October revolution

But too many changes occurred and the new experiences of her old world turns everything she held dearly as the truth upside down What began as a social visit turned into a challenge in which she must navigate a new life for herself from it all The little boy becomes a catalyst for the memories she kept locked away deep inside her His innocence and trust in her unraffels the feelings of apathy and emotional arrest she so dearly cultivated to protect herself against a cruel South African political system and a new reality in Scotland which redefined her When she is finally ready for an emotional as well as geographical turning point.

Book october in the earth

A glimpse into the world of a Colored family in a remote part of the country It is not everyone s story But it is an important as well as endearing one to share I felt infinitely enriched by this book 256 There are those that never leave the place of their childhood Then there are those that cannot wait to escape from the place called home The very idea of home is a fraught idea for many people October explores the concept of home and belonging by asking what it is that makes one place home in favour of another People who have mixed feelings about home often have very good reasons for their confused and contrary emotions In the case of Mercia Murray.

Book october surprise

Mercia Murray is a woman of fifty two years who has been left Abandoned by her partner in Scotland where she has been living for twenty five years Mercia returns to her homeland of South Africa to find her family overwhelmed by alcoholism and secrets Poised between her life in Scotland and her life in South Africa she recollects the past with a keen sense of irony as she searches for some idea of home In Scotland her life feels unfamiliar her apartment sits empty In South Africa her only brother is a shell of his former self pushing her away And yet in both places she is needed if only she could understand what for Plumbing the emotional limbo of a woman who is isolated and torn from her roots October is a stark and utterly compelling novel about the contemporary experience of an intelligent immigrant adrift among her memories and facing an uncertain middle age. October kaun sa mahina hai With this pitch perfect story the writer of rare brilliance The Scotsman Zo Wicomb who received one of the first Donald Windham Sandy M Campbell Literature Prizes for lifetime achievement stands to claim her rightful place as one of the preeminent contemporary voices in international fiction October By Zo WicombZo Wicomb attended the University of the Western Cape and after graduating left South Africa for England in 1970 where she continued her studies at Reading University She lived in Nottingham and Glasgow and returned to South Africa in 1990 where she taught for three years in the department of English at the University of the Western Cape She gained attention in South Africa and internationally with her first work a collection of short stories You Cant Get Lost in Cape Town 1987 which takes place during the apartheid era Her second novel Davids Story 2002 takes place in 1991 toward the close of the apartheid era and uses the ambiguous classification of coloureds to explore racial identity Playing in the Light her third no Zo Wicomb attended the University of the Western Cape and after graduating left South Africa for England in 1970 where she continued her studies at Reading University She lived in Nottingham and Glasgow and returned to South Africa in 1990 where she taught for three years in the department of English at the University of the Western Cape She gained attention in South Africa and internationally with her first work a collection of short stories You Can t Get Lost in Cape Town 1987 which takes place during the apartheid era Her second novel David s Story 2002 takes place in 1991 toward the close of the apartheid era and uses the ambiguous classification of coloureds to explore racial identity Playing in the Light her third novel released in 2006 covers similar terrain conceptually though this time set in contemporary South Africa and centering around a white woman who learns that her parents were actually coloured She published her second collection of short stories The One That Got Away The stories set mainly in Cape Town and Glasgow explore a range of human relationships marriage friendships family ties or relations with servants. Book october 1964 Zoe Wicomb resides in Glasgow where she teaches creative writing and post colonial literature at the University of Strathclyde site_link I love reading books from around the world and I love coming across authors whose work I know I should pause to read I heard about Zo Wicomb years ago even read snippets of her work but never truly paused until now to delve into one of her books So layered are the fragrances of the past so spliced the memories of places that nostalgia will have to do without an object. October kindergarten activities Short stories have a way of giving you a glimpse of an author Normally when I start a joint read with someone I suggest reading a short story of the author s first I was introduced to Zo Wicomb s short story in The Granta Book of the African Short Story and after that I knew I had to read her novel. Octoberd data This novel is slow paced and retrospective It is a true examination of the choices we make and it stylistically utilizes character interiority as mood The moment you start reading it is clear you are being guided by a gifted writer October Around the world October represents various colors temperatures textures For Mercia an African exile who resides in Scotland it represents mood and memory Mercia wanted to talk about the melancholia that descended on her in October how it took years in the Northern Hemisphere before she realized that the sadness came regularly at autumn. October coloring pages Mercia is a fifty two year old South African woman who has been living in Scotland with her partner when he decides he wants out of the relationship For twenty five years they