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A review by novelvisits
New People by Danzy Senna
2.0
New People by Zanzy Senna
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Release Date: August 1, 2017
Length: 240 pages
Original Source: http://www.novelvisits.com/three-end-summer-mini-reviews/
Publisher’s Final Sentence – Heartbreaking and darkly comic, New People is a bold and unfettered page-turner that challenges our every assumption about how we define one another, and ourselves.
My Thoughts – I don’t typically need to like a character in order to like her story, but in New People 27-year old Maria became an exception that. Rarely have I had such a strong negative reaction to a character. I thought Maria was a woman who had a lot going for her. She was a Stanford grad in her 6th year of a Phd. program at Columbia. She had an extremely supportive fiancé with whom she was selected to be part of a documentary on “new people,” those blurring the racial lines. But Maria wasn’t really satisfied with her life. At times she felt like perhaps she and Khalil weren’t quite black enough, their sex life wasn’t all it could be, her dissertation seemed to be stalled, and she found herself lusting after an attractive young poet, who happened to be a much darker skinned man than Khalil. None of that made me dislike Maria, but the way she handled herself did. To me Maria showed a pattern of believing that her feelings and opinions were all that mattered, often manifesting themselves in ways that were just plain mean-spirited or weird. I like snark, but Maria took it too far.
“Maria smirks at the poet, wondering if he too can see how forced it all is – this group and the pantomime of their newly discovered blackness. It’s catching. The craze. We once were lost, but now we’re black. It’s so old-school it’s new-school. They have taken on their duties as Negros with aplomb, she’s gotta give them that.”
Maria faced many crossroads in New People, and for most I had a hard time understanding the choices she made. It wasn’t until the very end of her story that I began to feel enough sympathy to like her just a little. Grade: C+
Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Release Date: August 1, 2017
Length: 240 pages
Original Source: http://www.novelvisits.com/three-end-summer-mini-reviews/
Publisher’s Final Sentence – Heartbreaking and darkly comic, New People is a bold and unfettered page-turner that challenges our every assumption about how we define one another, and ourselves.
My Thoughts – I don’t typically need to like a character in order to like her story, but in New People 27-year old Maria became an exception that. Rarely have I had such a strong negative reaction to a character. I thought Maria was a woman who had a lot going for her. She was a Stanford grad in her 6th year of a Phd. program at Columbia. She had an extremely supportive fiancé with whom she was selected to be part of a documentary on “new people,” those blurring the racial lines. But Maria wasn’t really satisfied with her life. At times she felt like perhaps she and Khalil weren’t quite black enough, their sex life wasn’t all it could be, her dissertation seemed to be stalled, and she found herself lusting after an attractive young poet, who happened to be a much darker skinned man than Khalil. None of that made me dislike Maria, but the way she handled herself did. To me Maria showed a pattern of believing that her feelings and opinions were all that mattered, often manifesting themselves in ways that were just plain mean-spirited or weird. I like snark, but Maria took it too far.
“Maria smirks at the poet, wondering if he too can see how forced it all is – this group and the pantomime of their newly discovered blackness. It’s catching. The craze. We once were lost, but now we’re black. It’s so old-school it’s new-school. They have taken on their duties as Negros with aplomb, she’s gotta give them that.”
Maria faced many crossroads in New People, and for most I had a hard time understanding the choices she made. It wasn’t until the very end of her story that I began to feel enough sympathy to like her just a little. Grade: C+
Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.