Zimbabwe – ~*LunaSea*~

Gappah, Petina. Elegy for Easterly: Stories. Faber and Faber, 2009.

Reason read: Zimbabwe gained its independence in April.

The short stories:

At the Sound of the Last Post – Esther is attending the funeral of her philandering husband.
Elegy for Easterly – Martha Mupengo is pregnant has been moved into a house where a murder-suicide had occurred.
The Annex Shuffle
Something Nice From London – a brother who bled his family dry emotionally and financially is finally dead.
The Mupandawana Dancing Champion – who knew the man could dance until he died?
In the Heart of the Golden Triangle – what would you put up with to stay seated in the lap of luxury?
Our Man in Geneva Wins a Million Euros – a man, seeing the World Wide Web for the first time, gets caught up in its excesses.
The Maid From Lalapanzi
The Cracked, Pink Lips of Rosie’s Bridegroom – guests surmise when the bridegroom’s new wife will meet her demise.
My Cousin-Sister Rambanai – an Americanized daughter comes back to her homeland for her father’s funeral.
Aunt Juliana’s Indian – good help is hard to find.
the Negotiated Settlement – Sometimes a tragedy can alter the course of a marriage, for better or for worse.
Midnight at the Hotel California – I loved how the all-commodity broker described his job, “…if it can be bought, it can be sold, and if it can be sold, I am your man” (p 208). Did anyone else think of the movie Say Anything?

Quotes I loved, “I thought I loved him; but that was in another country” (p 8), “And we had no jam for our bread, no milk for our tea while Peter drank away our father’s inheritance in London” (p 75), “Fame is an elastic concept especially in a place like this, where we all know the smells of one another’s armpits” (p 91).

Music: Oliver Mtukudzi, Michael Jackson, Bhundu Boys, Alick Macheso, Andy Brown and the Storm, System Tazvida and the Chazezesa Challengers, Cephas Mashakada and Muddy Face, Boyz II Men, Hosiah Chipanga and the Broadway Sounds, Mai Charamba and the Fishers of Men, Simon “Chopper” Chimbetu and Orchestra Dendera Kings, Tongai “Dehwa” Moyo and Utakataka Express, Bob Marley, Chamunorwa Nebeta and the Glare Express, Lumumbashi Stars, “Bhutsu Mutandarikwa,” and the Eagles’s “Hotel California.”

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Zipping Through Zimbabwe/Roaming Rhodesia” (p 268).

Rogers, Douglas. The Last Resort: a Memoir of Zimbabwe. Harmony Books, 2009.

Reason read: Zimbabwe’s independence was won in April of 1980.

When President Robert Mugabe announced his plans reclaim Zimbabwe land from white farmers, it was not an idle threat. All across the landscape, white-owned properties and farms were first taken by decree then by force. People were arrested or even murdered and lives systematically destroyed, piece by piece and acre by acre. Douglas Rogers was born and raised in the Zimbabwe countryside with vibrant and industrious parents. His father had been a lawyer and his mother raised four children while writing a cookbook called “Recipes for Disaster.” Together they ran a game farm and tourist lodge called Drifters. By the time Mugabe was in office Ros and Lin’s children had grown and moved away. Douglas was a journalist in Europe. When Mugabe’s people threatened their property Douglas urged his parents to leave and when that didn’t work, he realized their struggle would make for a good memoir. By documenting the political strife on an extremely personal level, he would reach a wider audience and shed more light on the corrupt situation in his homeland. As the country slid into uncontrolled bankruptcy, Rogers’ parents struggle to keep their lives as normal as possible. Even when their resort was taken over as a brothel, their fields turned to pot (literally), and diamond dealers camped in their lodges. With shotgun in hand, they made light of the growing danger on their doorstep. How long can they keep their land?

As an aside, in my gluttonous life, I cannot imagine not being able to afford stamps and envelopes. I also couldn’t imagine bombs landing all around my house in the middle of the night and then to be expected to concentrate at school the next day.
As another aside, the resort Rogers’s family owned had a Friday night pizza bake. So did the show “Million Little Things.” So do I.

Playlist: 50 Cent’s “In Da Club”, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Eminem, “Get Rich or Die Tryin'”, Hanli Slabbert, Jay-Z, Kanye West’s “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”, Kris Kristofferson, Macy Gray, Mos Def, Neil Diamond’s “Cracklin’ Rosie”, Puff Daddy, R Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly”, Snoop Dogg, Supergrass, Thomas Mapfumo, and “Yellow Submarine”. As an aside, “Yellow Submarine” has come up in two different books this month. Cool.

Author fact: Rogers has his own website (mentioned at the end of The Last Resort). Unfortunately, it does not have the photographs or video promised. Even the links to the podcast and ethics of visiting Zimbabwe are no longer available. I would have at least liked to see the frog that lived in the coffee pot. There is one video that still works and of course it is a promotion for the book.

Book trivia: There are no photographs in The Last Resort. Not even one of the frog. I was disappointed because at the end of The Last Resort Rogers gives the url for his website and promises photographs, a short film, and an update on his parents’ farm. Yes, the information would be old (Rogers finished The Last Resort in May of 2009), but I was hoping for at least photos.

Nancy said: Pearl called The Last Resort engrossing.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the very last chapter called “Zipping Through Zimbabwe/Roaming Rhodesia” (p 268).