Harare Review of Books

First published on Oct. 30, 2022.

Genre: Fiction.

I remain baffled. I have no real idea what I just read. The Happy Valley meanders, wanders, rambles, touches on secret societies but doesn’t quite explain them (or even the one that’s in the book, if it exists in the book), and is the story of one man’s dogged pursuit of a very mysterious woman–except, as he says in the book, he’s looking for her in the past, not the present. It’s also, glancingly, the story of the collapse of The World As We Know It, to bring about a new order that seems to be based on socialism, that seems to carry on from where the Occupy protests left off; but you’re a better man than me if you can make head or tail of the allusions in the book.

I’ve concluded I’m not smart enough to work out all the references, and I got tired of the very, very many descriptions of everything, and I mean everything. I also kept reading because I was waiting for the pay-off, which, I mean, I don’t know. And that’s my summary of this book: it was interesting, but I honestly don’t know.

I hope other people read it, and explain, because it feels like it’s very interesting, if I could only get it.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Serpent Key Press for access to this ARC.