Index

Laughing Now – New Stories from Zimbabwe
Edited by Irene Staunton
ISBN: 978 1 77922 068 4
pp.113: 130 x 210 mm

The Herald (Harare)
Feb 20, 2008
Reviewer: Richmore Tera

Short Stories Book Full of Humour

This is yet another landmark contribution to Zimbabwean literature in English from the publishers of best sellers such as Writing Now and Shimmer Chinodya's award-winning novel, Strife.

Edited by Irene Staunton, the 14 short stories featured in this anthology are remarkable for the way their authors employ humour and satire to critically appraise life while constructively scoffing at the follies and frailties besetting people. The reader cannot afford but laugh at the jokes that the authors so skilfully use to spotlight on the grim, sad yet truthful ironies of life. Albeit Gumbo story's rather indicting tone, reminds that laughter, after all, is the best medicine that people have to their plight, no matter how big or cumbersome the load might be.

The authors probe a wide range of contemporary issues – social, political and economic – with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel. The authors use the devise of realism that invests their characters with the ability to act out the almost realistic plots. Most of the characters are poor ordinary people precariously struggling to cling to the edge of the dog-eat-dog world they survive in. On the other hand we are however encountered with the gallery of greedy and unscrupulous influential individuals who wantonly abuse the power and confidence invested in them by the societies they represent.

Usury Chimbadzo in Erasmus Chinyani's fable, A Land of Starving Millionaires, is as his name suggests, a very greedy money-lender whose ever bloating family coupled with the ever skyrocketing prices of basics are too much for him to bear, thus driving him almost insane.
Chimbadzo resorts to deceiving and conning the weak and vulnerable for survival, so typical of the heartlessness of many people today.

Chinodya is represented in the collection with his short story, The Last Laugh, about Mai George, a strong-willed enterprising woman of steely-strength who refuses to bow to the forces of single-parenthood, stereotype and poverty inherent in her society. Because of her very successful but 'backyard' informal kitchen, she becomes the object of jealous even from her evil-minded landlady, Mbuya MaSibanda, who becomes envious of, and irked by, her lodger's achievements. 'Mai George began to LAUGH ... She laughed and heard the voices of the other lodgers in the adjoining rooms shrieking with hers, conspiring with her against the ageless tyranny of the world' (p. 37).

Rory Kilalea's hilarious but subtle diatribe, African Laughter, pokes fun at the double standards of racial supremacists who regard everything African with indignity and scorn. Three stories that scooped the three top prizes in the Mukuru Nyaya.com short story competition last year – Petina Gappah's Mupandawana Dancing Champion, Minister Without Portfolio by Julius Chingono and John Eppel's intriguing Ashes, are also featured in the anthology.

The rest of the contributors are Lawrence Hoba, Edward Chinhanhu, Albeit Gumbo, Daniel Mandishona, Diana Charsley, Alexandra Fuller, Brian Jones and Bryony Rheam. A worthwhile read for those who crave for humour.

© The author/publisher

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