Sundaymail Editor
Book Review
Edmore Zvinonzwa
BOOK titles are sometimes not straightforward.
However, they will often be loaded with meaning.
This seems to be the case with “True Lies: A Collection of Short Stories”. The book contains 10 short stories done by young authors.
The title of the anthology can draw anyone’s attention as it is paradoxical. Lies cannot be true and readers would want to explore what led the stories to be collectively titled so.
In terms of style, the language used in the anthology is generally simple and easy, presenting no difficulties for any reader in understanding.
The use of the epistolary style and the journey motif are not new in prose narratives as they have been used before by other authors.
Edited by CJ Mylton, real name Milton Chitsime (pictured) , and published by Forteworx Press, the 67-page book carries fictional narratives which seem as though they are true stories.
The editor of the anthology says of authorship: “Authors bring positive change apart from inspiration, knowledge, wisdom and entertainment.” (piii)
This is true as continued creation of reading material will find ready consumers in the readers who are yearning to grab something new. This also further develops the country’s reading culture.
Authors featured in the anthology include Munashe Rupazo, Eleckias Manyadza, Catherine Mapanda, Givemore Mhlanga, Edmond Shonhiwa, Nkosiyathi Kan Kanjiri, Cheryl Matizamhuka, Brian Tafadzwa Penny, Taurai V Sekenya and Mylton.
Some of the themes explored in the different stories are determination as seen in Mapanda’s “A Race Against Time”, poverty and deprivation narrated in “My Life As An Illegal Immigrant” as well as well as alcoholism, debauchery and mystery in “A Misadventure That I Will Never Tell My Wife” and “The Pay Day”.
Love is explored in “Love Struck and The After-party”. What makes the stories appear realistic is the real-for-life character sketches.
Crossing into South Africa and other neighbouring countries without proper documentation is not new for some Zimbabweans who often end up being deported.
Mapanda’s “My Life as an Illegal Immigrant” tries to explain the predicament.
“I boarded a bus to Harare, where I got a cross-border bus to Zambia. The courage I possessed then was amazing. It literally shocked me, being a young woman travelling to a place I had never been before …,” (p15).
Dealing with familiar challenges and the fact that the writers use real places for their settings makes their narratives appear real.
“It began with a text message on my phone, confirming the deposit of my long awaited salary in my bank account. After harvesting the whole lump sum that Saturday morning, my next destination was Zindoga Shopping Centre where I exchanged half of it with drunkenness the whole day.” (p20)
His worst moment is to come when he hikes a lift, drops off at Mbudzi roundabout and heads for Hopley in the middle of the night. He encounters a woman and decides to take her home since his wife was away.
“I was quick to suggest my place as the perfect hideout for the night, but she refused, suggesting her place, citing that she was still new in the area and she wasn’t attached to anyone.” (p21)
The mystery that the nameless protagonist of the story comes across has the potential to leave any reader in stitches.
“I woke up around 9am on Sunday, and the headboard of the woman’s therapaedic bed was written ‘In loving memory of Maria Jeke, BORN 15/01/85 – DIED 13/08/14.’ I recollected and discovered that I was at Mbudzi Cemetery.” (p23)
Perhaps the most perturbing point is that the readers do not get to know what the narrator does after recollection except that he remembered hearing the story of Maria, a commercial sex worker who had been murdered three months back by a certain man for demanding her money for the service she had rendered him. The bulk of Mhlanga’s characters are also nameless, making them typical.
The quality of being universal makes the story appeal to many.
Online Reporter