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Tuesday 28 June 2016

My Two Selves and I reading experience


This book has a wonderful plot that questions the sheep-like following of rules that tribes on the African continent and even other continents have been happy to embrace for centuries. Following rules without questioning them shows a lack of intelligence and a mentality of robots. I am aware of a few customs or practices that many tribes today still practice without question, even when they realize that they are unjust or make no sense and some are even cruel. This book is an ideal recommendation for the young ones, to teach them to have independent thought and to question things instead of following rules, customs or advice like sheep.

In the end people are selfish and sometimes their advice has ulterior motives that are not for the good or benefit of the person that is being advised.

I believe the story twisted well and unfolded intelligently but the author seemed to confuse himself on some parts where he would switch characters in a way that suggested he made a mistake with the name and sometimes with the gender. The part where Tatenda is thinking about Rufaro choosing Sibu she is thought to be substituting Sibu with Chipo. Some places he refers to girls with male pronouns. I think after editing, they should have done some proofing and they would have picked up on these grammar errors. I learned this lesson the hard way myself because I trusted the expertise of the editors and I discovered some mistakes in my first published book.

I liked it because it carries such an important lesson about double standards and self-serving rule enforcers who don't like to follow the rules they enforce so strictly when the shoe is on the other foot, revealing their hypocrisy. It also shows that someone can use a custom to unleash the evening of a score for a wrong they believe themselves having suffered, in the case of Shumba.

Overall an entertaining story but one that does not pull you in emotionally. I was never at any point indignant or rooting for the twins because there was an undertone that all would workout well for them in the end. I never sensed that they were in real danger and I think the author failed to build the feeling of danger in me as a reader but I am sure the experience will be different with other readers.

Go to https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8205613-tumelo-moleleki" to read all my reviews and my journey as I was reading the book

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