Extraordinary ... Wambugu writes with an easy wit, her sentences as approachable as her deeply relatable narrator ... There is nothing groundbreaking or experimental about this novel’s conceit; it’s about as classic a coming-of-age as you’ll find. But as Ruth grows up and into an independent perspective whose outlines can finally be distinguished from those of the people she grew up with, it’s the specificity of this young woman’s mind, the contours with which she draws the characters and environments around her, that make Lonely Crowds exceptional.
Masterful, thoughtful ... Maria is a charismatic, complicated love object throughout the book. Wambugu ably chronicles her struggles. But it’s Ruth, through whose eyes we see everything, who shines in all her imperfections ... Emerges as one of the most emotionally and intellectually rich debuts I can remember reading in this or any year.
As the novel progresses, Ruth often stops existing on the page, overtaken by her endless loops of fixation on the thoughts and feelings of others. In part because the reader has no insight into Maria’s perspective, Ruth’s narrative voice makes it hard to discern what either woman gets from their friendship, or even the extent to which they know each other at all ... For Ruth, losing her friend would mean losing herself, too.
Uncommonly elegant ... Unfolds as a coming-of-age story with whiffs of Toni Morrison, Jamaica Kincaid, and Elena Ferrante. The scope is ambitious ... Lives in the margins of desire and jealousy, intimacy and individuation, certainty and ambivalence. But it’s most interested in that tantalizing, agonizing ambiguity that young queer girls can share between friendship and romantic love ... Much of the novel’s power comes from its unanswered questions, which are allowed to remain unresolved in part because Ruth is a remote and unflappable narrator, giving the fine-tuned appearance of being direct without actually revealing much of what she wants. Ruth’s nonchalance often comes encased in a delightful deadpan ... A thrilling and capacious novel about intimacy and art-making in which the narrator proves to be more compelling than her muse.
Writing beautifully about ambition, class, art, domesticity, identity, and complacency, Wambugu’s prose is as striking as it is sure. A heartbreaking and penetrating coming-of-age debut.
