Harare Review of Books

416 pages.

First published in 2009.

Finished reading on Oct 8, 2018.

Genre: Fiction.

Winner of the 2010 Orange Prize for New Writers
“Immediately engaging, vivid and buzzing with energy, The Boy Next Door is the work of a true storyteller… At heart a love story, it is also so much more as, through the experiences of its charismatic protagonists, it charts the first two decades of the emerging Zimbabwe with honesty, humour and humanity… Irene Sabatini has written an important book that will enchant readers and which marks the emergence of a serious new talent.”
Di Spiers, Editor of Readings at BBC Radio 4,
Orange Award for New Writers Chair of Judges

Synopsis:
In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, there is a tragedy in the house next door to Lindiwe Bishop; her neighbor has been burned alive. The victim’s stepson, Ian McKenzie, is the prime suspect but is soon released. Lindiwe can’t hide her fascination with this young, boisterous and mysterious white man, and they soon forge an unlikely closeness even as the country starts to deteriorate. Years after circumstances split them apart, Ian returns to a much-changed Zimbabwe to see Lindiwe, now a sophisticated, impassioned young woman, and discovers a devastating secret that will alter both of their futures, and draw them closer together even as the world seems bent on keeping them apart. The Boy Next Door is a moving and powerful debut about two people finding themselves and each other in a time of national upheaval.

First of all, great opening line!

Also, “caught a dwinch” made me giggle:

This was a great read for all of those places I know: my old home town (Bulawayo), my new one (sometimes sadly, Harare), all of my old haunts. Also, although the main character would be a little older than me, the period the book is set in is extremely familiar to me, and that took me back in a very visceral way.

Perhaps that’s why I found the inaccuracies of language annoying. The misspelt Ndebele words (mudala, kaya, etc) felt like Chilapalapa (Fanagalo, Fanakalo), that horrible colonial artefact, which got my back up, and really took away from my enjoyment of the book. Maybe they were meant to? The triggering is its own point, right?

But that then drew my attention to the problematic portrayal of the black characters in the book, too: an irredeemable flatness, saying more about the author’s perception of black people (I thought) than about the racial hierarchy the book explores. The book tries to portray race relations in (early) Zimbabwe, but perhaps the author’s own prejudices come through? That was my impression (— leading me to an examination of my own possible prejudices, and a Gordian knot and an ouroboros: perhaps my own racial perceptions colour my understanding of what the author was portraying? Insoluble, as my immersion in the place and time of the book means remembering my own experiences of race and class in the Bulawayo of that time. Inception.).

But. It was lovely to read a story about things I know so well, which is always my absolute joy when I read books set in Bulawayo. And although some of the minor characters were cartoonish, the development of the major characters was really enjoyable.

So, mixed feelings, but still recommended.

A quick note to say I may re-read this book in the future, to see if my thoughts on its problematic aspects have changed.

Rated: 6/10.