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Reviewed
by Tania Hershman
There are those who write fiction
in order to educate, to say "This is how things are done, this is what
you must know, read and learn". But in my opinion, education is not the
primary aim of fiction. Fiction must, above all, bring the reader a
gripping story, characters that we want to follow, to see what happens
to them. This is where Petina Gappah excels: first and foremost, she
tells great stories, and, almost incidentally, we learn as we read. We
learn about Zimbabwe, the rhythms of its language, the corruption of
its politics, the AIDS epidemic, the relations between neighbours and
friends, between rich and poor, between Africa and the rest of the
world, between parents and their children. These stories are full of
atmosphere, of cultural detail, and we drink it in, because we are so
taken with the story and the characters. Gappah has hooked us.
These thirteen stories in Gappah's
debut collection work wonderfully together. From the first page, the
reader is introduced to the conventions of the culture and to the truth
that hides behind these conventions, the layers of hypocrisy, the way
things have to be said and done, the naming of people. This carries
through all the
stories, with each successive one adding more to the complex picture of
this fascinating, troubled country. I am sure the stories also stand
alone, but I have read few collections where the ensemble is so strong.
The title story, An Elegy for Easterly,
demonstrates Gappah's skill at bringing together the universal
(adultery, madness, a woman desperate for children) with the specific
(a Zimbabwean township threatened with destruction; the economic woes
of its inhabitants):
"The winter of the birth of
Martha's child was a winter of broken promises. The government promised
that prices would go down and salaries up. Instead the opposite
happened. The opposition promised that there would be protests. Instead
they bickered over who should hold three of the top six positions of
leadership. From the skies fell chimvuramambwe,
hailstones of frozen heat that melted on the tongues of Easterly's
children."
One of the most powerful stories
for me
is also the shortest, The
Cracked Pink Lips of Rosie's Bridegroom. In a little over
four pages, Gappah paints the horrifying picture of a community being
devastated by AIDS, eating, drinking and dancing at Rosie's wedding,
all the while knowing that Rosie's husband would soon pass his sickness
to her as he did already to one wife and two
girlfriends:
"They are gifted with prophecy, the
wedding guests, they look at
Rosie's bridegroom's lips and in them see Rosie's fate. She will die
first, of course, for that is the pattern, the woman first and then the
man. The woman first, leaving the man to marry again, to marry another
woman who will die first."
Yet, the wedding guests keep dancing, keep
eating.
Another favourite of mine is The Mupandawana Dancing Champion,
in which a retired elderly coffin maker's neighbours are astonished to
discover
his dancing talents:
"As the first strains of Tambai Mese Mujairirane
filled the room, we saw M'dhara Vitalis transformed. He wriggled his
hips. He closed his eyes and whistled. He turned his back to us and
used the vent in the back of his jacket to expose his bottom as he
said, 'Pesu, pesu',
moving the jacket first to one side and then the other."
This story is one where you almost
laugh out loud yet there is a poignancy, a sadness. Nothing is
straightforward, just as in reality, but there are small moments of
joy.
As with every collection, there are
stories which did not work as well for me, veering from the delicate
balance of entertaining and informing, such as
Aunt
Juliana's Indian, in which the amount of information felt
too great for the story to bear. Our
Man in Geneva Wins A Million Euros takes a risk by hanging
a story on the now rather tacky subject of email scams offering
millions to unsuspecting dupes, yet Gappah just about pulls it off
because while this may be the central plot, there is more depth to this
story than first appears.
On the subject of depth, one of the
joys of short stories is that they can be read again and again without
the enormous time commitment required by a longer work, and great short
stories will give up something new with each re-reading. The
stories in this book definitely do that. The first reader gets the
reader accustomed to linguistic and cultural differences; subsequent
reads allow the reader to concentrate on the story and the smaller
details.
Gappah is currently, as mainstream
publishing dictates, working on a novel. I hope that she doesn't
abandon the short story form, that certainly would be a great loss.
Read a story
from this collection in Per Contra
| Tania
Hershman
is the editor of the Short Review. Her short story collection, The
White Road and Other Stories, is published by Salt Modern Fiction. |
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Publisher: Faber
and Faber
Publication
Date:
April 2009
Paperback/Hardback? Paperback
First
collection?: Yes
Awards: Winner, Guardian First Book Award 2009, Shortlisted,
2009 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award
Author
bio: Petina Gappah is a Zimbabwean writer
with law degrees from Cambridge, Graz University, and the University of
Zimbabwe. Her short fiction and essays have been published in eight
countries. She lives with her son Kush in Geneva, where she works as
counsel in an international organisation that provides legal aid on
international trade law to developing countries. She is currently
completing The Book of
Memory, her first novel.
Read
an interview
with Petina Gappah
Buy
this book (used or
new) from:
The
Publisher's Website: Faber
AbeBooks
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Book
Depository
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you liked this book you might also like....
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Yellin "Kafka In Bronteland"
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Keret and Samir el-Youssef
"Gaza Blues"
What
other reviewers thought:
CS Monitor
The
Independent
The Observer
Book SA
Politics.co.uk
Goodreads
The Telegraph
Mail and
Guardian
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