Turning her back on what is considered conventional, Makhosazana Xaba engages with her subject-matter on a revolutionary level in Running and Other Stories.
She takes tradition - be that literary tradition, cultural tradition, gender tradition - and re-imagines it in a way that is liberating and innovative. Bracketed by Xaba's revisitings of Can Themba's influential short story, The Suit, the ten stories in this collection, while strongly independent, are in conversation with one another, resulting in a collection that can be devoured all at once or savoured slowly, story by story.
By re-envisioning the ordinary and accepted, Xaba is creating a space in which women's voices are given a rebirth.
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Commanding new voice from South Africa
Thu, 26 Sep 2013 | Review
by: Judy Croome | @judy_croome
Published by Modjaji Books, the prestigious South African publisher specialising in women’s writing, RUNNING & OTHER STORIES adds a commanding new voice to the South African literary scene.
From the double re-framing of Can Themba’s iconic short story “The Suit” with subtle gender issues, to writing in the still-hopeful voice of a thirteen year-old orphaned girl when there is no hope (“Prayers”); from the despairing voice of a young woman betrayed by those she most trusted in a story redolent with political symbolism (“Running”) to showing the lonely price a woman accumulating a list of first successes must pay (“The Trip”), the stories in this collection explore the many challenges women who have been doubly oppressed (race and gender) must face in making their voices heard and their life experiences meaningful.
With a strong local flavour, this rich collection of short stories is exquisitely well-written and will appeal not only to South African readers but also to any international reader who has an interest in “learning about the country that produced" four Nobel Peace Prize Laureates(namely, Former Presidents F.W de Klerk - 1993; Former President Nelson Mandela - 1993; Archbishop Desmond Tutu - 1984; and Mr Albert Luthuli - 1960.)
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