Welcome to Our Hillbrow

Posted on 09 December 2017 by Phaswane Mpe

Hillbrow is a microcosm of the changing South African psyche This novel links Hillbrow, rural Tiragalong and Oxford, and contains the shattered dreams of youth, sexuality and its unpredictable costs, AIDS, xenophobia, suicide, the omnipotent violence that cuts short the promise of young people, and the Africanist understanding of the life. Free Read Welcome to Our Hillbrow by Phaswane Mpe For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr This is a very short novel, a novella really, only 124 pages It is written as a narrative from a second person, to the main protagonist, who is already dead as the book is written.Hillbrow is a very violent suburb of Johannesburg in South Africa, and the title of the book is very ironic, as there is definitely nothing welcoming there at all Almost every character in the book dies at some point, by all kinds of different means Suicide, murder, AIDS, witchcraftyou name it.But is is till an i This is a very short novel, a novella really, only 124 pages It is written as a narrative from a second person, to the main protagonist, who is already dead as the book is written.Hillbrow is a very violent suburb of Johannesburg in South Africa, and the title of t...Wow, wow This book is just brilliant Mpe, who died suddenly, leaving just this one novel and some poems, may have been a genius.This was a really interesting book that I enjoyed a lot It is very brief only containing 124 pages but the amount of substance that is fit into such a short book is extraordinary It deals with topics such as xenophobia, racism, rumor, discrimination, poverty, AIDS, and crime all within its covers Another thing that sets the book apart is th...Benvenuti a Hillbrow un romanzo basato sulla descrizione delle difficili condizioni di Hillbrow, un area ghettizzata di Johannesburg, un tempo zona di soli bianchi, oggi luogo ibrido, meta degli immigrati dal resto dell Africa, sovrappopolato, degradato, brulicante di vita ma anche segnato dalla morte e dalla violenza.Usa...Mpe was a literary painter of note Saddening that he did not live long enough to writenovels I enjoyed the style of his writingthan the story The protagonist s omniscient voice puts the reader to a quizzical and introspective perspective.This remarkable novel employs a distinctive narrative voice drawn from the oral traditions of the author s home community Limpopo Province to explore complex questions of urban social problems, xenophobia and modern literary concerns in post Apartheid South Africa The communal narrator addressing the dead main character from both the physical and the metaphysical reality may seem to belay the sophistication of the plot structure, but in truth it heralds what was, at the time, an exciting new This remarkable novel employs a distinctive narrative voice drawn from the oral traditions of the author s home community Limpopo Province to explore complex questions of urban social problems, xenophobia and modern literary concerns in post Apartheid South Africa The communal narrator addressing the dead main character from both the physical and the me...And so, South African season kicks off I ve been meaning to read this since picking it up in Joburg a few years ago and getting suddenly back into things South African on reading Mr Flanery s okay, he s American wonderful novel, Absolution which itself reminded me of the unique conditions and rawness of SA literature which is why I find it so darn interesting Here s a short, lyrical little number set among Hillbrow migrants, but focusing as much on where they ve migrated from It tak And so, South African season kicks off I ve been meaning to read this since picking it up in Joburg a few years ago and getting suddenly back into things South African on reading Mr Flanery s okay, he s American wonderful novel, Absolution which itself reminded me of the unique co...It s an interesting book if one wants to examine the lives of Black South Africans living in a big city after the apartheid Most of the the people in these neighborhoods have moved from countryside and live in a separate world from White South Africans The unique thing about this book is that it doesn t deal with White vs Black issues, but its main focus is the attitude and prejudices of Black South Africans toward other Black South Africans and immigrants from other African countries Interes It s an interesting book if one wants to examine the lives of Black South Africans living in a big city after the apartheid Most of the the pe...Two stars it was ok at best.This tale of life in and around Johannesburg failed to engage me.The topics covered in this novel including AIDS, race relations, human relations, and the new South Africa are treated far better in Dog...I read this directly after reading Ways of Dying, and while I like the messages that it conveys and the story in general, I couldn t get over that it was written in the second person The second person does help to put the reader in the main character s shoes, but it...

English
09 December 2017

Phaswane Mpe