Book Review: "Glory" by Noviolet Bulawayo

“And then we watched, as if on cue, a bull charge Jidada’s most famous celebrity Prophet, lift him by the horns, and fling him, shrieking, so high up in the air it actually looked like he’d reach heaven. We roared and cheered in tremendous applause that said we were done with false prophets and false pastors and false religious leaders who fleeced us of our hard-earned moneys in the name of God, who connived with the Seat of Power to keep us oppressed by telling us who to vote for, by telling us the blatant lie that our leaders were selected by God, by telling us to stay away from politics.”

I have to say, when I read this I had not heard anything about the author or the book before and if I knew it was based on George Orwell's Animal Farm, I probably would have read it sooner. Fused with the political climate of Zimbabwe as Robert Mugabe was deposed, this book makes for an excellent comment on how politics works when politics doesn't work and how things really get done behind the scenes. I found it a little bit challenging as I honestly didn't know much about the elections after the deposition and how much political chaos ensued. I was already well aware of Mugabe himself, but learning about the politics of Zimbabwe through a fictionalised country with an allegorical situation was actually pretty helpful. I'm ashamed to say it had been sitting on my shelf for some months before I picked it up to read.

I do not want to talk too much about the storyline out of fear I will give away some key moments. But from a military coup to a rigged election, we can only assume we are still at the start of the book as so much more happens which is a knock-on-effect of this. In the classical Orwellian style, of course it stars animals in symbolic representations that are actually allegories for real people. However, in a difference between Orwell's novel and this one - in this novel we have animals behaving very similar to humans and instead of using their animal skills to offer the farm help, we have very human behaviour and much more explicit legal systems.

He dreamt of the days of glory when Jidada was such an earthly paradise animals left their own miserable lands and flocked to it in search of a better life, found it, and not only just found it, no, but found it in utter abundance and sent word back for kin and friends to come and see it for themselves — this promised land, this stunning Eldorado called Jidada, a proper jewel of Africa, yes, tholukuthi a land not only indescribably wealthy but so peaceful they could’ve made it up...

I think one of the main things that needed improving was the universal access to the story. The story is mostly interesting if you already have (or are acquiring because of the book) a working knowledge of Zimbabwe's political climate and recent history. This means that to some people it may not be as accessible. A simple introduction by the author in which the allegory is slightly explained my suffice instead of relying what is on the blurb.

The animals were cleverly used and the storyline worked well in teaching the reader about an important political climate and situation in recent years. It is ambitious but relies too heavily on the reader's own knowledge of the rigged elections. I think there was definitely room for more story or maybe at least an explanation via page numbers atht end of the book. Or else we run the risk of drawing a blank for some.

All in all, I thought this book was definitely one of the stronger ones of its year. With a lot of effort put into writing it along with the animals such as donkeys and goats, there was a certain sense of linking between this and its inspiration material. However, I do think that sometimes it was too reliant on its own history and therefore, by the end it had build up quite the accessibility problem with its readers. Tough and challenging, I think that is what I liked most about it.