Zakes Mda

Mda examines the complicated relationship between Afrikaners and black South Africans in a small town in the Free State platteland, where, as usual in small towns, politics has much more to do with individuals and what happened between them a few decades ago than with big national issues. In Excelsior, the defining event in recent history has been the arrest of five white men and fourteen black women from the town under the Immorality Acts in 1971. The white men were all prominent figures in show more the Afrikaner community, and their activities lead to the birth of a surprising number of mixed-race babies.

We follow one of the women, Nikki, and her daughter Popi, through the declining years of apartheid and the first decade of democracy: the optimistic coming to power of the ANC, the lofty socialist ideals that gradually slide off into corruption and capitalist "enterprise schemes", the disenchantment of the Afrikaners who feel they aren't being given a chance to contribute to the new society, and so on. Underlying it all is the comfortable notion that, at a personal level, Afrikaner farmers and rural black people have far more in common than they think they do, and it's only those nasty middle-class ideas from the city that are driving them apart. Much the same reasoning that you find in nostalgic rural fiction from Attlee-era Britain. Which, oddly enough, is almost always written either by nasty middle-class people from the cities or by (former) aristocratic landowners, never by actual peasants.

Still, politically dubious though it might be, it's an attractive story, with strong, funny characters, interwoven with luscious descriptions of Van-Gogh-esque paintings of rural life by a local artist.

Narrator Robin Miles obviously isn't South African, but she does a pretty convincing job with the strongly-defined Sotho and Afrikaner voices, only breaking the illusion slightly with some odd pronunciations of Afrikaans placenames. show less

Told in the collective voice of "we," Ways of Dying unfolds the story of Toloki and Noria. The community owns the story, but keeps an emotionally safe distance. Toloki makes his living as a professional mourner. What an interesting vocation. Toloki will be there if you need someone to help carry a casket; he will wail as if he just lost his own best friend, or he can rescue a body from the morgue before officials dump it into a mass grave. Toloki's most important task is to attend funerals show more to comfort the mourners. It is at one such funeral that he reconnects with someone from his childhood. As children, Toloki was always jealous of the beautiful and mysterious Noria. No matter how hard he tried to please his father, Noria was the only one his father had eyes for. Noria acted as Toloki's father's artistic muse. Now, years later, Noria is a changed woman after suffering so much heartache and loss. Together, they forge a new friendship.
Confession: there was so much misery in Ways of Dying that I could not trust a happy ending. show less

Mda's The Whale Caller is so rich that it's difficult for a reader to distinguish between fantasy and reality. The characters are so flawed and distinctive, and their story so sweet, that the world becomes something almost idyllic, despite its downfalls and poverty. Centered in off-kilter romances and fantasy, the book is something of a lovesong to what imagination can accomplish for its characters, and of course for the reader.

Yet, for me, I have to admit that the ending very nearly ruined show more the book for me, and certainly ruined the world of the book. Having read it, and been so shocked by it, I couldn't really recommend the book to other readers unless they could commit to neglecting those last few pages. I adore Mda's writing, but that ending... well, it would be enough to put me off of his work if I weren't already a fan, not for the believability, but for the too-easy horror, that is all to believable, just as much as the rest of the story is surprisingly believable.

I don't know what to say beyond the fact that Mda's writing and world-building an character creation are marvelous. And that I now hate him, just a bit, for writing this ending. show less

This was a treat! The Whale Caller is passionate about the whales that periodically visit the waters of the small coastal town of Hermanus, where he blows his kelp horn for them. He is especially enamoured of Sharisa, a female southern right, who responds to his call and rewards him by dancing to his music, with him, for hours on end.

Saluni, the feisty village drunk, is equally passionate about the Whale Caller. She follows him around and makes no secret of her adoration for him. Being of show more subtle disposition, he is regularly embarrassed and scandalised by her attention. She couldn’t be more different to him. She is a free spirit who loves life, laughter and living; he is quiet, cautious, and patiently content with his lot.

"Saluni was made to be recklessly happy. She has no cares in the world,” and is, “A glorious celebrant of worldliness.” Her physical make-up is colourful: Her manicured nails are red. She always wears a fawn pure-wool coat over a green taffeta dress, with red pencil-heeled shoes (which she often has to remove, when inebriated), black fishnet stockings, a long black cigarette holder with a shock of red hair to complete the picture.

As a relationship slowly develops between the two, we become steeped in an unforgettable love triangle comprising a gentle man lost in his adoration of a whale, a whale who seems to love him in return, and a seriously enamoured woman who will stop at nothing to have the man she loves completely to herself.

This was a wonderfully entertaining read! It is naughty, playful and sometimes totally irreverent. show less