After having read the 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, I couldn’t wait to read this other book. Now that I’ve read it, here is my review:
From a young age, Nombeko has had to take care of herself. And in a place like South Africa, that is quite a difficult thing to do. She works as a latrine cleaner to make a living but her intelligence allows her to move up in rank until she finally runs the entire facility at the age of 13. She hones her skills in mathematics and engages the help of Thabo, a trickster, in order to learn English. In the midst of all this, Nombeko comes into the possession of millions of diamonds and decides to leave behind this latrine job for something better. However, a chain of events leads her to become the prisoner and servant of a dim-witted nuclear engineer. As she aids the engineer in developing a bomb, she also starts planning her escape to freedom.
If I am to be honest, I really didn’t enjoy this book. In fact, I didn’t fully finish the novel; I got through 300 pages and skimmed the rest. Although the style of writing was the same and it was still steeped in politics, I didn’t enjoy the characters as much as in the first book by this author. Perhaps the character wasn’t simple-minded enough for my liking, perhaps the political aspects of it wasn’t as engaging. Either way, this book fell short of my expectations. If anyone DOES decide to give it a chance, please do let me know what you thought of it!
Happy reading ~