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WELCOME TO THE WOMAN ZONE BOOK REVIEW PAGE.                   
​This is where members of the WZ Book Club get to share their thoughts on titles seen on the shelves of our Women’s Library. All reviews are unsolicited and only those attending the WZBC may borrow and review books.
The Woman Zone Book Club meets on the 2nd Saturday of every month between 2pm and 4pm at The Women’s Library, ground floor, Artscape.  All are welcome.
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We welcome your reviews of women-authored books. Send between 200-500 words and cover pic if possible to info@womanzonect.co.za or hipzone@mweb and we will post it here! 

Across the Kala Pani

12/7/2022

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Author: Shevlyn Mottai
Publisher: Penguin
​Reviewer: Beryl Eichenberger
Author Shevlyn Mottai is descended from indentured Indians from Arcot in South India and I suspect that this was quite a painful novel to write, yet she brings a sense of joy as she winds this story forward.
It was her great – great- grandfather, Sappani Mottai who came out on the Umzinto to Natal in 1909. Travelling from Madras he was accompanied by his one year old son and a 20 year old woman who was not his wife. The family stories that abounded about her great-great-grandmother had stayed with her as a child and into adulthood. Questions of 
dentity rose, as they do with so many immigrants, and the reasons why Indians would come to South Africa to the sugar and tea plantations. As a writer this drove Mottai to research extensively, visit India and dive deep into the back stories of what being an indentured Indian really was. As she remarks: “The novel began as a testament to my great-great-grandfather but very quickly it was clear that the novel had taken on a life of its own. The lost voices of the women of indenture raised their voices and, through me, they would be heard and finally their stories would come to light.”
And bring them to light she certainly has, with authentic and memorable characters that tell a story that is harrowing and yet an integral part of South African history and the Indians who are so much part of our demographics.
Indenture, a system of bonded labour was instituted after the abolition of slavery in 1833 when the British colonies needed labourers. Recruits were found within the poverty stricken streets of India and the workers came to what they hoped was a better life in Natal. A casteless life that would after five years, result in freedom and, if they were lucky a small plot of land.  But for the ‘coolies’ (and I use this advisedly as this is how Mottai refers to them in the book) the ‘promised land’ was never quite what it was cracked up to be – as it rarely is. It is the time of Gandhi and his influence is clearly narrated.
Mottai paints a fine picture of Sappani as a kind and gentle man, unlike some of his contemporaries, but it is the four women who become bound together in support and friendship that form the rays of the story.  The shy young widow Lutchmee who escaped a vengeful mother-in-law and self-immolation on her husband’s funeral pyre; Brahmin caste and educated Vottie whose abusive husband holds on to his caste at all costs, Chinmah, heavily pregnant, married to a simply useless man as part of an unpaid debt and Jyothi a dazzling young girl whose fate is tied in with her beauty.
Kala Pani means Black water and the crossing is merciless-but life on land has its own challenges and Mottai paints a grim picture of how the indentured labour was treated. I am not giving away any spoilers, the story will envelop you. Harsh as it is this is an integral part of our history - the cruelty of colonialism is well documented.
It is a beautifully written story, and Mottai’s prose is smooth and lilting as the story unfolds.  Well -structured it evolves as if in the swirls of a sari -the colour, words and contrasts clearly celebrating the Indian heritage. The use of Indian words and phrases adds to the authenticity and a glossary gives meaning. The power of women take centre stage and, in telling who her great –great- grandmother might have been, shows their strength in facing adversity.  Whatever the conditions they always pulled together to make life a little more tenable.  A precarious existence for both men and women, the friendships forged surmounted the hardship, prejudice, loss and cruelty and clearly show the strength of the foundation of today’s Indian population. We learn a lot from historical fiction and this is a novel that offers a clear picture of this part of South African history. ​
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Agatha Christie

