When Mavala Shikongo deserted them, the teachers at the boys' school in Goas weren't surprised. How could they be? She was too beautiful, too powerful, and too mysterious for their tiny, remote, and arid world. They knew only one essential fact about their departed colleague: she was a combat veteran of Namibia's brutal war for independence. When Mavala returns to Goas with a baby son, all are awed by her boldness. The teachers try hard, once again, not to fall in love with her. They fail, immediately and miserably, especially the American volunteer, Larry Kaplanski.
The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo: A Novel
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Orner's poetic, episodic examination of the varieties of life at an isolated Catholic primary school deep in the veld of Namibia coheres around the title character, a beautiful guerrilla fighter turned kindergarten teacher. Set in the early 1990s, soon after Namibia won independence from South Africa, this impressive debut novel (after Esther Stories) is mostly narrated by Larry Kaplanski, a young volunteer who leaves Cincinnati, Ohio, to teach English and history at Farm Goas. Orner captures Goas's glacial rhythms, the extraordinary contrast between the desert's night and day, and the community's daily privations, including—for the single male teachers—a lust arising from boredom and loneliness. Mavala Shikongo, the principal's sister-in-law and the object of her colleagues' desires, reluctantly settles at Goas with her illegitimate baby boy, Tomo. Orner punctuates Larry's observations with brief interludes told from the points of view of other inhabitants of the school, and with haunting, cinematic imagery—boys do pull-ups on a huge cross; Mavala and Larry, who become friends and intimates, hold their afternoon trysts on the graves of Boer settlers. These telling snapshots stand in for the larger sociopolitical, cultural and religious issues facing a country emerging from a century of colonization. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Talk about stories never told. Larry Kaplanski from Cincinnati is a volunteer teacher in a small, rough all-boys Catholic school in the Namibian desert in 1991, just after independence. He shares a shack with colleagues and is in love with beautiful Mavala Shikongo, who is a kindergarten teacher and veteran guerilla fighter from the antiapartheid "struggle." The weight of the brutal colonial and apartheid past is always there, but the freedom story is never reverential, and the taut vignettes, anguished and sometimes hilarious, are about ordinary people now. The novel is more situation than story, but there are scenes that will stay with you forever: the three illegal refugee children from across the border, who only want school, and then are gone after three days; the drought stories; the fence building (Why? How?); the farce of the Cincinnati community that sends an old broken piano "for the adorable little school somewhere in deepest Africa." Orner, a prizewinning short story writer, has lived in Namibia, and his debut novel brings close those far from the centers of power. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I wanted to skim this book. I couldn't stop reading. Finished the whole book before even trying to put it down.
What a great read. Staccato. Short chapters, short sentences, half sentences. An English teacher's nightmare!! Staccato, like in music. Great.
Presented Namibia exactly like I have always imagined it. Dry, desolate, capturing. The people, the same. This woman, Mavala. Just as staccato as the book itself.
Read it, you will love it.
What a great read. Staccato. Short chapters, short sentences, half sentences. An English teacher's nightmare!! Staccato, like in music. Great.
Presented Namibia exactly like I have always imagined it. Dry, desolate, capturing. The people, the same. This woman, Mavala. Just as staccato as the book itself.
Read it, you will love it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By E. K. Marcoe
Format:Hardcover
It was no surprise to find the author is a poet. This book contains many stunning turns of phrases. There were sentences I re-read first in disbelief then with gradual understanding and finally with a great joy of true edifying comprehension.
That he can be so articulate of landscape, eloquent on character and damn funny at the same time is a wonder.
Half way through this book I realized, with great relief, that I was reading a truly unique writer with a voice so strong and idiosyncratic that that burdensome word 'art' started popping into my head. As the final pages unfurled it was obvious that THE SECOND COMING OF MAVALA SHIKONGO is indeed worthy of such classification. Bravo to Mr. Orner.
That he can be so articulate of landscape, eloquent on character and damn funny at the same time is a wonder.
Half way through this book I realized, with great relief, that I was reading a truly unique writer with a voice so strong and idiosyncratic that that burdensome word 'art' started popping into my head. As the final pages unfurled it was obvious that THE SECOND COMING OF MAVALA SHIKONGO is indeed worthy of such classification. Bravo to Mr. Orner.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I had high hopes for The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo as I loved Orner's first book, Esther Stories. This novel did not disappoint. It's a love story, but set in the remote veld of Namibia, it is also offers astute political commentary and a glimpse at history that few Americans will learn about in school. Orner's prose is elegant and funny, his descriptions of conflict and boredom, landscapes both internal and external, beauty in the everyday, are luminous.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tremendous novel from a really gifted whipper snapper
Modern in it's structure, lyrical to the ear, authentic voice, set in Namibia. Tension builds as we wait to see whether the visiting US white-boy teacher gets together with the... Read more
Published on September 3, 2009 by Ann Bodle-nash
2.0 out of 5 stars
Character sketches in the Namibian veld
Orner's novel comprises character sketches at an isolated boys' school in the Namibian veld. It's not about plot. Read more
Published on April 30, 2008 by Penelope
2.0 out of 5 stars
where is this going?
This book is unfocused and none of the characters are very interesting. I couldn't finish it
Published on January 17, 2008 by constant reader
5.0 out of 5 stars
a prose myrical, vivid and luminous
Peter Orner's debut collection Esther Stories received wide critical acclaim and provides the artistic foreshadowing of the reach and scope of his talent, beautifully realized in... Read more
Published on August 24, 2007 by Shann Ray
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great sense of place
I picked up this book based solely on the setting of Namibia. I was simply looking to read some contemporary African fiction.
I loved the book. Cleverly written. Read more
I loved the book. Cleverly written. Read more
Published on March 29, 2007 by kmilerun
5.0 out of 5 stars
What others have failed to mention- this book is humorous
This is one of the better literary works I've read in a couple of years. Mind you, I'm not to the end yet. Read more
Published on January 9, 2007 by J. Sea
1.0 out of 5 stars
Soporific
This Namibian-set debut novel by San Francisco-based Orner has gotten rave reviews from critics as well as translation deals in France, Germany and Italy. Read more
Published on December 31, 2006 by A. Ross
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
It's exciting to see such great fiction coming from young writers like Peter Orner. This novel is woven of mini episodes and mood peices that, taken as a whole, form a tapestry of... Read more
Published on November 8, 2006 by bushido1040
4.0 out of 5 stars
Debut Novel Written with Force, Style and Wit
The first recorded attempt to escape Goas occurred in 1930 when a farmer failed to trade the land for a lusher parcel. Read more
Published on July 19, 2006 by FictionAddiction.NET
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, moving and incredibly rewarding
"With this staggering debut novel, Orner has joined the first rank of American writers." When I first saw that assessment in the Boston Globe, my initial reaction was--well, to see... Read more
Published on July 17, 2006 by Jason Roberts
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