Shimmer chinodya biography of williams

I actually started reading "Dew in the Morning" in 2014 and finished in 2015. Narrated through the voice and eyes of a young boy, Godi. His parents not being able to afford to take care of him and his siblings in the city, send them along with their mother to live in the country side. For the most part, the novel is a narrative on Godi's coming of age in rural Zimbabwe and getting used to its custom, for instance; the dew in the morning, the rearing of cattle and farming. Not to forget the superstitious village people whose belief continuously baffle him. And how he aimed to win the heart of the girl he loves. His father remained in the city, alone, working very hard in order to send them to school. In my opinion the writer was in a way comparing the style of life in urban and rural Zimbabwe.

I am not sure if I really enjoyed this novel. Actually, it was a well written and easy narrative. Perhaps, it's the too much information about the rearing of cattle, ploughing and farming. Though, I totally understand they are part and parcel of rural life. Perhaps, it is simply because it is very young adult-oriented.

Dew in the Morning is Shimmer Chinodya first published novel, I look forward to reading more of his work not because I thoroughly enjoyed this book but because he won the 1990 Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best Book, Africa with his novel Harvest of Thorns Though from its title it seems to be set in rural Zimbabwe too. I would also like to read his novel Can we talk and other Stories (1998), very well reviewed on African Book Addict.

My first novel read and reviewed in 2015, as well, an addition to my Reading African Writers Series Challenge. Lastly, I would like to point out that I love the painting on the book cover.

Have you read anything from Shimmer Chinodya? How was your reading experience? Do you recommend?

Date Read: November 22 2014

Published: 2001 (originally published by Baobab Books in 1998)

Publisher: Heinemann (African Writers Series)

Pages: 154

The Blurb

Opening with the puzzled and innocent view of a boy looking in on the adult world from outside, this collection follows the transition from childhood to adult life. Youthful desires for prosperity, love and a purpose in life are undermined by experiences of humiliation, compromise and a failure to communicate, in a process that reflects a wider disillusionment and decline in post-independence Zimbabwe. In the final story, cynicism turns to anger as the narrator, facing the breakdown of his marriage, challenges his audience to confront the inaction that leads to disappointment and the deep-seated loneliness and alienated at the root of our estrangements.

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Review – ★★★★ (4 stars)

This is a refreshing collection of 11 short stories and I’m glad I randomly spotted this at the bookstore! People, Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka are not the only legendary African Literature male novelists. Shimmer Chinodya is surely one of them- in my opinion! He is a wonderful poetic storyteller.

Can We Talk And Other Stories is a collection of stories that take readers through the transitions of boyhood to manhood. Various issues associated with coming-of-age such as confusion, fear, loneliness, depression, insecurity, alcoholism amongst others are tackled in these 11 short stories. It’s best to read these stories from the beginning to the end, as the stories are in chronological order with respect to the age of the main characters.

The novel starts off with a story of a precocious five year old boy, followed by tales of school life- in Zimbabwe and abroad, followed by stories of adult relationships and ends with a story of a forty-something year old man, lamenting his failed marriage called “Can We Talk”. “Can We Talk” was actually nominated for The Caine Prize for Afric

This is how I choose to remember it. It is late August, 1997. I am getting ready to leave home again—this time on my own. I am heading off to college to study Creative Writing. As I pack, I am filled with the familiar feelings that are always brought on by a new beginning—excitement, apprehension and curiosity. Because I am going to a school that is far, far away I am saddened by the knowledge that I will not see my family for almost a whole year. Even though I have no idea that seven years will pass before I see most of my family again, tears find their way onto the clothes that I pack with the help of my aunt who will die much too young and much too soon. Although we both do not know what the future holds we choose to share this moment the way that we do—not laughing or quarreling as we often have done, but quietly—already making homes within ourselves for future losses and regrets.

We do not know that her death, ten years later, will inspire me to start writing my first novel, The Theory of Flight, and dedicate it to her memory. What we do know is that the radio is on and we are listening to Zimbabwean novelist, Yvonne Vera (another person who will leave us much too young and much too soon) talk about her latest novel, Butterfly Burning. Although I have never read any of Vera’s work (or even heard of her), in that moment I feel anointed because here she is this successful writer who was born and raised in the same city that I was—Bulawayo—and here I am setting off to become a writer myself.

Now when I look back at this moment in my life what strikes me most—apart from the bitter sweetness of it all—is the sheer audacity. When I left home to study Creative Writing at Emerson College, I had read only one Zimbabwean writer—Charles Mungoshi—and had done so perfunctorily as part of the high school Literature syllabus. While I loved Mungoshi’s Coming