Customer Reviews

Maru (African Writers Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Political, romantic, and dense, what a wonderful and well-written book. I came upon this book by accident and became quite delighted with the story. The characters and the town really came alive on the pages. The imagery was beautiful and mythic. I just wish it were longer.

Maru is a story about the reaches of oppression within the village of Dilepe in Botswana. It is a fascinating story which examines how oppression and prejudice are maintained, and how they might be overcome. This is accomplished against the captivating backdrop of village life; scenes are depicted in such a way that the reader can imagine themselves in the story. Overall an excellent read that provides a rich view of life in Botswana.

Maru is a fast-paced novel with remarkable political overtones. The characters are rich and alive and create strong impressions in the mind of the reader. The setting is splendid and the plot is awesome. It is full of love, romance sadness and hope in different turns; which reminds me of The Usurper and other stories.I like the lyrical flow of the story and the nature of the characters. Overall, this is a splendid piece of writing.

Bessie Head was a brilliant writer and storyteller, but she does not show it in this novel. Her novel "When Rain Clouds Gather" is wonderful, as are many of her short stories. "Maru" dims in comparison. This story is told in such a way that we as readers are treated like children, and at the same time is vague and nonspecific much of the time. The characters are rather unrealistic in their romantic pursuits and personal motivations. However, this is a good choice for literature that gives valuable information and insight into the culture of rural Botswana. "When Rain Clouds Gather" would be a better option, though.

When people of Dilepe village heard about the marriage of Maru, they began to talk about him as if he had died. A Dilepe diseased prostitute explained their attitude: 'Fancy,' she said. 'He has married a Masarwa. They have no standards.'

By standards, she meant that Maru would have been better off had he married her. She knew how to serve rich clients their tea, on a snowy- white table cloth, and she knew how to dress in the height of fashion. A lot of people were like her. They knew nothing about the standards of the soul, and since Maru only lived by those standards they had never been able to make a place for him in their society. They thought he was dead and would trouble them no more. How were they to know that many people shared Maru's overall ideals, that this was not the end of him, but a beginning?

People like the Batswana, who did not know that the wind of freedom had also reached people of the Masarwa tribe, were in for an unpleasant surprise because it would be no longer possible to treat Masarwa people in a cold-blooded way without getting killed yourself.

Daniel Gover, in his influential article, "The Fairy Tale and the Nightmare," claims: "Maru is the story of racial prejudice conquered by idealistic love functioning as a socially progressive force that advances mankind in the direction of racial equality". His emphasis on the fairy tale quality of the novel is important in coming to such a conclusion. Many see the Cinderella-like relationship between Maru and Margaret, the Tswana prince and the young Bushman woman, as an affirmation of equality along racial, gender, and cultural lines.

The opening, but chronologically ending, scene of the novel, gives us Maru preparing flowerbeds to grow yellow daisies, "because they were the only flowers which resembled the face of his wife and the sun of his love". But Margaret is really no different from those daisies.

She too has been cultivated by Maru's care in Dilepe society, fertilized by the art supplies Maru provided and finally transplanted into his garden spot "a thousand miles away". She retains nothing of her Bushman heritage, and possibly little of her Englishness. In conquering the prejudice of society, Maru is left with nothing but a daisy off which he has pulled the petals in a coercive she-loves-me, she-loves-me-not fashion.

We had to read this book for school, and as I read it, I had several words for it. Plodding, prattering, rote, banal, boring. I can see that's it's an okay love story and novel about race prejudice, but please, some continuity! Details, and information, and vivid language, these are what make a book good! These also were things that were many missing from "Maru." Perhaps that's why this book isn't selling that well.

i would like to know what is happening between maru and the masarwa girl who was a teacher at the dilepe viillage.the relationship between the two characters. what is the message of the book.the author is tries to tell us what