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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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