lived an unconventional life She is an academic who has made a choice to not have children Yet when she is called to return home to South Africa she realizes her brother s son may need her While she makes the trip to help her alcoholic brother she tries to heal through the writing of her memoir The reader makes a trip with her physically to the land of her birth and mentally as she takes a trip through her tortured childhood This book brings up many questions about life about the homes we leave and lost about the people we become Sometimes it takes going back to validate the choices we made while sometimes solitude also helps us understand the magnitude of what we have overcome Another thing the book put into perspective is that perhaps leaving is a way of letting go One sibling could not leave and found himself frozen in anger while another sibling left moved on accomplished and still has the remains of a troubled past to haunt her Come to think of it maybe the book elucidates the idea that home never does leave you and if you are unlucky to have lived through trauma it will always somehow be there 256 How the Old Ones would have danced around the strange word home poured into it their yearning for a break from the mud and wattle and hide shelters of hunter gatherers who followed the herds who muttered under the breath their supplications to the moon who relied on the seasons to assuage the restlessness of the soul by moving on Even before the word there would surely have been old women who sucked their gums in despair and dreamt of living as staying dreamt of seeds taking root in the earth growing into ripeness even as a headman announced the decision to decamp. October calendar Wicomb brings us the story of Mercia Murray a woman of a certain age who was raised in South Africa during Apartheid Her mother is the daughter of missionaries and her father Nicholas is a stern man who is determined that Mercia and her younger brother Jake will create better lives for themselves To that end he tightly regulates their lives beats them almost daily often for sins that they don t know about yet and forbids them from making friends around town Their family is classified as colored vs black I admit shamefully that I didn t know much about the history of Africa before reading this book It opened my eyes to the discrimination and stratification which occurred during the 20th century there and the great impact it made on children born during that time period In Cape Town there are Murrays respectable brothers and sisters who have married well which is to say spouses with good hair If Nicholas s children long for company for playmates well there are cousins with whom they could correspond The fact is that the children here in Kliprand do not wash their hands he explains. October tchaikovsky pdf Mercia was taught that you carry home inside you that it isn t defined by where you live She begins to join activists in the last years of High school into college then abandons South Africa all together to finish her schooling abroad in Scotland There she meets Craig falls in love and stays in Scotland with her life partner for over 20 years which brings us to the time when the story starts. October sky all of the rest are memories brought up frequently throughout the book Mercia has begun to think of Scotland as home although she keeps in touch with her family in South Africa But then Craig leaves her for another woman and Jake sends a distraught letter begging Mercia to come home So she returns to Jake his wife Sylvie and their young child So despite Jake and Sylvie s horrible chatter Mercia knows that this is home There is a part of her perhaps no than insensate buttocks that sinks into the comfortable familiarity of an old sofa Which is nothing to do with three legged cast iron pots or roosterbrood besides the light slants onto the floor precisely as it does at the other end of the year in Glasgow the world simply reversed But here is it not conceivable that Mercia could stretch out boots and all for a while at least open her heart let in the heat and light and check to see how much of it has mended But Mercia soon learns that she can t just swoop in and fix everything Her brother Jake is fighting demons that are spiraling out of control creating an uncertain future for Sylvie and their child Mercia is drawn back into Jake s world and forced to confront memories that have faded with time and distance Can she help her family while still reeling from being left herself Bottom line Wicomb writes excellent prose and does a great job of setting the scene mood for October Her story is one that needs to be told I love reading books that expand my knowledge of the world and describe other cultures In my humble opinion the book came very close to 4 stars but the pacing was quite slow and then the ending felt quite abrupt It s still a fairly short read though and is well worth the time spent getting a glimpse into Mercia s experiences Given 3. October coloring pages The ready made belief in time will heal is after all not to be scoffed at One day in its own time the remnant scab too will depart leave of its own accord simply flake off unnoticed and disappear leaving in its place the shiny new skin But Mercia cannot remember ever being caught out in that way No scabs are attention seekers There is usually an eager itch that begs for a healing hand even if it is premature a false appeal Thus the metaphor brings a warning she must be careful in picking over their last months together If she is committed to conscientious close reading there is also the danger of probing prematurely or too deeply for her own good A woman of a certain age must be careful not to destroy herself 256 Scotland South Africa. Epub file example I am not sure if this book is biography than fiction or the other way around There are many similarities between the protagonist s and the author s lives As I am not sure what is fact and what is fiction I will review it as a fictitious tale. Octoberg group Mercy or Mercia is an English senior lecturer at a Scottish