Reviews

House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

gizmo_gadget's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

nelisan's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The book, at points, was written in an incredibly interesting and captivating manner. One that drew me to want to know more about my country and its history but the man character, Zumani, was just incredibly uncomfortable. The jumps between the main character and Abednego’s recounting in book wasn’t as smooth as expected 

jennaw's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ehartfield's review

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

thisisstephenbetts's review against another edition

4.0

A novel which is really an anecdotal history of Zimbabwe, from its last days being called Rhodesia up to the close-to-present day. Very disturbing read at times, unsurprisingly, but with a lot of humor, and a broad cast list. Fascinating and expressive.

half_book_and_co's review against another edition

5.0

When Bhukosi, a young man, goes missing in Bulawayo, Zamani, who lives as a lodger at Bhukosi's parents, sees his chance to secure his place in this family and unearth the hi-stories of the parents, Abed and Agnes. Zamani implores later in the novel: "For a man cannot shape his own life while still under the thumb of History. History has been known to consume men whole, to make out of them its playthings. No, I shan't be History's plaything!"

But what are his real motives? Why is he so interested in what Abed and Agnes have to tell? How are their stories entangled? Zamani is a fascinating protagonist and unreliable narrator. He makes the reader complicit in his task to peel back layers of memory: His methods to make Abed and Agnes speak, the way he manipulates them, are often deplorable, but still, as a reader, you need him to succeed to learn more.

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma's House of Stone, whose title echoes Marechera's House of Hunger, is a thrilling page-turner and at the same time a philosophical examination of how trauma - colonial and post-colonial inflicted - seeps through generations, creates silences, shame, confusion, and how history is told, how it is re-created, how people insert themselves or take themselves out of narratives. The writing is poetical and takes you through a whole range of emotions, at one moment you laugh at another you look at horrible violence being laid bare in front of you. A beautiful book, I highly recommend.

"It is through hi-story's shadow that we conquer the past, this past in which nothing can live but from which everything springs."

manaledi's review against another edition

2.0

DNF. I really, really disliked the main character/narrator in this book. I put it down and picked it back up several times and then decided to just be done with it. It's one of those books I feel like I "should" finish, but he's so unlikeable. blah.

esessa's review

4.0

This was a well written and interestingly conceived book, and I learned a lot about the history of civil unrest in Zimbabwe and how members of minority ethnic groups were targeted for genocide in the 1980s. The story is told in two interwoven halves, one focused on a family suffering during the Gukurahundi genocide twenty years earlier, and the other set in the early 2000s and following surviving members of the same family as they are infiltrated by a scheming young man who wants to be their surrogate son. The modern story got progressively stranger, and I was not at all expecting that twist to the novel. It definitely kept it interesting, if a bit bizarre.

cami19's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

ccallan's review against another edition

3.0

A long overdue literary treatment of the massacres and government repression in Matabeleland by the Zimbabwean government shortly after the first elections for majority rule in 1980. The story is beautifully written and the characters engaging, with flashes back and forth from the terror unleashed to the attempts of survivors to live normal lives in a society that refuses to acknowledge the atrocities. The device of the main character ingratiating himself with his adopted family wears after a while, and I wanted her to get on with the story, but his machinations are creative and disturbing and merit the slow reveal that the novel gives them.