12/7/2022

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Title: Agatha Christie: A very elusive woman Author:  Lucy Worsley
Reviewer: Beverley Roos-Muller
In a murder-mystery class literally all of her own is the late Dame Agatha Christie, whose clever, plot-twisting books turned her into the world’s best-selling author of all time, with 66 novels inspiring many famous movies such as Death on the Nile, Murder on the Orient Express and my personal favourite, the slightly naughty Murder under the Sun with Maggie Smith as the ex-mistress of a Balkan king and the late, great Peter Ustinov playing her most famous character, Hercule Poiret, the clever, plump Belgian detective.
She wrote successful plays too, The Mousetrap being the longest-running ever on the West End in London.
            When I think of Agatha Christie, I picture a slightly frumpy old lady in pearls. Yet she was considered a tall, slender beauty in her day, born to a wealthy English family in England in 1890; she was full of fun and energy, and above all, hard-working talent, usually turning out at least a book a year.
            She was, in reality, an extraordinary pioneer in the world of women writing, a role she liked to downplay. It’s only when we look back on her string of famous successes that we realise just what a considerable talent she was, slightly scorned by the literatti but it’s her books that are still selling. I’ve just reread a couple, and was fascinated by her insight into characters and motives. She understood human nature, and hid her brilliance well.
            Her first husband Archie Christie was rather gorgeous; he was also feckless. They had one daughter, Rosalind, but Agatha did not take to mothering (though her later relationship with her grandson was deeply affectionate). Soon after the birth, she and her husband took off without their daughter for a ten-month cruise connected to his work, during which time she surfed at Muizenberg (a sport she enjoyed) and secretly surveyed the passengers on board – she loved using material she overheard for her next novels. One of her favourite anecdotes was overhearing passengers talking about her: “I hear she drinks like a fish!” said one, not realising that the author was sitting close by.
            When the marriage crashed, she famously disappeared for ten days – it made international headlines. Much nonsense has been written about this gap in her life – the skillful author Lucy Worsley has briskly set out what really happened, and why.
            Her later marriage to the archaeologist Max Mallowan (later Sir Max), fourteen years younger than her, was successful, loving and passionate. She enjoyed (and financed) many of his expeditions to the Middle East while picking up much material for her incredibly popular novels. After her death, a love letter from him was found folded into her purse – she had carried it for 39 years.
            Lucy Worsely’s biography is delightful, the best I’ve read of the extraordinary Agatha Christie, whose work is still giving a huge number of people a huge amount of pleasure - they are well worth revisiting, or discovering for the first time.
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Our Missing Hearts

11/27/2022

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​Author: Celeste Ng
Publisher: Abacus books
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
It was Lauren Beukes who first unpacked the word ‘dystopian’ for me following the release of her first book, Moxyland in 2008. As you know she’s stayed on that trail with a few more titles, and I’m still reeling from the latest, Afterland, described by some as feminist dystopia. But whilst I appreciate the creative foresight that goes into writing dystopia (imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically 
​one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic), I have to say that with the global here-and-now being so ghastly, dipping into the future to find worse, often leaves me depleted.
So on that basis, ‘Our Missing Hearts’ by Celeste Ng presented a bit of a challenge. Set in the US a decade or so into the future, the ‘authorities’ have declared PACT– Preserving American Culture and Traditions - to be the defining ethic, or law. They’ve also decreed that the offspring of anyone defying that law, are to be removed and relocated. Most especially children of PAO, People of Asian Origin (and don’t we know that when you become an acronym, you’ve pretty much lost the battle. Don’t we also know about racial bigotry and fear).
Having said all that, I found this to be a beautifully written book, something that kept me going when I felt I might be missing, or losing, the plot. What I did get though, loud and clear, was a reverence for folk tales and sharing them, the fragile value of libraries and the agony of a mother torn between her beliefs and caring for her child.
I wish I had read the Author’s Note before instead of after reading the book. It details how children have been used as pawns in discriminate thinking across the world and over generations. Amongst other things, it also explains the extraordinary guerrilla art protest that features here, but most importantly it reveals that this is not just futuristic fantasy – but a cautionary tale.
I haven’t read Celeste Ng’s other books, ‘Everything I Never Told You’ and ‘Little Fires Everywhere’ – but I believe they have had people talking, and thinking.
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The Soft Life

