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Loading... Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001)by Phaswane Mpe
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Poetic and rhythmic, this is a powerful exploration of a small community. Mpe's powerful writing illustrates the power of careless words and actions while painting believable and flawed characters with both sympathy and wit. This novella's power comes both from the story and from Mpe's beautifully measured language. The style of this book alone makes it a worthwhile read, but the story's unique vantage point paired with the contemporary concerns make it a memorable and necessary work worth reading, rereading, and passing on. The originality and style here are worth discovering for yourself. ( ) The AIDS epidemic has had its most startling and horrendous effects in the African community, and this collection of stories tied together by the disease is a welcome reminder of the lives still being lost. Mpe's book is at times a challenging read - full of drama and excellent characterisation, the themes it deals with are by their nature unenjoyable; the window into the lives and culture of South Africa's people though makes this an important read for one unfamiliar with either topic. no reviews | add a review
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"Welcome to Our Hillbrow is an exhilarating and disturbing ride through the chaotic and hyper-real zone of Hillbrow--microcosm of all that is contradictory, alluring, and painful in the postapartheid South African psyche. Everything is there: the shattered dreams of youth, sexuality and its unpredictable costs, AIDS, xenophobia, suicide, the omnipotent violence that often cuts short the promise of young people's lives, and the Africanist understanding of the life continuum that does not end with death but flows on into an ancestral realm. Infused with the rhythms of the inner-city pulsebeat, this courageous novel is compelling in its honesty and its broad vision, which links Hillbrow, rural Tiragalong, and Oxford. It spills out the guts of Hillbrow--living with the same energy and intimate knowledge with which the Drum writers wrote Sophiatown into being." -- No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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