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Zebra Crossing by Meg Vandermerwe
Nov. 29th, 2016 11:51 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
Set in the underbelly of a pulsating Cape Town during the 2010 World Cup, this is the compelling and bold imagining of what it might feel like to live in another’s skin.
Ghost. Ape. Living dead. Young Chipo has been called many names, but to her mother – Zimbabwe’s most loyal Manchester United supporter – she has always just been Chipo, meaning gift. On the eve of the World Cup, Chipo and her brother flee to Cape Town hoping for a better life and to share in the excitement of the greatest sporting event ever to take place in Africa.
But the Mother City’s infamous Long Street is a dangerous place for an illegal immigrant and albino. Chipo is caught up in a get-rich-quick scheme organised by her brother and the terrifying Dr Ongani. Exploiting gamblers’ superstitions about albinism, they plan to make money and get out before rumours of looming xenophobic attacks become reality. But their scheming has devastating consequences.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Meg Vandermerwe’s debut literary YA novel focuses on the poverty and danger faced by illegal immigrants in South Africa and the particular horrors saved for those with albinism in a well-crafted novel more concerned with place and character than in providing an event-filled plot. There’s a lot to admire about the novel – Vandermerwe creates a well drawn cast of characters, each with their secrets and sorrows and each doing their best to try and survive in a country where many people don’t want them and see them as taking their jobs. I found Chipo too passive as a character – the only agency she really shows is when she visits Dr Ongani (sinister and suave, a born predator), which is when the horrors really start – but this is partly because of how she’s treated due to her condition, which has left her cowed not least because George constantly tells her how stupid she is. My main quibble with the book actually is the relationship between George and Chipo because there never seems to be any love there, he sees her as a burden and then as a money making scheme but never as a person and I wasn’t convinced by this due to the portrayal of their childhood and the impact of their mother. That said, I enjoyed the build of tension as each character makes compromises and the difficulty of daily life and would definitely read what Vandermerwe writes next.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Ghost. Ape. Living dead. Young Chipo has been called many names, but to her mother – Zimbabwe’s most loyal Manchester United supporter – she has always just been Chipo, meaning gift. On the eve of the World Cup, Chipo and her brother flee to Cape Town hoping for a better life and to share in the excitement of the greatest sporting event ever to take place in Africa.
But the Mother City’s infamous Long Street is a dangerous place for an illegal immigrant and albino. Chipo is caught up in a get-rich-quick scheme organised by her brother and the terrifying Dr Ongani. Exploiting gamblers’ superstitions about albinism, they plan to make money and get out before rumours of looming xenophobic attacks become reality. But their scheming has devastating consequences.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): ) The Verdict:
Meg Vandermerwe’s debut literary YA novel focuses on the poverty and danger faced by illegal immigrants in South Africa and the particular horrors saved for those with albinism in a well-crafted novel more concerned with place and character than in providing an event-filled plot. There’s a lot to admire about the novel – Vandermerwe creates a well drawn cast of characters, each with their secrets and sorrows and each doing their best to try and survive in a country where many people don’t want them and see them as taking their jobs. I found Chipo too passive as a character – the only agency she really shows is when she visits Dr Ongani (sinister and suave, a born predator), which is when the horrors really start – but this is partly because of how she’s treated due to her condition, which has left her cowed not least because George constantly tells her how stupid she is. My main quibble with the book actually is the relationship between George and Chipo because there never seems to be any love there, he sees her as a burden and then as a money making scheme but never as a person and I wasn’t convinced by this due to the portrayal of their childhood and the impact of their mother. That said, I enjoyed the build of tension as each character makes compromises and the difficulty of daily life and would definitely read what Vandermerwe writes next.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
