lindacbugg's review against another edition
3.0
This is an unpublished draft
I wanted to love this.
It was good but not great.
This is two very distinct & different books--the first part in Africa & the second in Michigan but it could have been anywhere USA for all it had to identify as Michigan.
Mostly though, this book was about place.
I read this as my grandmother was dying--I remember being back in California in the 1st six months after my husband had past away. I was staying with my Grandmother who was 99yrs old & in hospice care at the time. Maybe that colored how I felt about the book but I remember being excited to read it & disappointed when I was finished.
liralen's review against another edition
3.0
Darling is ten, a child of Zimbabwe. She and her friends play in the streets, steal guavas, imitate their elders as best they can. They are children, though, still piecing together their understanding of the world.
Stina said a country is a Coca-Cola bottle that can smash on the floor and disappoint you. When a bottle smashes, you cannot put it back together. (162)
Zimbabwe is not an easy place for any of them to live. There are those who are far better off but they are mostly white people, living in gated communities. To Darling, America—where her aunt now lives—is the epitome of luxury and want-not. She knows that, when she goes to America, her life will get infinitely easier.
In America, roads are like the devil's hands, like God's love, reaching all over, just the sad thing is, they won't really take me home. (193)
It does get easier, and it doesn't. In America, Darling never wants for food. She can go to school. Eventually, she knows, she will be able to go to college. But it is lonely without her mother and her friends; Michigan is cold and grey much of the year; and, as it turns out, you can't go home again. Especially when your visa has expired and you are not in the country legally.
This book was one that worked for me for the same reasons that it didn't, and so my initially enthusiastic response grew more guarded as I read. The story is linear, in that it takes Darling from childhood on up through her teenage years, but Darling is in a way the only constant. Unlike most novels (although quite like real life), many things happen that could be the start of something big, but aren't. Darling's eleven-year-old friend Chipo is pregnant, and the girls try to 'get rid of her stomach'; the kids find a hanged woman; NGO workers come and go; Darling and co. wander around a Chinese construction site and the ransacked house of a white couple. In America, Aunt Fostalina tries to show up a bride at a wedding; Darling and her new friends go for a joyride; relatives call and call and call, always with requests.
Any of these could be the catalyst for conflict, for a sustained narrative arc. They aren't, though. We learn more about some of those things as the book progresses, but not in a dramatic way—it's just how it is. To me, it is a strength and a weakness of the book: on the one hand, I love that it's not so much about events and dramatic things as it is about broader themes like fitting in and where 'home' is. On the other hand, the book didn't really...go anywhere. Or, not in the traditional sense, anyway. Still, it's an interesting look at a time and place, and at an immigrant experience of a child—an experience that does not match the American dream.
Look at them leaving in droves despite knowing they will be welcomed with restraint in those strange lands because they do not belong, knowing they will have to sit on one buttock because they must not sit comfortably lest they be asked to rise and leave, knowing they will speak in dampened whispers because they must not let their voices drown those of the owners of the land, knowing they will have to walk on their toes because they must not leave footprints on the new earth lest they be mistaken for those who want to claim the land as theirs. Look at them leaving in droves, arm in arm with loss and lost, look at them leaving in droves. (148)
Stina said a country is a Coca-Cola bottle that can smash on the floor and disappoint you. When a bottle smashes, you cannot put it back together. (162)
Zimbabwe is not an easy place for any of them to live. There are those who are far better off but they are mostly white people, living in gated communities. To Darling, America—where her aunt now lives—is the epitome of luxury and want-not. She knows that, when she goes to America, her life will get infinitely easier.
In America, roads are like the devil's hands, like God's love, reaching all over, just the sad thing is, they won't really take me home. (193)
It does get easier, and it doesn't. In America, Darling never wants for food. She can go to school. Eventually, she knows, she will be able to go to college. But it is lonely without her mother and her friends; Michigan is cold and grey much of the year; and, as it turns out, you can't go home again. Especially when your visa has expired and you are not in the country legally.
This book was one that worked for me for the same reasons that it didn't, and so my initially enthusiastic response grew more guarded as I read. The story is linear, in that it takes Darling from childhood on up through her teenage years, but Darling is in a way the only constant. Unlike most novels (although quite like real life), many things happen that could be the start of something big, but aren't. Darling's eleven-year-old friend Chipo is pregnant, and the girls try to 'get rid of her stomach'; the kids find a hanged woman; NGO workers come and go; Darling and co. wander around a Chinese construction site and the ransacked house of a white couple. In America, Aunt Fostalina tries to show up a bride at a wedding; Darling and her new friends go for a joyride; relatives call and call and call, always with requests.
Any of these could be the catalyst for conflict, for a sustained narrative arc. They aren't, though. We learn more about some of those things as the book progresses, but not in a dramatic way—it's just how it is. To me, it is a strength and a weakness of the book: on the one hand, I love that it's not so much about events and dramatic things as it is about broader themes like fitting in and where 'home' is. On the other hand, the book didn't really...go anywhere. Or, not in the traditional sense, anyway. Still, it's an interesting look at a time and place, and at an immigrant experience of a child—an experience that does not match the American dream.
Look at them leaving in droves despite knowing they will be welcomed with restraint in those strange lands because they do not belong, knowing they will have to sit on one buttock because they must not sit comfortably lest they be asked to rise and leave, knowing they will speak in dampened whispers because they must not let their voices drown those of the owners of the land, knowing they will have to walk on their toes because they must not leave footprints on the new earth lest they be mistaken for those who want to claim the land as theirs. Look at them leaving in droves, arm in arm with loss and lost, look at them leaving in droves. (148)
silodear's review against another edition
3.0
Really liked many things about this book. The writing was excellent and the story engaging. 3 stars for this one; falling short of 4 for some unfortunate transphobia. Otherwise, there is much to like about this book.
hannicogood's review against another edition
1.0
Did not finish, but really tried. I just can’t get into the narration by children and found it super difficult to engage.
alleeme's review against another edition
4.0
The argument is often made that books can take you anywhere. It's an old maximum about the importance of reading and the joys it can bring. But where has it taken you recently. Has it just been entertainment for your middle class American life? Maybe at best a fantasy dystopia that is actually just a metaphor for middle class american life? Well, sometimes it's nice to read a book that really takes you somewhere else, to a different life that opens your eyes to things you aren't seeing or don't want to see...
x150151041's review against another edition
"Look over there, now they are coming, Godknows says, and we see the mourners bursting from behind the big anthill and coming towards Heavenway. They are here to bury Bornfree even though they were told what would happen if they were found doing it. We are watching it this way because we can't go to the funeral since children are not allowed inside Heavenway. But what the adults don't know is that we sneak in whenever we want to watch funerals like this, or just to roam around or even play.
...
I used to be very afraid of graveyards and death and such things, but not anymore. There is just no sense being afraid when you live so near [the graves]; it would be like the tongue fearing the teeth."
...
I used to be very afraid of graveyards and death and such things, but not anymore. There is just no sense being afraid when you live so near [the graves]; it would be like the tongue fearing the teeth."
becksus's review against another edition
4.0
Really interesting book, written in a way that keeps you interested throughout. The story follows the main character over years of her life, so there is different stages that all show how her life has changed and how she herself has changed. Really opened my eyes to new things.
mnm1015's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
blackbat's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
_pickle_'s review against another edition
3.0
Didn't fully engage me. There was something about the plot—the story is told more as a series of vignettes than any one concerted narrative—that I couldn't grab on to.
The writing is strong, and the sense of character and of place equally strong. Bulawayo makes some very powerful points.
The writing is strong, and the sense of character and of place equally strong. Bulawayo makes some very powerful points.