university She left South Africa in the early Seventies to settle overseas after deciding to make a new life for herself away from the political discriminatory establishment as well as her personal family situation After many years her father dies and her brother a totally and too far gone alcoholic writes her a letter and pleads with her to return home. October books Her life partner a Scottish poet has just decided to leave her after many years of sharing a life outside marriage with no children born from the relationship She never wanted children and regards herself as a feminist. October birthstone To clear up her own emotional turmoil as well as life she decides to take a break and return to the dusty semi arid village in the Namaqualand region for a holiday where she grew up with her brother taken care of by their father after their mother died many years earlier What she encounters there the poverty the desperation the neglect as well as the intelligent ignored little boy her brother s son shocks and depresses her Her brother pleads with her to take the child. Kindle october The tiresome slow moving narrative provides an in depth look into the life of the brother and sister their bitter relationship with their abusive father the situation in which the little boy was born her snobbish attitude towards her sister in law her broken love affair with her ex life partner and her confusion with her true identity After coming back and being suddenly thrust back into her past with all the emotions around the political as well as social memories of their world brought to life once againshe expects to feel the same as when she left sure of her new direction a family secret destroys everything she ever held sacred She had to become a middle aged woman before she finally could face her true reality There is a heritage she cannot escape responsibilities she never wanted consequences to the choices she made The scenery in the book is excellently described The protagonist s feelings are laid bare and dissected For both international as well as South African readers the story will be both enchanting but equally heartbreaking The Afrikaans words which is not explained in the narrative can easily be translated online There are not too many of them The words also do not interrupt the overall story and how everyone s life is interconnected with each other and nature A fascinating experience There is such a wealth of emotions exposed in the book so much human nature to discover as the reader becomes intimately involved with the characters as they develop and provide colour and texture to the story The reader is left with an insight into a multilayered true South African experience Or rather as with so many this stems from childhood trauma. October birthdays Mercia is in her fifties and her partner of 22 years has recently left her She grew up in a Coloured community in the small village of Kliprand in Namaqualand and moved to Scotland during apartheid after completing her degree and lectures at a university in Glasgow. Stuff your kindle day october 2024 While she is struggling with grief and trying to make sense of the ready made condition of having been left a passive state that renders her helpless she simultaneously receives a book called Home which she devours in a night and a please come home letter from her bad egg brother Jake He asks her to come and fetch his son Nicky as Mercia is all he has left This is odd because Nicky has a mother and a father She wonders if Jake is drinking again. October birthstone The parallels between her life with Jake and the story of siblings in the novel Home are striking except Mercia and Jake s story is set in a different continent a harsh land that makes its own demands on civility The references to this novel continue throughout This reminds me of why I like reading recognising thoughts and feelings that are similar to my own written by an author who describes people in another place and time I did not figure out if the book Home read by the protagonist was the Toni Morrison or the Marilynne Robinson quotes from each book are included This underscores the way books talk to each other In addition Mercia tries her hand at a memoir a very different sort of writing from the academic writing to which she is accustomed She files it in a folder on her laptop labelled Home. Octoberb boutique This examination of home and its necessary companion childhood leads to the theme of memories and its vagaries In looking at her past she knows there are aspects which she avoids thinking about especially the troubled relationship between her brother Jake and their father Nicholas Jake has become a drunk and he hates his father with a bitter rage Many of his self sabotaging actions as an adult are deliberate acts of revenge against his father He cannot forgive Nicholas for the regular beatings he inflicted upon Jake all his life These beatings were indeed barbaric and the aapstert was used on both children in case they had committed any sin Every day In the name of God Yet Mercia also remembers some good times and she cannot understand why these memories are lost to Jake She knows that guilt defined their childhood but also remembers some golden days. October book releases 2025 Their father Nicholas or Meester as he called himself when he moved to Kliprand represents the tragedy of the Coloured people Colonial masters bedding their slaves exploiting the most vulnerable from their position of power created them Yet ironically instead of rejecting his abusive forebears Meester is proud of his Scottish ancestry and sees himself as better than the hotnos of Namaqualand A society that is already stratified based on race is further stratified into decent Coloureds and the not so decent Further he was influenced by the hell and damnation religion touted by the missionaries which lacks elements of human kindness All these factors create the monster that is Meester He pulled himself up by his bootstraps and is determined his children will do the same. October tchaikovsky pdf Mercia goes home in her favourite