![]() However, I don't know how I feel about a man, especially a white man, telling this story. Not as much so here I understand that this wasn't meant to have a happy ending and the summary makes that very clear. Normally I am incredibly outspoken about the constant killing of lesbians in stories. But something about it rubbed me the wrong way. The story itself was beautiful, raw, and emotional, albeit incredibly difficult to read (as a victim of corrective rape myself). I'm really confused about my feelings for this one. The entire thing felt very interesting and thought-driven and made me think on my home and how LGBT people were represented there. The good story telling and the atmosphere the story set achieved a good read and many homesick feelings from me at times. ![]() I wanted to reach into Neo's mind and keep holding on to the golden thoughts she experienced, the things and songs she heard and the rush of emotions she felt. The beauty of the descriptions got me craving more and set me down for the story. Now, the descriptions are really what got me into the book. It's nice seeing the classics but these are things that we listen to as well. I would've loved to see names like Dj Kent or AKA and Mi casa pop up. It also would've been nice to see more modern South African music. South Africa (sorry if I keep saying South Africa a lot) went through a harsh time period of Apartheid and even though it isn't going on today, everyone is still acutely aware of each others race and I would've liked to have seen this in the book instead of the usual tiptoeing around it that I've seen in other books before. I would've liked for there to be more clear distinction between the races of the all the characters because although not having the characters being distinguished by race- if the story is a South African story then there needs to a distinction. However, I can say that there are some things that could've done it better for me. There were some minor occurrences where something's were wrong (we don't have ten rand coins, we have notes we don't work with the American system of grading, we use percentages) but there was a lot of effort put in that made things really seem thorough and didn't stop me reading from irritation. The book was a good read and I finished it off in two days. There was enough, let me just say, 'South African atmosphere' that I was missing home (I live in America now) fiercely and actually listened to some of the good hits mentioned in the book. That being said, I was highly surprised that this story was being told by a non-South African and not a lesbian.ĭespite this I dived in and I can say I was fairly surprised by the research that done and excuted in the story. I picked up this book because as a queer South African I found it interesting to find a book like this since I literally haven't found a book that's more 'story' with original characters than 'my South African LGBT experience.' But Tale and music are underneath her skin, and try as she might, she can’t stop thinking about them. ![]() It’s written everywhere – in childhood games, and playground questions, in the textbooks, in her parents’ faces. Neo knows that she’s supposed to go to school and get a real job and find a nice young boy to settle down with. She sneaks out to see them, and she falls in love, with music, and the night, but also with a girl: Tale has a voice like coffee poured into a bright steel mug, and she commands the stage. When Umzi Radio broadcasts live in a nearby bar Neo can’t resist. A life in radio is all she’s ever wanted. But everybody has a voice, and everybody sings…įifteen year old Neo loves music, it punctuates her life and shapes the way she views the world. Do you hear the song and dance of it? The chorus of Khayelitsha life? Every voice is different, its pitch and tone and intonation as distinct as the words we choose and how we wrap our mouths around them. ![]() Hopefully fans will, too.South Africa is loud. It sounds like The Cranberries found some kind of closure in this last record. On it, O’Riordan, who recorded demos for the album’s 11 tracks before her death in January last year, sings: “Fighting’s not the answer/ Fighting’s not the cure/ It’s eating you like cancer/ It’s killing you for sure.” The band have spoken about how O’Riordan was singing about leaving many of the negative things in her life behind. “Wake Me When it’s Over”, the third track on In the End, could be “Zombie”’s twin. She was deeply affected by the deaths, and would no doubt have been devastated by recent events in Northern Ireland as well. “Zombie” was a protest song written by the band’s late frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan after two children were killed by IRA bombs – was released. There’s a cruel irony that the release of The Cranberries’ final album should come just a week after journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead by the New IRA during a riot in Londonderry. ![]()
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