When I read the review for this book in a past issue of ELLE magazine, I was proud that a South African author had done such commendable work (the list of awards for this title? I didn’t even know some of them existed), but I was also a little apprehensive: science fiction has never been my thing.
Then, when I saw the book in the library, I decided to actually try it. This is so wrong, but it was mostly because of Joey Hi-Fi‘s amazing cover:
Anyway. I started reading the book, and as soon as I was introduced to Zinzi December’s Hillbrow- with its alternate reality of “animalled” citizens and the mashavi that go with them- I couldn’t put it down. I mean, how could I? There I was, reading about the slums of Hillbrow and the busy-ness of its hustler citizens- and the taxi I was in was driving right through that area! A little surreal, but also very intriguing.
The story goes that Zinzi, a recovering drug addict who now works for a 419 scam artist named Vuyo (or at least that’s what he says his name is) is working everyday to escape her Former Life. To redeem herself- even if only to herself- of the crimes she committed to deserve Sloth, her animal.
In Zoo City (Hillbrow, and general inner city Johannesburg) almost everyone has an animal: it’s a badge, symbolising the harsh crimes the owner of the animal (or “aposymbiot”, as scientists know them) has committed; forcing them to own up, and to remind them that there’s no going back.
Zinzi’s Sloth is with her- and, in his own way, advises and protects her- through the adventure that Odi Huron’s assignment sends her on: she needs to find a lost girl- a would-be pop sensation- and return her to her dubious record producer.
Zinzi is used to finding lost things: she just taps into her shavi – her special kind of magic, endowed to her after the crime that brought Sloth- and grasp onto the strings which bind people’s spirits to their things. Aside from drafting phishing e-mails, it’s how she gets by. Missing persons is a last resort, and it will turn out that she was right to be hesitant about the offer.
Zinzi finds herself having to confront not only the demons of other people’s pasts, but also those of her own Former Life.
Past crimes and their accompanying guilt still haunt her, past lovers reappear and throw her off the course of the new relationship she tries to build with Benoit from Congo. Benoit with his Mongoose and his wife and children. Zinzi has to fight against relapsing into her drug habit- she fails.
All the while, she is getting more and more entangled in the saga of Odi and his teenybop sensations, the iJusi twins. Who are these cronies of Odi’s- Maltese and Marabou? What do they really want? Why does Zinzi feel like she’s only hearing half the story of Songweza’s disappearance? What are these hallucinations that Zinzi has after a visit to kwaMai Mai?
Is the work that she is doing to survive going to jeopardise her relationship with Benoit? Will he ever really leave his family for her? Is Zinzi stupid to even think that?
There are so many questions which I found myself asking- and sometimes answering- on behalf of Zinzi. Lauren Beukes’s writing is so…easy. Easy to read, with characters that are at once endearing and infuriating, and a story that progresses smoothly- but not without brilliant dramatic turns and a good dose of thrills and suspense.
I mean, there’s an albino crocodile living in a swimming pool at some point! (Guess who’s animal that is?)
I loved it. Absolutely. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an intelligent story line, as well as being taken on a journey with the characters.
And if you like this one, try Moxyland, by the same author.
Quotes
There are so many amazing metaphors and turns of phrase in this novel- it’s best to read the book and discover them all for yourself. I did manage to pick a few that stayed with me:
On the famed Johannesburg skyline:
“The skyline is in crisp focus, the city graded in rusts and coppers by the sinking sun that has streaked the wispy clouds the colour of blood. It’s the dust in the air that makes the Highveld sunsets so spectacular, the fine yellow mineral deposits kicked up from the mine dumps, the carbon-dioxide choke of the traffic. Who says bad things can’t be beautiful?”
Who, indeed.
On the relationship between animals and their owners:
“If I could leave Sloth behind, I would . But the feedback loop of the separation anxiety is crippling. Crack cravings have nothing on being away from your animal.”
Your animal is your truth, and denying or hiding the truth about yourself is never a good thing.
On a reunion of sorts between past lovers:
“The tectonic plates of whatever we were have shifted out from under us- call it contextual drift. Mind the gap.”
This was so deep for me, I wrote in the margin ‘…genius. How did we ever describe the awkwardness between two people who “used to love” each other?’.
*Lauren also does this thing where she describes the most mundane thing in a completely new way, that actually has you saying ‘exactly! Why didn’t I think of that?’
On the first rays of early morning sun:
“…morning has broken, and there’s no picking up the pieces”
Doesn’t that just set the mood for the rest of the day?
On awkward and slightly uncomfortable silences between strangers:
“An uncomfortable silence stretches out. Drops into freefall, hits terminal velocity and keeps going.”
I can just see everyone whistling quietly to themselves, shifting around in their seats, counting the lint balls on their jerseys, scratching their hair and twiddling their thumbs. Awkward.
For more reviews, and information about this genius of a novelist’s next step, go to her website, or follow her on Twitter.
Go read this book! Then listen to the soundtrack– then read it again.
Nkhensani Manabe 