lip lit: nikki lovell, we are one village
Nikki Lovell is the founder of the charity One Village, which aims to support Ugandan communities by providing educational, agricultural, infrastructural and health support. Lovell begun One Village after spending a Gap year in the small village of Namwendwa where she witnessed — and experienced — poverty first hand. She saw how a few simple changes and initiatives could have far reaching benefits for the community. She made a couple of these changes while she was still living in Namwendwa, but formally begun One Village when she returned to her home town of Adelaide.
In We Are One Village, Lovell tells the powerful and fascinating story of her Gap year in Namwendwa. Lovell said she wrote the memoir in about three months after looking through journal entries, and unfortunately, this shows. The memoir does not have a clear sense of time and lacks imagery. It also breaks the cardinal rule of narrative: Lovell tells, tells, tells and rarely shows.
After spending 240 pages with Lovell on the page, I couldn’t make any connection to her. I’m also uncomfortable with her decision to write about certain situations involving two of her co-workers. In both cases, Lovell was placed in a difficult moral position. While I appreciate these were included to give a sense of desperation and exploitation, she explains her reactions in a way that reminds me of the narrator of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway – it feels like she wants us to pat her on the back for behaving in an empathetic way.
I desperately wanted to like this book. I was so excited for it. I have so much admiration and respect for Lovell, and I think her work is extraordinary. Perhaps because of this, my expectations were too high and I set myself up for disappointment.
We Are one Village would be beneficial to any young person who is thinking of doing a Gap year in a developing region of the world. But as a book to read for enjoyment, it falls flat. Lovell is an amazing humanitarian, but if she decides to write a sequel, she should give it a little more time and attention.
We Are One Village, Allen and Unwin, $24.95
In my personal opinion, I do not think that this review of Nikki Lovell’s book, ‘We are one village’ is entirely correct.
I believe that the book was much better than this review portrays it to be and although I respect others opinions, I think that reading my review from another perspective is important.-
Nikki Lovell’s book changed the way I think about travel and life in general. I had no idea that when I picked up an interesting looking book from the shelf that it would make such a profound impact on my life.
I am a Year 10 student already thinking about my future which I hope will incorporate lots of travel, especially during my GAP year.
After reading Nikki’s book, I have become enormously inspired. I read her book in just 24 hours and I can honestly say, it is one of the best books I have ever read.
Lovell’s descriptions of Namwendwa made me felt like I was in the hut next to her. They gave me the impression of how much suffering a village like Namwendwa is in and made we want to board the first flight to Uganda to help out.
I think her ‘day to day’ story telling of her 8 month journey to Namwendwa is a unique and excellent way of telling a story because you can really feel the emotion written in the words.
By the end of the book, I felt like I knew Nikki- her story was so personal and captivating that I felt empowered to email her to tell her how inspired I was after reading ‘We Are One Village’.
I was so happy to receive a response back from One Village and then from Nikki herself the next day! I had never expected that an author of such an amazing book and story would ever want to reply to a 15 year old girl’s ‘thank you’ email!
Mind you, I did get the impression in ‘We are one village’ that Nikki was the sort of person who was kind and caring.
‘We are one village’ made me laugh, cry and enjoy the incredible adventure Lovell endured.
I highly recommend the book to everyone because despite what one thinks, another thinks differently!!
You never know what its like until you try it!! Take a leaf out of Lovell’s book and have a go at everything with a positive attitude!
I also recommend looking at One Village’s (The organization Nikki Lovell set up after her trip) website where you can read about how it all started, what they are doing now and how you can donate.
Finally, I’d like to say that Nikki Lovell is an incredible and inspirational young woman who gives her time up tirelessly and selfishly to help out others who are less fortunate.
Hi Katie, thanks so much for your comment. We choose to have comments on the site because we welcome and encourage the difference in opinion. I sat on the review for a week before posting it, and I still stand by my initial review, but I’m thrilled her story has made such an impact on you. Everyone responds to texts differently, and I hope people take the the time to consider your comments as well as my own.
Since you mentioned how inspired you are by this book, I thought I would recommend ‘Half the Sky’ by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. It’s a very different format than ‘We Are One Village’, but it speaks about women’s rights and plights in developing countries, and outlines different ways people can help.