Published in the Witness (26/09/2022)
An Unusual Grief
Yewande Omotoso
Cassava Republic Press
When Mojisola and Titus’ daughter Yinka suddenly dies in Johannesburg, Mojisola leaves Cape Town to try to uncover Yinka’s existence in the city – something it seems her parents knew little about before her death.
Initially Mojisola draws a blank as the intense privacy with which Yinka lived her all-too-short life resists her mother’s attempts to break through the barriers. We slowly discover that these barriers between mother and daughter have been there for a long time.
Mojisola begins to get to know people who Yinka knew, including Zelda, the acerbic landlady of Yinka’s flat which Mojisola now occupies. She encounters other people and situations which will startle her, and the reader. As she penetrates the world Yinka inhabited, she begins to learn more about herself and the life she has allowed herself to lead since she became a wife and mother. The problems in her marriage to Titus, which have been brought to a head by Yinka’s death, are revealed as Mojisola begins to get a clearer picture of her own existence and that of her entire family, and her past.
She also comes to realise, as she traces Yinka’s footsteps around Johannesburg, that the pieces she discovers can never be the whole life, not hers, not Yinka’s, not Titus’. As she says, you cannot read the story when you are the book. However, there is a catharsis for Mojisola in the process of beginning to understand, at least in part, her daughter, herself and even her husband.
An Unusual Grief is beautifully written, but the poetry of the writing never impedes the telling of the story, which is compelling. It is undeniably a sad tale, though there are moments of humour, particularly in Mojisola’s relationship with Zelda. The novel will shock, surprise and move the reader as, along with Mojisola, they discover the intimacies of three lives, all very different though inextricably joined.
Yewande Omotoso’s ‘An Unusual Grief’ is a moving tale full of surprises
Image: Image: Supplied
Published in the Witness (26/09/2022)
An Unusual Grief
Yewande Omotoso
Cassava Republic Press
When Mojisola and Titus’ daughter Yinka suddenly dies in Johannesburg, Mojisola leaves Cape Town to try to uncover Yinka’s existence in the city – something it seems her parents knew little about before her death.
Initially Mojisola draws a blank as the intense privacy with which Yinka lived her all-too-short life resists her mother’s attempts to break through the barriers. We slowly discover that these barriers between mother and daughter have been there for a long time.
Mojisola begins to get to know people who Yinka knew, including Zelda, the acerbic landlady of Yinka’s flat which Mojisola now occupies. She encounters other people and situations which will startle her, and the reader. As she penetrates the world Yinka inhabited, she begins to learn more about herself and the life she has allowed herself to lead since she became a wife and mother. The problems in her marriage to Titus, which have been brought to a head by Yinka’s death, are revealed as Mojisola begins to get a clearer picture of her own existence and that of her entire family, and her past.
She also comes to realise, as she traces Yinka’s footsteps around Johannesburg, that the pieces she discovers can never be the whole life, not hers, not Yinka’s, not Titus’. As she says, you cannot read the story when you are the book. However, there is a catharsis for Mojisola in the process of beginning to understand, at least in part, her daughter, herself and even her husband.
An Unusual Grief is beautifully written, but the poetry of the writing never impedes the telling of the story, which is compelling. It is undeniably a sad tale, though there are moments of humour, particularly in Mojisola’s relationship with Zelda. The novel will shock, surprise and move the reader as, along with Mojisola, they discover the intimacies of three lives, all very different though inextricably joined.
An Unusual Grief is distributed locally by Jonathan Ball Publishers.
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