The Black Insider (African Writers Library) [Hardcover]

Dambudzo Marechera (Author), Flora Veit-Wild (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1999 | Series: African Writers Library

Outcasts inside a ruined and deserted faculty building tell of their experiences in the post-colonial disaster zone. The story reflects the writer's experience of migrancy, and his refusal of the security of belonging - either to an "African identity" or to the international literary elite.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"A profund even if exaggeratedly self-aware writer, an instinctive nomad and Bohemian in temperament, marechera was a writer in constant quest for his real self, quarrying towards a core that he once wryly expressed in the cry, 'My whole life has been an attempt to make myself a skeleton in my own cupboard.'" --Wole Soyinka

This was the first volume of Dambudzo marechera's work to appear since his death in 1987. The title piece, the major work in this collection, was written in London in 1978. It has been edited here by Marechera's biographer, Flora Veit-Wild, together with three short stories and two poems from the same period. Veit-Wild's introduction provides a vivid picture of the young Zimbabwean's life in Britain as a student and writer. 'The Black Insider' develops the preoccupations of his award-winning 'House of Hunger' by exploring, in his devastatingly honest way, the predicaments of exile and the black identity, and examining the realities of living under the threat of the Bomb.

Above all, 'The Black Insider' gives a brilliant and profound insight into Marechera's concept of the liberating force of literature, a literature which "unhinges the world and churns up people's minds." --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Dambudzo Marechera, a Zimabwean who died at the young age of 35 in 1987, is also the author of the award winning novel, 'House of Hunger'. He left behind a large number of unpublished lterary works. 'The Black Insider', 'Cemetery of Mind', and 'Scrapiron Blues' comprise many of his poems and short stories that wre published after his death. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Africa World Pr; 1st Africa World Press, Inc. ed edition (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865437343
• ISBN-13: 978-0865437340
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,332,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Jumbled Literary Diatribe, January 14, 2011

By 

Kiwifunlad (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Black Insider (African Writers Library) (Paperback)

Marechera was by all accounts a volatile personality who while obviously very intelligent was also a difficult man to be with. From a poor background to obtaining a scholarship to Oxford, Marechera's life was never going to be easy. It is understandable why publishers did not release this novella during his lifetime as it is such a jumbled collection of thoughts. This short novel has more references to novels than any other work I can think of and illustrates Marechera's impressive reading base. Nevertheless, this book is, on one hand interesting as a Zimbabwean novel but also suffers from an author who could not focus on the material and therefore the novel is a difficult read. This book is for Marechera's faithful followers or those readers who want to read a literary, albeit jumbled account, of an angry young black Zimbabwean writing in the late 1970's