Customer Reviews

The Black Insider (African Writers Library)

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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