Just finished this. First african book I read. It was pretty good. Child narrator growing up in slums of Zimbabwe - the book honestly shows the realities of it. The hunger, child pregnancy, insane african "christians", retarded western NGOs, the 2008 Zimbabwe elections (where the dictator just murdered the opposition), blacks pogroming whites etc.In second half she emigrates to USA and it shows cultural shock. American blacks celebrate the zimbabwean dictator becouse he hates whites, they know who morgan freeman is, but dont know who nelson mandela is, they think africa is one country etc.Fun book playing with narrative perspective and mixing present and past.
>>25403212This actually sounds interesting, would you describe it as a honest biography. As opposed to another go fund me campaign.
>>25403236It's bildungsroman novel, you retard.
Thank you for recommending this, it sounds right up my alley. The way you describe it makes me think of Trevor Noah's biography
>>25403469It has pretty unique approach to refugees, it actually somehow shows them as some kind of traitors to their kind and to their culture, where they left their home country which they still consider home and they still consider themselves to be part of that culture, but their children born in the west will not. They will not have the names of their ancestors, they will not consider themselves to be part of some african tribe and they will not even know anything about their country - they will at most read about it on internet and think it's all fucked up shit. Their children will stop sending money back home and their grandparents (to whom they promised they will return) will never see their children or grand-children again, becouse the refugees cannot afford to go back.
>>25403486I'm interested to read this book. Sounds pretty harsh take desu. It's basically like "muh culture, muh pure white race" except by browns and of a disadvantaged people rather than the colonists.
Reminds me of a story a guy had of going somewhere with a friend born in Nigeria. They meet these two local black guys talking about what it's like to be African-American. Nigerian guy goes "I'm the only African-American here, you're just a couple of Dallas niggers."
>>25404565It's more nuanced than that, like you understand why someone would leave african shithole for USA, but you also kind-of understand why even the african shitholes could be considered home. it's very critical of consumerism and american melting pot. African shitholes have (in the book) tight-knit communities and friendships matter (your friendgroup needs to stick together when you go stealing food), in the west the relationships are seemingly eroded and weaker. Yet at the same time it shows that the shitholes aren't high-trust either (blacks killing whites, men raping children, domestic violence etc.) becouse of the hunger and poverty and that when the same people live in west they have wider net of relations (africans do gather together for being africans, but also white people from Zimbabwe/Rhodesia are now friends with black Zimbabweans, marry each other). One fun thing the book does is that when the narrator moves to USA she slowly stops differentiating between black people and white people and slowly as she becomes american starts commenting on otherness of muslims etc. All the fun comes from either the authentic capture of life in Zimbabwe or the narrator's voice which to me was very fun. I've read the book in translation and when she moves into USA her language changed - it became more vulgar so I wonder how it reads in english (tho there is point at which she doesn't understand ebonics - another fun aspect where the african refugees do their best to speak proper english but fail but black americans use ebonics, so the second generation of refugees who were born in USA has bigger problems with learning english than the first).The best character in the book is insane african refugee in USA living in some insane asylum who thinks he is Shaka Zulu, he keeps threatening people that he will start throwing spears (printed out images of spears under his bed).
>>25403377Damn, I even had to Google what a bildungsroman novel is. You hurt my feelings. Now I'm never going to read your recommendation.
>>25404958Good, you don't deserve to read good books.
