Reviews

Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night by Sindiwe Magona

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shasi__'s review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

lorebeth's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

sushideception's review against another edition

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4.0

Half of this book is a fairly traditional collection of short stories, and the other half is a collection of monologues by characters who work as "domestics" in wealthy white households. I love the stylistic experimentation in this latter half; characters appear and reappear across pieces, are presented first one way and then another by different people with different sets of facts. The diverse voices and backgrounds of the women allow a holistic, nuanced view of the profession and its attendant hardships—the inequality, despair, and exploitation are just as vivid as the hope and camaraderie.

My favourite story is "Flight," in which a girl watches a new wife or soon-to-be-wife running away from her village and into the early morning mist. We don't know why she's fleeing, or where she's fleeing to, all we see is this beautiful short scene of a woman escaping her pursuers and being engulfed by the glittering fog.

Magona's voice, both tender and biting, is ever-present here. More than anything, so many of these stories are crushingly sad. Women raped, children killed, men toiling away for months in the mines; all of this forms a sort of backdrop of anguish as people go about their daily lives in Cape Town and its satellite districts.

Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night is absolutely worth a read, and I hope to get my hands on more of Magona's work in the future.

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Global Challenge: South Africa