyDeleteI'll be curious to hear your thoughts on it when you get to it. It's kind of how I felt about some of the short stories in Say You're One of Them as well as A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. Leaves me wondering who the book was written for and it seems not necessarily for a Zimbabwean audience in this case.
DeleteThanks for reading GlamGirl :)
actually I meant Uzodinma Iweala's Beasts of No Nation no Ishmael's
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