Glory
Ratings6
Average rating3.7
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 BOOKER PRIZE From the award-winning author of the Booker Prize finalist We Need New Names, an anthropomorphic blockbuster of a novel that chronicles the fall of an oppressive regime, and the chaotic, kinetic potential for real liberation that rises in its wake. Glory centres around the unexpected fall of Old Horse, a long-serving, tyrannical leader of the fictional country of Jidada, and the drama that follows for a rumbustious nation of animals on the precarious path to freedom. Inspired by the unexpected fall by coup, in November 2017, of Robert Mugabe—Zimbabwe’s president of nearly four decades—Bulawayo’s bold, vividly imagined novel shows a country imploding, narrated by a chorus of animal voices who unveil the ruthlessness and cold strategy required to uphold the illusion of absolute power, and the imagination and bullet-proof fortitude to overthrow it completely. As with her debut novel We Need New Names, Bulawayo’s fierce voice and lucid imagery immerses us in the daily life of a traumatized nation, revealing the dazzling life force and irrepressible wit that lies barely concealed beneath the surface of seemingly bleak circumstances. At the centre of this tumult is Destiny, who has returned to Jidada from exile to bear witness to revolution and brings into focus the unofficial history and the potential legacy of the remarkable women who have quietly pulled the strings in this country. The animal kingdom—its connection to our primal responses and resonance in the mythology, folktales, and fairytales that define cultures the world over—unmasks the surreality of contemporary global politics to help us understand our world more clearly, even as Bulwayo plucks us right out of it. Glory is a blockbuster, an exhilarating ride, and crystalizes a turning point in history with the texture and nuance that only the greatest of fiction can.
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I'm going to be honest and say that I skim read the last 50% of this book. For the first 200 pages it was entertaining and satirical and funny - but it just got too repetitive and it's far too long. Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace for this one. She is a great writer though.
It opens as a satirical update to Animal Farm at an Independence Day celebration where the animals are decked out in jackets, hats and scarves despite the intense heat. It's Richard Scarry's first political rally in the nation of Jidada (with a -da and another -da) It seems the perfect way into absurd populist leaders and their cabal of influencers and opportunists.
Tholukuthi that while it can be incredibly funny as the American President is referred to as the “Tweeting Baboon of the United States” while the new Jidadan leader is revealed to be attracted to his Siri virtual assistant, the story still opened up a history I was not aware of. Bulawayo is exploring Zimbabwe's 2017 coup d'état that removed then president Robert Mugabe, as former First Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa took the nation's reins. Here the leaders are shown as aging horses surrounding by a blood thirsty canine military, but their story intertwined with the nation responding on social media sounded eerily familiar.
Even with the remove of anthropomorphized animals, the recounting of the Gukurahundi genocide is absolutely chilling. And the story of the goat Destiny returning to her home nation was incredibly powerful. I appreciated this intimate insight into a part of the world I was previously blind to, and the strange political ascendancy of one Tuvius Delight Shasha.
I'm not certain I have the words necessary to explain all this book achieves. Masterful writing, by turns a humourous and heart-rending account of an African nation surviving post-colonial corrupt and violently oppressive rule, satirizing deluded despots, remembering victims and atrocities, encouraging action even in the face of danger and leaving hope for change. Among powerful passages are those which are incredibly difficult to read. I can't quite explain why the transformation of what might be a composite of several beleaguered peoples (not just Zimbabwean) in recent history into various members of the animal kingdom helps to tell this story even clearer but somehow it does - it's not all in fun - perhaps they stand out sharper as archetypes, or the anyman/animal is easier to relate to in a situation outside (this) reader's experience.
Goes heavy on repetition and lists, but in a way that helps to drive home points, and takes on the feel of chanting, song, ritual. Highly, HIGHLY recommend the audio book.
If you can deal with the content, I think it's worth a read. I'm not sure I'll ever stop thinking about it.
⚠️ SA and physical assault, misogyny, genocide, mention of torture, violence/gore
