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A review by dllh
Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais
3.0
I did enjoy the book, but it wasn't a great book. Some of the scenarios and dialogue were pretty forced, and it felt at times as if scenes or conversations labeled, e.g., "cute conversation between children who misunderstand the things they're talking about" were inserted but weren't really all that well done. The book had just a few too many stumbles of this sort to feel like a really polished book.
I also felt really conflicted about the perspective and the authorship here. I'm all for an author working to inhabit the perspectives of different people, but I felt a little icky about the white privileged author slipping into some of the characters she slips into, even if it's done with (as far as I can tell) generosity and kindness and positive intent. I don't think I'm suggesting that she shouldn't have done it or that she didn't do it reasonably well, but just that it made me a little uncomfortable and influenced my reception of the book.
And finally, I would like to've learned more of the history of apartheid and the Soweto uprising. I suppose that's just a disconnect between the author's intent and (part of) my aim here and the author's not really to blame for my mistaken expectations.
I certainly don't regret reading the book. It was a perfectly nice book and I did enjoy parts of it and learn some things I hadn't known from it (or, from Googling them), but it wasn't a book I'll remember especially fondly or that really appealed to me a lot.
I also felt really conflicted about the perspective and the authorship here. I'm all for an author working to inhabit the perspectives of different people, but I felt a little icky about the white privileged author slipping into some of the characters she slips into, even if it's done with (as far as I can tell) generosity and kindness and positive intent. I don't think I'm suggesting that she shouldn't have done it or that she didn't do it reasonably well, but just that it made me a little uncomfortable and influenced my reception of the book.
And finally, I would like to've learned more of the history of apartheid and the Soweto uprising. I suppose that's just a disconnect between the author's intent and (part of) my aim here and the author's not really to blame for my mistaken expectations.
I certainly don't regret reading the book. It was a perfectly nice book and I did enjoy parts of it and learn some things I hadn't known from it (or, from Googling them), but it wasn't a book I'll remember especially fondly or that really appealed to me a lot.