A well-written, fascinating look at day-to-day life in a nation on the brink of collapse.
In this novel set in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s, a Danish former diplomat and her Canadian husband cope with hardships as the country’s economy collapses in the wake of Robert Mugabe’s disastrous land reforms.
As a seasoned diplomat, Bodie has lived all over the world and experienced many cultures. Since the 1990s, she and her husband, Clyde, have been in Africa, mostly in Zimbabwe. Clyde, who runs a plant that produces agricultural carts, is currently recovering from lung cancer. But unfortunately for them, the president of the country, Robert Mugabe, recently embarked on a campaign of discriminatory land reform, which led to international sanctions, resulting in the collapse of the country’s economy. Clyde and Bodie must endure the subsequent hyperinflation, food shortages, power outages and the harassment of whites. Yet through it all, as she goes from place to place searching—sometimes in vain—for the basic necessities, she and her friends and acquaintances meet and talk and share drinks and generally do what they must to maintain some semblance of a normal life. Bodie’s story unfolds as a series of episodes, ranging from the poor treatment her sick, white piano teacher received at the hospital to the kidnapping of her husband. Through it all, Bodie and Clyde look for a way out without completely giving up on the business they’ve worked so hard to build. Told in the first person, Sim’s novel unfolds in crisp, matter-of-fact prose. She has a keen eye for cultural differences, and she presents life in Zimbabwe in clear detail. Her character sketches bring the people suffering under Mugabe’s rule into sharp focus, the only exception being Clyde, who never seems to come fully to life in the way other characters do. But that’s only a minor quibble in this otherwise excellent and informative book.
A well-written, fascinating look at day-to-day life in a nation on the brink of collapse.Pub Date: May 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1897435908
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Agio Publishing House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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