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Summary
Summary
Set in the African republic of Botswana--the locale of his acclaimed short story collection, Whites--Norman Rush's novel simultaneously explores the highest of intellectual high grounds and the most tortuous ravines of the erotic. tackles the geopolitics of poverty and the mystery of what men and women really want. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Even readers who remember the luminous stories in Rush's debut, Whites , may not be prepared for the cleverness, humor, insight into human nature and intellectual acuity demonstrated in this accomplished novel. Even more remarkable is his facility in conveying the voice and sensibility of his amusingly self-absorbed narrator, a feminist anthropologist whose pursuit of a famous social scientist is a timely riff on a perennial theme, What do women want? At an impasse with her doctoral thesis and judging herself ready to find a mate, the narrator sets off alone across the Kalahari Desert from Gaborone, Botswana, to locate Nelson Denoon and the secret, experimental community he has created to give sanctuary and self-esteem to destitute or abused African women. Having barely survived her foolhardy trek, she finds Denoon ready to welcome her as a lover. In a wonderfully idiosyncratic voice, she chronicles the progress of their affair in what amounts to a parody of an academic study, rendered in a comical amalgam of Latin and French phrases, Briticismsstet/rl , scientific jargon, American vernacular, anthropological terms and African words. Because theirs is an intellectual as well as a sexual union, the emphasis is on philosophical discussions and informational exchanges, during which the reader learns a great deal about the geography, culture, economy, and social and political background of Botswana. Though the narrative flags at times--there are too few actual events and a bit too much detailed sociology--in the main readers will be captivated by the narrator's quirky, obsessive voice and the situation she describes: a game of amorous relationships complicated by feminist doctrine and an exotic locale. BOMC alternate. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Plaudits for the concept of a woman pursuing and getting her intellectual equal, but, here, gabby and relentlessly high-minded lovers turn Rush's first novel (after the story collection, Whites, 1986) into a meeting of true minds with too long an agenda. When a 30-ish unnamed American woman discovers that her anthropological thesis, which she had come to research in Botswana, is invalid, she decides to be ``hedonic, think passim about my life and next steps'' and ``repose in the white utopia Gaborone was.'' Which she does until she meets the legendary Nelson Denoon, guru of rural development, preacher of a third way for African countries, and rumored to be in charge of a distant village, Tsau, run by and for women. Intrigued by his brilliance and reputation, the woman sets off alone across the Botswana desert, nearly dying in the attempt but finally reaching Tsau. The village is the vehicle for Denoon's ideas about women (``Every female is a golden loom''), religion (religious buildings are banned in Tsau), education, solar power, and just about everything else. The love affair-- exhaustively annotated and dissected all in the first person--is inevitable, and though they make agreeable love and though Denoon is all that he should be, it is the talk that matters--''I love your mind,'' she proclaims. They talk up a storm on everything from the ANC in South Africa to the anarchosyndicalists of Spain. But Tsau is not quite paradise--serpents exist, and Denoon himself changes after an accident in the desert, where he may have undergone a religious experience. Our heroine, disenchanted, returns to the US, but a mysterious message from Africa provokes her curiosity--she might venture another investigation of this most unusual man. In essence a love story, an unusual and credible one, with an exotic locale, and a colorful supporting cast; but the nonstop clever talk eventually provokes irritation rather than sympathy. A flawed novel of too many ideas, many good, but collectively too much.
Library Journal Review
As in Whites ( LJ 2/15/86), Rush's first collection of stories, this novel juxtaposes the relationship of two white Americans in Botswana against village life in that country. A woman anthropologist narrates her pursuit of and life with Nelson Denoon, a utopian socialist who set up an experimental matriarchal culture among poor African women in a remote area. Having met Denoon at a party, the anthropologist undertakes a dangerous trek alone through the Kalahari to Tsau, the site. After she gains the acceptance of the women, she is permitted to join Denoon, and their love story develops, interspersed with incidents in the village. Though there is plenty of action and interaction among the characters, this is largely a novel of ideas and anthropological information. The humor is at a sophisticated level, as is the vocabulary. For public libraries with an educated community.-- Ann Sapp, Montgomery Cty. Dept . of Public Libs . , Md. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
