A Beautiful Place to Die

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I grew up like so many children of the 80s and 90s knowing about apartheid. I knew that in South Africa black and white people were separated, and black people were denied things, and rights, and opportunities that white people had. I also remember it ending, and Nelson Mandela becoming President, lots of happy people and dancing.

So I've always had the knowledge of apartheid. But I don't think I have ever really had an understanding of apartheid. I mean, it's pretty straightforward, right? White and black? I never considered the tiering between Afrikaans and English, or Jews, or Indians, or mixed race, etc. This book explores all of this and some. My 7 year old knowledge was blown out of the water and highlighted as what it obviously was, incredibly naive and simplistic. But until I had to really think about it, I really never realised how simplistic I assumed it was.

Detective Emmanuel Cooper is a white, English police officer. He is called out to a small town on the border with Mozambique. He arrives at the murder scene of the Afrikaan police captain, who seems to pretty much rule the town with his pack of sons. In an incredibly volatile situation already, Detective Cooper also has to work with officers from the country's Intelligence Agency who have taken over the investigation, while also enforcing the new apartheid policy and stamping out communism.

It's very well written. Both the story itself and the writing as a whole. I didn't think the story would be able to string itself out for the whole book, but she did it well. I thought I had the culprit picked early, but that got flipped on it's head, which I love. The writing of the landscape and the area was by someone who obviously loves the land, and made it sound incredibly beautiful, even in its barrenness.

She also handled the political landscape very well, I was impressed. There was obviously a point of view in the book, but it never felt heavy handed. I definitely would recommend, it's well worth the read.

Zoo City - #48

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I came back to J-berg. I had to, after the State of Symmetry disaster. I was trying to work out what other book I could read for South Africa and this one fell on my lap. I am so glad it did.

This is like an alternate modern day book. It's set now, everything is similar and familiar. Well, that is, besides the familiars. We would call them familiars but in Africa they are termed mashavi. These are animals that appear one day to certain people, and attach themselves to them. To their "soul" if you like. What kind of animal? Whatever you get stuck with. Zinzi has Sloth. And now they are inseparable.

Who does this happen to? It seems that anyone who does something particularly horrible becomes a mashavi. I am not sure exactly who bad it has to be, the sliding scale is not quite talked about, but you have to have done something pretty bad. All people who are animaled are therefore considered as criminals, and are shunned by society. A lot of them live in an area together, a slum really, called Zoo City. As that is the un-pc name for them. Zoos.

Along with the animal, comes... well... for a lack of a better term, a magic power, or ability. Zinzi and Sloth can find lost things. She looks at people and can see the things they have lost and can follow the trails and find them. Pretty useful. And she in her Former Life used to be a journo. Pretty good combo. Pity everyone looks at you like you're a criminal all the time. But she advertises her services as a finder of lost things, and as people want certain things found, she makes a bit of money.

It is through this she is hired by the top music guy in South Africa to find one of his "next big things" who has run off before her album launch. This throws Zinzi into a whole new world of interesting. Throw in her contract to run email scams - you know the "I'm an African princess dying of cancer and have $20 million dollars and can only give it to you as you are a trustworthy person and I have no one else, but first I need your $2 million so I can escape my terrible oppressive country and die in freedom." emails - to a gang, and the book gets interesting.

That was a long intro... What I loved about this book wasn't the main story line. The music industry thing. I loved the end of it, but not the story. I LOVED the whole animaled lore. It was brilliant. And the aside chapters that are written (turns out by some of the author's friends) in different mediums to explain whats going on. The world is amazing.

Again the sense of place is great. You could really get in to where Zinzi was and what she was doing. I will throw in, as I am on holidays, I could spend hours reading in a comfy chair with a chicken, unlike the few minutes stolen here and there in my real life. But I still found it so easy to get swept along in the place and the story. I need to check out more of her writing.

In a country that has had a problem with an "us" and "them" in the past it was interesting looking at this idea again but from an non-racial premise. I think it was pretty spot on, we all default to shun the unfamiliar and the different. We shouldn't and that's what should make us different from animals, but we're a bit crap at it. It also was a really interesting idea to look at the problem of refugees from all of Africa's wars and conflicts, and how that makes normal people forced into horrible situations scarred, not just on their person and psyche, but can leave an another "scar" (animal) but it may not be their fault... It's interesting...

I say read it. We lose a star as I was getting a little bored halfway through. I couldn't see where it was heading. If this is you too, stick with it, it's only 350pp! It's really different and I can't wait to read more of her work.

And so ends the alphabet! I started Anil's Ghost on the 16 Jan 2013. I finished this on the 4 Jan 2014. I missed our cut off in YLTO, but still within 12 months for me. Thanks for reading these along with me. And this year, the challenge is Chunksters (over 500p books) so looking forward to knocking off some huge reads. Hope you stick around with me :)

A State of Symmetry - #29

I lasted 26 pages. And let me tell you why.

- The guy uses too may commas. Now I know I am the comma queen. But I also do a lot of proofreading. And when *I* am yelling "Why is that comma there?!? It's completely unnecessary!!" You know you are in trouble.

- He refers to every character by their full name (not just Joe Blogs, but Joe Alfred Blogs) every time they are mentioned. Every. Single. Time.

- He seems to think he's the modern reincarnation of Homer. He chooses a bad epithet and repeats it ad nauseam.

- The guy also doesn't believe in quotation marks. It was all jumbled together who was speaking when and if they had paused or if they were telling you that they looked off into the distance - using their full names of course. For I while I was trying to work out if everyone in South Africa thought of themselves in the third person. And then realised my South African friends didn't, he was just trying to be all hip and stream of consciousness, without being a stream of consciousness and oh it's just rubbish.

I said last night about the book "I was ticked off at 5 pages. I'm very grumpy at 12. There may be fire at 20 if it doesn't pick up." I lasted until p26 and I'll admit there was not fire (I thought setting alight a book in my bed after midnight would not be appreciated by the other occupant) so it was thrown. Hard.

A complete garbled mess.

I have Zoo City on my list already for this year, so I will substitute it in for South Africa.