11/25/2022

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​Author: Lebohang Masango
Publisher: Tafelberg
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
Let me come clean. At first glance, the title of this book and the picture that accompanies the cover conjured opulence and frivolous living in my psyche. I was surprised then to read the back cover and discover that it is non-fictional. The book is by feminist thinker and anthropologist, Lebohang Masango, and features real lived experiences of five motivated and educated women. The author earned her Master of Arts degree from the 
University of Witwatersrand in 2019 after submitting the qualitative research thesis that this book is based upon. To quote the author; “This book is about five different women and what their truths, stories and insights can reveal to us about love, choice and modern dating in South Africa and how exactly these aspects contribute to ‘the soft life’ moment that we find ourselves in…” So dear readers, as the old saying goes, don’t judge a book by its cover.
The book focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the lives of these women, their dating experiences, the influence of social media, the women’s vulnerabilities and their political beliefs.
Lihle is a 31-year-old entrepreneur from Alex, Joburg. She is the life of the party with her make-up always done. Her relationships have been characterised by men loaded with cash – a man seeking love has to be contented with being the one to spend on her. The COVID-19 restrictions created turmoil in her love life.
Jolie is a career focused 29-year-old-old living between Joburg and Tshwane. She’s also engrossed in establishing herself as a singer. Her Senegalese upbringing has instilled in her that boyfriends and husbands are the providers of the home. She expects men to take the financial lead in relationships. Three months into the pandemic, she ended her relationship of five years.
Nomonde is a 33-year-old devoted traveller with many years in the advertising industry. She left her career as she was unfulfilled and blissfully left Joburg for Cape Town. During COVID she had online relationships. Her pressing concern is that young women are impressionable and unable to correctly weigh the consequences of pursuing soft lives at all costs. Now armed with adulthood, she hopes that in her current relationship material things will manifest later.
Warm and lovely Bongi, is a 27-year-old entrepreneur and a Joburg resident. She has recently earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in marketing and established an online handbag store. She once enjoyed having multiple partners but is now in a steady relationship with one man.  
Friendly Camilla is a 28-year-old junior publicist with a three-year-old son. She associates having a soft life with not having to spend her own money. She has no qualms about a man spending money on her. She tells the author that she’s in pursuit of a life where she can have nice life problems. She once met a man at a restaurant who asked for her number. She gave it to him. The next thing, the man sent her R3 000 and never spoke to her again. Talk about being #blessed!
The women in this book identify themselves as feminists and share some of the ways this takes shape in their lives. The book gives valuable comprehensions and motivation of the young women who want a soft life. Women who defy society’s expectations of respectability and often vilified, ridiculed and accused of being prostitutes on and off line. If we are to be honest, since time immemorial, women have been using dating and marriages as channels to a better life.  As the author says, “Soft life is simply an articulation of aspirations inherent to all human beings. It is just actualised differently according to our personal circumstances.”  
What I notice from women living the soft life, the slay queens and blessees is that one has to be immaculate to be desirable. The women are always perfectly made up and well-groomed. The nails are well-manicured, the hair is flawless and the clothes are outrageously expensive. And, let me not forget, the dolls’ eyelashes. Those astonishing eyelash extensions. With a great sigh, I’m afraid this leisure and lavish lifestyle is out of my radar range. Instead of upgrading my looks and femininity, I’m constantly on a spiralling downgrading mode. There’s always the Lotto though…I also want a life free of hardship damn it!        ​
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Stellenbosch: Murder Town

11/23/2022

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​Author: Julian Jansen
Publisher: Tafelberg
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
I have a confession to make. As someone who readily enjoys reading and watching horror and crime stories, I’ve been taken aback by the murders I have read in this book. The sheer madness and brutality of it all is astonishing. The fact that they are true, has sent chills down my spine and left me disturbed. South Africa is a rough place with crime and mayhem off the charts. One would think I should not be shocked by this book, 
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November 16th, 2022

11/16/2022

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Payback

11/13/2022

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​Author: Priscilla Holmes
Publisher: Modjaji
Reviewer: Nancy Richards
‘You can’t possibly be serious.’ said the voice in my imaginary conversation with author Priscilla Holmes. ‘It’s completely OUTRAGEOUS!’ ‘Yup’ came the reply. Guess she’s not wrong – if you’re going to write a killer-thriller, what for to hold back. Certainly not on detail, and in Payback, Ms Holmes has spared none.
Quick catch up, if you’re not familiar with her 
first Thabisa Tswane novel Now I See You, you should know that the intuitive investigative Detective Inspector Tswane has recently been promoted to Major in the Eagles, a South African crime-fighting unit (bird of prey similarity intended). But while the Major, her muscular and intriguing husband Zak (another force for good in remote and secret places) and her twin sons Kwezi and Langa are key to this stand-alone story, the real outstandingly outrageous protagonist is Julia McEwan aka Eloise du Pont whose ‘couverture’ is not blown so much as completely over le top. ‘In this job you will have to play many parts,’ says the couverture coach, ‘you stand out because you’re tall, so sometimes you must learn to stoop, tu comprends?’
Francophiles will love this book with its linguistic segues. Fashionistas also indulged with much dress detail hot from the style avenues of Paris, and for those with cultural curiosity, there’s a visit to a rural red ochre valley with precious, protected beadwork, traditional dancing and the revered if terrifying utatomkhulu. For good measure there’s quite a bit of steamy sex, infidelity, suspicion and revenge too.
The big fromage however, is the obscenely wealthy and less-than-scrupulous Victor Maseko whose prime objective is to create and launch an uber-opulent shrine to his ego, The Maseko. Forests of trees and flowers are brought in for the opening bash, sushi and frosted flutes of champagne are served, the Mamelodi Youth choir and Nkosazana the people’s princess sing, presidents, press and personalities are invited and all are treated to a dazzling ‘carrieres de lumierers’ sound and light finale. Did I mention outrageous?
The first Thabisa Tswane title came out eight years ago, since when it seems Ms Holmes has been amassing some pretty meaty material for this one and, one suspects, delving into her own well-travelled experience and memory bank. ​
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The Swim Team

