Weaver Press

An Elegy for Easterly
Petina Gappah

2009: (pp: 275) 212 x 135 mm
ISBN-13: 9780571246939
ISBN-10: 0571246931

The Guardian
25 April 2009
Reviewer:    Aminatta Forna

Petina Gappah's debut collection is a book of two halves. In the first half are stories of people – women, mostly – coping. The women are downtrodden, exploited, mad, the abandoned, forgotten widows and wives of Big Men. One grieves over her husband's empty coffin at a state funeral attended by the President (here, as in Harare North, Mugabe, though never named, is a constant and menacing presence). Another grieves over her empty marriage and lifeless existence in one of Harare's most exclusive suburbs. An infertile woman watches with envy the swelling stomach of the local madwoman, never realising the unborn child belongs to her own husband. A talented law student finds her future tainted by a spell in a mental home. It makes for bleak reading. Frankly, too much so.

Gappah is a talented writer, but one who wears her heart too obviously on her sleeve in these first few stories. And then, almost halfway through the book, comes 'The Mupandawana Dancing Champion' and everything changes. With this absolute gem, which tells the story of a retired coffin maker's attempt to win a local dancing contest, Gappah comes into her own. It is clever, beautifully crafted and very, very funny. Her sense of humour is the key, for it tempers a tendency towards didacticism; it puts the politics where it should be – in the background – and brings the characters to the fore.

From there it just gets better. 'Our Man in Geneva Wins a Million Euros' is the story of a Zimbabwean embassy clerk who falls for a Nigerian scam. 'The Maid from Lalapanzi' reveals the secret past of a formidable household help. 'Aunt Juliana's Indian' explores the complex relationship between an Indian shop owner and his assistant.

Though Gappah's characters run the gamut of class from super-wealthy to destitute, she is at her best in her depiction of ordinary people, their ambitions and dreams of a better life even as everything around them crumbles. Through humour and compassion, she depicts that most quintessential of African characteristics: the ability to laugh at life, for fear of crying.

© The author/publisher