A peek into present-day Johannesburg hampered by an underdeveloped story and characters.
South African men and women struggle to find love in a corrupt world in Mtshali’s debut novel.
Sizwe Motha, a millionaire playboy, is nearly killed when two gunmen cause him to crash his car. He survives, but he’s not the only one seeking answers to why he was attacked. Fourth-year journalism student Mandisa Sangweni is also trying to uncover the truth about the attempted murder and also get an inside scoop on Sizwe himself, who may not be such an innocent victim. He asks her out, unaware that she’s a journalist; will she stay undercover, or get too close? Meanwhile, Sizwe’s cousin Philani Zungu, a university student studying poetry, has his own relationship troubles. Mtshali breaks his novel into short sections that separately follow each of his three main characters from third-person perspectives, but their stories are less intriguing than the novel’s overall setting: Johannesburg in present day. The author shows the duality of a city where the “distant city lights have always looked like the kind of dreams anyone would like to chase,” but where, for some, the threat of violent death is ever present: “Too many funerals, not enough graduations.” Mtshali brings this same sense of duality to Sizwe, a man mired in scandal and criminality who also helps pay for Philani’s education and gives back to his community. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the novel never reaches this same level of complexity. As characters, Mandisa and Philani never feel three-dimensional, and the author spends time on greetings and other unnecessary dialogue instead of conversations that advance the story. Meanwhile, the conflicts rise and fall too swiftly and simply, making it difficult to become invested in the plot.
A peek into present-day Johannesburg hampered by an underdeveloped story and characters.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4828-6355-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: PartridgeAfrica
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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