Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Glory

animal farm if the animals had won but instead of a farm its an african country (and i think in this universe all people are animals, not just the people in the specific country, although i cant actually remember if that was ever mentioned).
i found the first half of the book quite slow, i think because it was more focused on the dictator and his inner circle and how they were ruling the country rather than the ordinary citizens of the nation and their struggles, which is what the second half was more about. it was interesting to imagine the behind-the-scenes of a dictatorship too, though; i've always wondered how they rationalise their actions and this helped understand it a bit better. in the second half the plot focuses more on a specific character and the people around her, all of them ordinary citizens in a village, as well as on the brewing revolution.
some things i wasnt a fan of: chapters showing public sentiment through tweets. it was a bit corny. im not really familiar with african twitter but to me the writing style didnt feel super authentic and it seemed like kind of a forced way to show conflicting opinions on politics etc among the citizens (as well as those who had left the country). i understood what the author was trying to do but i wasnt that satisfied with the execution.
kind of a small detail but it kept bugging me whenever it came up - race is a topic in this book, they often bring up how they are a black nation ruled by black people etc since they became independent from the white colonisers. what was never made clear though was how race works among animals - do the "black people" all have black fur? that doesnt really make sense to me. what race are orange cats? or ur classic black and white cows? or was the point just to illustrate the absurdity of race as a social construct? either way i feel like it could have been more clear.
other than that i did quite enjoy the book, it gave a lot of insight into how political systems often function outside of the imperial core and it was especially spooky reading it this close to the turkish elections.

Content Warnings

your_true_shelf's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

bibim's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark informative inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

humdrum_ts's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

mariah_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This was a hard read, but I also learned a lot and it forced me to educate myself. It needed to be cut by 100 pages, and maybe should have been short stories. But there were gripping vignettes.

Content Warnings

differentsisters's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

I see what the author was trying to do. Once I got use to the inclusion of Zimbabwean dialect, the book was readable. What became tiring was the heavy heavy use of repetition (a whole page of just the word take). I could see why some uses of repetition was used, but it became tiresome and felt like an editor needed to cut at least a hundred pages of repetition.

Content Warnings

deedireads's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging funny sad medium-paced

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

4.25

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

Glory is a challenging but rewarding read. I liked it, but I respected and admired it even more. It won’t be for everyone, but there’s no denying that Bulawayo is masterful.

For you if: You like satire, enjoy a challenge, and don’t mind anthropomorphized animals.

FULL REVIEW:

Glory is NoViolet Bulawayo’s second novel to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and it’s easy to see why. This book is smart, inventive, and effective at what it sets out to do.

Glory closely follows the events during and after the coup that ousted Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe in 2017 — except that in this world, the country is called Jidada (with a -da and another -da!) and all the people are talking (clothes-wearing, cell-phone-using, otherwise extremely human) animals. It swoops between a lot of characters’ perspectives and mixes in alternative storytelling formats like Tweets. But it’s also all tied together with a fictional character named Destiny, who’d self-exiled from Jidada after experiencing war violence and has now returned.

This book is challenging, but I (and many others) found it rewarding. Others found it impossible to connect with or get through. It’s not going to be for everyone, but I think it’s worth the attempt! Bulawayo’s approach here with the animals works so well in highlighting the farcical nature of its subject matter and society overall, and it enables her to add extra absurdism to underscore her point that would just come across dumb if the characters were human (for example, at one point the President starts hitting on Siri).

I also really liked the more traditional verbal storytelling style of the writing, filled with lots of repetition and punctuation. It translated really well to audiobook. Be aware that parts of this book are hard to read, as they deal with genocide and war violence (including sexual violence).

All in all, there were definitely parts that I struggled to stay engaged with, and I wasn’t sorry to finish this book and mark it complete. But I do put it in the “liked overall” column, and I have a ton of respect and admiration for what Bulawayo has done here.

Content Warnings

More...