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A review by alisonburnis
The Furrows by Namwali Serpell
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? It's complicated
3.75
When she’s twelve and her brother Wayne is seven, Cassandra Williams is in an accident with her brother, and he dies, though he body is never found. Her mother responds to this by refusing to believe Wayne is dead, her father eventually leaves. And C dreams of Wayne over and over again, seeing him everywhere.
The Furrows is a book which explores grief in all of its messiness. C struggles to pick apart what is and isn’t real in her dreams and from the uncertainty which clouded the original accident. Compounding this is meeting a man with the same name one day, in an accident.
Serpell’s writing is crisp in the first part, and shifts considerably in the second, to a more conversational style. The way she explores grief and trauma through C and her parents, all of whom react differently to the hole in their lives, is well-done. The opening line, “I don’t want to tell you what happened. I want to tell you how it felt,” is repeated at a striking moment, and it’s going to stick with me for a long time. Serpell gets right at the heart of how we want to communicate our experiences.
The Furrows is a book which explores grief in all of its messiness. C struggles to pick apart what is and isn’t real in her dreams and from the uncertainty which clouded the original accident. Compounding this is meeting a man with the same name one day, in an accident.
Serpell’s writing is crisp in the first part, and shifts considerably in the second, to a more conversational style. The way she explores grief and trauma through C and her parents, all of whom react differently to the hole in their lives, is well-done. The opening line, “I don’t want to tell you what happened. I want to tell you how it felt,” is repeated at a striking moment, and it’s going to stick with me for a long time. Serpell gets right at the heart of how we want to communicate our experiences.