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A review by inkandpages
The Cry of Winnie Mandela by Njabulo S. Ndebele
2.0
This was assigned reading for my Odysseus module, as it's a reimagining of the Penelope character in the original, and her themes of fidelity, waiting, and marriage. It takes place in South Africa and Lesotho, and tells the stories of four different women who, for one reason or another, had to wait for their husbands to come home to them.
It’s quite a short but intense book, that manages to pack a huge number of themes into only 150 pages. The author explores extremely complex topics in quite a lot of detail, and the writing was quite confusing at times, but I went in with an already made crib sheet with the women's names and stories so I'd know what was going on. As well as the four main characters, the real life figure of Winnie Mandela is also included as a kind of fifth protagonist, who answers questions from the others, and speaks about her own waiting for her husband to be released from prison.
The characters are used to explore the various aspects of marriage, fidelity, patience, and betrayal, as well as examining the traditional role of women as wives within South African history, and all the time there’s an underlying connection between these women who waited and the figure of Penelope. The book is quite meta, and at times very aware of its own existence as a book, and instead of there being any kind of obvious plot, it’s more like a series of characters who are frozen in time – after waiting for their husbands – having a conversation amongst themselves, and then turning to address Winnie Mandela herself.
Overall, it was an interesting book, and I'm glad I read it, but I can't honestly say I enjoyed it, though I would recommend it to anyone interested in reimaginings of the Odyssey, or the character of Penelope.
My rating: ★★
Find more content like this on my blog: https://inkandpagesblog.blogspot.co.uk/
It’s quite a short but intense book, that manages to pack a huge number of themes into only 150 pages. The author explores extremely complex topics in quite a lot of detail, and the writing was quite confusing at times, but I went in with an already made crib sheet with the women's names and stories so I'd know what was going on. As well as the four main characters, the real life figure of Winnie Mandela is also included as a kind of fifth protagonist, who answers questions from the others, and speaks about her own waiting for her husband to be released from prison.
The characters are used to explore the various aspects of marriage, fidelity, patience, and betrayal, as well as examining the traditional role of women as wives within South African history, and all the time there’s an underlying connection between these women who waited and the figure of Penelope. The book is quite meta, and at times very aware of its own existence as a book, and instead of there being any kind of obvious plot, it’s more like a series of characters who are frozen in time – after waiting for their husbands – having a conversation amongst themselves, and then turning to address Winnie Mandela herself.
Overall, it was an interesting book, and I'm glad I read it, but I can't honestly say I enjoyed it, though I would recommend it to anyone interested in reimaginings of the Odyssey, or the character of Penelope.
My rating: ★★
Find more content like this on my blog: https://inkandpagesblog.blogspot.co.uk/