"In her ambitious third novel, Wicomb explores South Africa's history through a woman's attempt to answer questions surrounding her past" (The New Yorker).Set in a beautifully rendered 1990s Cape Town, Windham Campbell Prize winner Zoë Wicomb's celebrated novel revolves around Marion Campbell, who runs a travel agency but hates traveling, and who, in post-apartheid society, must negotiate the complexities of a knotty relationship with Brenda, her first black employee. As Alison McCulloch noted in the New York Times, "Wicomb deftly explores the ghastly soup of racism in all its unglory—denial, tradition, habit, stupidity, fear—and manages to do so without moralizing or becoming formulaic."Caught in the narrow world of private interests and self-advancement, Marion eschews national politics until the Truth and Reconciliation Commission throws up information that brings into question not only her family's past but her...

zlib/Fiction/American Fiction/Zoë Wicomb/Playing in the Light_14037455.epub

Wicomb, Zoe

Zoe Wicomb

New Press : Distributed by W.W. Norton

New Press, The

United States, United States of America

June 1, 2006

1, PS, 2006

Set in a beautifully rendered 1990s Cape Town, Zo Wicombs celebrated novel revolves around Marion Campbell, who runs a travel agency but hates traveling, and who, in post-apartheid society, must negotiate the complexities of a knotty relationship with Brenda, her first black employee. As Alison McCulloch noted in the New York Times , Wicomb deftly explores the ghastly soup of racism in all its unglorydenial, tradition, habit, stupidity, fearand manages to do so without moralizing or becoming formulaic.
Caught in the narrow world of private interests and self-advancement, Marion eschews national politics until the Truth and Reconciliation Commission throws up information that brings into question not only her familys past but her identity and her rightful place in contemporary South African society. Stylistically nuanced and psychologically astute ( Kirkus ), Playing in the Light is as powerful in its depiction of Marions personal journey as it is in its depiction of South Africas bizarre, brutal history.

Set in a beautifully rendered 1990s Cape Town, this story revolves around Marion, a woman of Afrikaner background, who hates travelling but nonetheless runs a travel agency, and her complex relationship with Brenda, the first black woman she has ever employed. It depicts the life of a single, complicated woman in a changing and complicated place.

Set in a beautifully rendered 1990s Cape Town, "Playing in the Light" revolves around Marion, a woman of Afrikaner background, who hates traveling but nonetheless runs a travel agency, and her complex relationship with Brenda, the first black woman she has ever employed

2021-05-17