Laughing Now
edited by Irene Staunton
Weaver
Press's previous collections of short stories, Writing Now and Writing
Still, were highly praised for the quality of their prose and the imagination
of their writers. They confirmed, for one reviewer, 'the paradoxical
truth that troubled societies somehow produce some of the most interesting
writing available.'
Laughing Now goes further, and demonstrates the capacity of Zimbabweans to find humour in even the grimmest of circumstances.
The stories embrace funerals, dancing competitions, family tensions, rampant inflation and endless queues for scarce goods. They take a wry look at pompous politicians, foreign filmmakers and the aspirations of the so-called 'new' farmers.
Zimbabwean fiction in English has become world-renowned in recent decades, but its concerns – war, trauma and the trials of independence – have been far from amusing.
Laughing Now suggests that we are finding new ways to reflect our reality; that however many zeros we add to the rate of inflation, and however hungry we may become, humour is as good a response as any.
ISBN:
978 1 77922 068 4
pp.113: 130 x 210 mm
Territory: World
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