NW

Leah and Keisha (now Natalie) rapidly develop in college and immediately afterwards. The inclination toward social consciousness that Leah displayed as a child transforms into full-fledged activism as she bonds with nonconformists at her college. While as a youth she experimented with drinking and other rebellious behavior, in college, she experiments with clubbing and club drugs. She also changes her physical appearance, adopting dreadlocks, for instance. Simultaneous with these social developments, the insecurity and disaffection that Leah felt as a child also grows, as she wonders why she is in college and if she even belongs. “Host” shows the first full articulation of Leah’s existential questions, which reemerge later in her life.

Her best friend’s transformations are no less significant. Upon arrival at college in Bristol together with Rodney, Keisha feels alienated from other students, whose social class and general concerns seem vastly different from her own. This feeling does not stop her from cutting ties with Rodney, her link to her past life in northwest London, signifying that her response to alienation is simply to become more determined and willfully self-confident. Keisha’s adoption of a new name, Natalie, is an obvious indication of her attempt to find a new identity, even as she grapples with feelings of “having no self to be” (246). Natalie’s distancing of herself from Rodney, London, and her old name come together with her interest in other men (most importantly, Frank) and her continued academic success. 

This section of “Host” is distinct, as it contains the only parts of NW set outside of London. The distance from home that both Leah and Natalie are granted by attending their respective colleges affords them a cognitive separation from their past lives. Though they visit each other on a semi-regular basis, the two friends spend most of their time apart. This separation from home and from each other enables each young woman to develop her identity more fully—even if those identities turn out to be tentative and uncertain. Given that this development coincides with their education, this section of NW has affinities with the genre known as Bildungsroman or coming-of-age story (literally, the term is German for “novel of education”).

Whereas a Bildungsroman would show a protagonist overcoming conflicts to emerge with a fully formed identity, however, Natalie struggles to define herself. This extends even to her relationship with Frank, the most important new figure in her life. Like Natalie, Frank has immigrant roots and is a minority (he is mixed-race), but his higher-class background causes Natalie to confront the reality that even shared racial or cultural identity does not prevent alienation. As a passage in “Host” sarcastically puts it, “Low-status person with intellectual capital but no surplus wealth seeks high-status person of substantial wealth for enjoyment of mutual advantages” (270). Frank’s class standing and his mother make her uncomfortable, and she begrudgingly accepts money from her to fund her legal apprenticeship. Nevertheless, Natalie and Frank are united in their ambitiousness, making their eventual marriage seem almost inevitable. 

Despite the major transformations that Natalie goes through during this period of her life away from home, by the end of this section, she decides to return to northwest London to live and work. Ultimately, Leah does as well, suggesting the powerful pull of the geography of home.