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A review by whatbritreads
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
3.0
My final book from the Booker shortlist, and what a journey it’s been!
I started off really enjoying this one, the beginning was easy to grasp despite my lack of knowledge of the political history of Zimbabwe. I really enjoyed the style of Bulawayo’s storytelling, I think she has an intelligent and witty way of commenting on society and history, I found myself really gripped by a couple of things said in the book, and how despite being rooted in history it was still telling of the times and relevant to this day.
This one, unfortunately, got very difficult for me to follow very quickly. It went from enjoyment and understanding to boredom and confusion after around 70-80 pages which was devastating. I just think this book was trying to do too much simultaneously and probably would have benefited from being stripped down to key messages and ideas, to make what is being conveyed clearer and the message more consistent. It just felt a bit jumbled, and as a reader I struggled to connect with it because I couldn’t fully understand it. My comprehension would come back in waves, but only briefly.
The writing also began to get very repetitive. There were many segments in here that could have been cut down, especially pages full of the same word repeated over and over - which happened at least three times. The effect of it started to get old quite quickly. Because of the utilisation of the same writing ‘quirks’ for lack of a better description over and over again throughout, it just got exhausting to read. It made for a novel that ended up several hundreds of pages too long.
We follow several characters and it jumps between various narratives in a way that didn’t feel entirely cohesive to me. It didn’t feel like there was a single thread running through the story keeping it all together and on track, it was very sporadic. I think a central character or two, and more focus on what you actually want a reader to take from it would’ve been beneficial. It was just trying to do so much and have a say on so many things that my brain was just full of information and I didn’t know what to focus on, it’s going to end up as a book I retain nothing from.
While I enjoy the Animal Farm-esque nature of it, having animals as characters here just struck me as more of a bizarre choice than anything. I understand making us think of these big figures as purely animalistic to give us an idea of who they are and how we should view them, but making them act entirely human and throwing in things like Twitter, WhatsApp and Siri just fried my brain a bit. Definitely a selling point if you like experimental and different narratives, but I think this was the wrong approach for the story.
Overall a confusing one, but one I’m conflicted about my feelings on. On the one hand, I think Bulawayo does have immense talent when it comes to writing and commenting on societal issues and I’d definitely read more from this author. Amazing imagination. On the other hand, I feel this was a book that needed serious revision and more focus. It was readable, but just about. Not entirely accessible to a widespread audience I feel.
I started off really enjoying this one, the beginning was easy to grasp despite my lack of knowledge of the political history of Zimbabwe. I really enjoyed the style of Bulawayo’s storytelling, I think she has an intelligent and witty way of commenting on society and history, I found myself really gripped by a couple of things said in the book, and how despite being rooted in history it was still telling of the times and relevant to this day.
This one, unfortunately, got very difficult for me to follow very quickly. It went from enjoyment and understanding to boredom and confusion after around 70-80 pages which was devastating. I just think this book was trying to do too much simultaneously and probably would have benefited from being stripped down to key messages and ideas, to make what is being conveyed clearer and the message more consistent. It just felt a bit jumbled, and as a reader I struggled to connect with it because I couldn’t fully understand it. My comprehension would come back in waves, but only briefly.
The writing also began to get very repetitive. There were many segments in here that could have been cut down, especially pages full of the same word repeated over and over - which happened at least three times. The effect of it started to get old quite quickly. Because of the utilisation of the same writing ‘quirks’ for lack of a better description over and over again throughout, it just got exhausting to read. It made for a novel that ended up several hundreds of pages too long.
We follow several characters and it jumps between various narratives in a way that didn’t feel entirely cohesive to me. It didn’t feel like there was a single thread running through the story keeping it all together and on track, it was very sporadic. I think a central character or two, and more focus on what you actually want a reader to take from it would’ve been beneficial. It was just trying to do so much and have a say on so many things that my brain was just full of information and I didn’t know what to focus on, it’s going to end up as a book I retain nothing from.
While I enjoy the Animal Farm-esque nature of it, having animals as characters here just struck me as more of a bizarre choice than anything. I understand making us think of these big figures as purely animalistic to give us an idea of who they are and how we should view them, but making them act entirely human and throwing in things like Twitter, WhatsApp and Siri just fried my brain a bit. Definitely a selling point if you like experimental and different narratives, but I think this was the wrong approach for the story.
Overall a confusing one, but one I’m conflicted about my feelings on. On the one hand, I think Bulawayo does have immense talent when it comes to writing and commenting on societal issues and I’d definitely read more from this author. Amazing imagination. On the other hand, I feel this was a book that needed serious revision and more focus. It was readable, but just about. Not entirely accessible to a widespread audience I feel.