The Woman Next Door concerns two elderly women, neighbors and antagonists for the past twenty years or so, since shortly after the abolition of Apartheid, in an upscale suburb of Cape Town. One is black, the other white. Circumstance forces them to turn to each other for help. I picked this book up in Cape Town last fall, wanting to buy at least a few books by South African authors I hadn’t heard of. I thought I knew where this story was headed. Old white […]
Your bangs are curled, your lashes whirled, but still the world is cruel.
This book was tough for me to rate. I didn’t really NOT like it, and the plot was good, and it was an easy read. But I have notes. I liked the plot: Vimbai, hairdresser in Harare, Zimbabwe, enjoys local fame as the best hairdresser around until an unknown (male!) hairdresser comes in and steals her thunder. Her old loyal customers are won over by this new hair magician and she, of course, is overcome with jealousy. Gradually, we learn her story: she’s a […]