11/11/2022

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​Author: Catherine Jarvis
Publisher: Tafelberg
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
This book review has been dense to say the least. Very much necessary though in the world we live in. It’s about the protagonist 
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Notes on Falling

11/5/2022

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Author: Bronwyn Law – Viljoen
Publisher: Umuzi
​Reviewer: Beryl Eichenberger
‘Notes on Falling ‘ by Bronwyn Law-Vijoen is a rich novel if sometimes a little confusing, or maybe challenging is the better word as the reader is required to concentrate, to follow the threads even when they appear to unravel.
What it gives us though is a creative arc and a lens through which to view the turbulent creativity of the 70s in New York and the lives of those who pursue the arts as a career, as it intersects with the challenges of 90s South 
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The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap

10/24/2022

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​Author: Bridget Krone
Publisher: Catalyst Press
Reviewer: Hazel Makuzeni
Before writing English text books for South African schools, Bridget Krone was an English teacher for a few years.  This book, her latest, is about a young boy who learns the importance of friendship and community. It’s a tale of courage, never giving up and knowing there’s grace in the world no matter 
how depressing your circumstances are. Aim for the moon because even if you miss, you might hit a star. Through his endeavours our protagonist discovers the significance of aspiring high, even if he lives in an impoverish village called Cedarville.
Boipelo (Boi) Seku is almost thirteen. He’s a Grade 8 pupil at Cedarville Comprehensive School and lives with his grandmother and father in a little two-room house in Khorong Koali Park in Cedarville. Cedarville, in the Eastern Cape, is a small village between two bigger towns, Matatiele and Kokstad. Instead of having green shady trees, his village is littered with dirt, weeds and thin dogs. Their houses were built after 1994 by the new democratic government after apartheid ended. They have a pit toilet outside the garden.
Life at home is not easy. Like most of his neighbours, Boi’s father is unemployed. Their only source of income is the government grant money that Makhulu (grandmother) gets at the end of the month. They use candles to light their home at night and a paraffin stove to cook as the cost of electricity is out of their reach. Their house is baking hot in summer and as cold as ice in winter as they don’t have ceiling boards. The tin roof leaks when it rains so Boi knows where to position his mattress to avoid it getting wet when it rains. His mother died in childbirth so Makhulu moved into the house to take care of him. Even though she’s almost blind, nothing he does escapes her notice. Much to his irritation.
His best friend is Potso, they’ve been inseparable since Grade One. They fish together at the river, hunt for tiny field mice to roast on an open fire, and dig clay from holes in the river bank and make little animals, mostly oxen or cows. Potso aside, he also has feelings for Sesi, the daughter of one of his school teachers.
It was an ordinary day when he stumbled upon a story that would change his life forever. Makhulu had gotten some old magazines from aunty Shirley from the library and asked Boi to read to her recipes for mincemeat from one of the magazines. A brief not easy when you are a boy whose staple diet consist of maize meal porridge and sour milk. The closest the family ever gets to eat meat is chicken feet or polony.  The story that caught his interest though was titled: Man Trades Paperclip for a House. It ignited a spark in him that saw him start his own trading scheme beginning with a tiny clay cow he made himself. Just maybe, his dream to one day live in a house big enough for his family, could become reality. Doubts aside and with Potso by his side, he traded. And trade by trade, he learned valuable life lessons, overcame obstacles, uplifted his community and brought to power the Nguni saying: Umuntu ungumuntu ngabantu (you’re because of others).    ​
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