month October a month she hates in Scotland She finds the moderate heat comforting and she does love the familiar view of grey green scrub with flat topped mountains looming blue in the distance She loves that hot red sand where ancient tortoises sit for days resting in the same scrap of shade as if the earth had not moved or night had not fallen tortoises whose purpose it would seem is to endure the passage of time Coincidentally I was visiting this area when I was reading the book and the descriptions are wonderfully accurate The beauty of arid regions is so different from the accepted norms of what is beautiful. October book pdf When Mercia arrives home she finds Jake is bed ridden and is drinking himself to death Mercia and Jake s wife Sylvie are from completely different walks of life despite having grown up in the same little village Mercia castigates herself for her snobbish attitude towards Sylvie but she simply cannot relate to her Sylvie thinks Mercia is a namby pamby woman Their many misunderstandings drive much of the tension in the novel Each of their perspectives are presented from their own point of view which challenges the reader s perceptions Sylvie is a very interesting character she grew up in a poor household with three mothers She did not know her father or which of the mothers if any is her biological mother Mercia cannot get Jake to talk to her and explain what has happened so in the meantime she takes Nicky the child for walks into the veld Eventually Mercia confronts Jake and discovers the reason for Jake having taken to his bed This changes everything. October book club ideas October tells the story of a Coloured family though the history of South Africa adds dimensions to this story that probably do not exist elsewhere it is also a universal story of people marginalised by poverty who have a drive to improve themselves and wish to ensure that their children can lead better lives than they did Yet what makes this book special is its exploration of ideas of home as well as the recording of personal history that is very aware of the presumption of knowing Despite exploring many varied themes because these themes are inextricably linked October is coherent and insightful The way it illustrates the faultiness of memory while engaging the reader in the lives of its characters is wonderful 256 October . Kindle october 2024 the poetic prose gorgeous sentences and I must mention that a few graphic horrific visuals of animal brutality descriptions were sensitivity written honoring the traditional history the family intimate geniality frostiness. October 2024 Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa Namibia It evolved from the Dutch vernacular of Holland Spoken by the Dutch settlers in South Africa I took many pauses with my reading to visit google. October ka looking up Ai Togs Afrikaans translations to English I was treated with images of plants animals foods proper names adjectives and speech encounters Here are a few of the words I spent extra time with Bokkie a little buck or doe Verandahless stoep a place to crySmous a peddlerKaffirmelons a very different taste than watermelon but also a dessert Namaqua speech not an easy word to say itself but Namaqua comes from a death that lives in an area of South America Sousboontjies sweet and sour beans in a sauce Plaasjapies The term comes from African farm boys Aapstert in Afrikaans language it s called monkey tail Uilspieel Afrikaan storiesKloof ravine or valleyChincherinchee A white flower a Lily that blooms in South Africa Kalkoentjies another flower plant in Africa the images are extraordinary soooo beautiful I want one in my yard Tjienkerientjee South African name Drolletjies Afrikaans for Little Turds. October birthstone But back to the novel of October and it isn t necessary to have looked up the words that I did but for me it was part of my learning enjoyment Zoe Wicomb writes tells a story exactly the way I love best no POV alternating narrative but rather combined conversational dialogue. October calendar Truthfully it s a page turner story So don t let those Afrikaan translations scare you away even with looking up vocabulary it didn t really add too much reading time I was into the whole experience from which Zoe Wicomb created This is a family story There was disturbing family history troubling relationships with the immediate family. October country ghost mountain loss and displacement with the dominant theme to contemplate being HOME what where when how does home factor into our lives Mercia Murray protagonist a South African woman was living in Scotland Glasgow for 26 years Her partner Craig left her. October sky pdf Written with tenderness and truth REALLY A BEAUTIFUL NOVEL Excerpts In the past Mercia has rushed off to escape the disappointing weather Now the gardens in Glasgow compensate for staying put With the enduring summer light comes wave after wave of bold effervescence which anyone would prefer to drought stricken Namaqualand Mercia watches over the fading of glorious forget me not the powdery fragrance of lilac species after species of flowering rhododendron and the trellises spangled like so many stars with clematis She awaits the explosion of flame red poppies the roses that will stay in bloom until the autumn That is when she ought to be away in the month of October when the sadness ever treating light strikes Home no than a word it s meaning hollowed out by the termites of time a shell carrying only the dull ache for the substance of the past But living in another country in a crazy era Mercia it s not ready for its collapse If nowadays ambition cannot accommodate the old notion of home there has surely always been ambivalence the impatience for something new for moving on across the world whilst at the same time at times feeling the centripetal tug of the earth The thought of the Cape as Home brings an ambiguous shiver The small town in Klein Namaqualand Klipeand Hardly than a village How could anyone want to live there Why would anyone stay there These are questions that Mercia too must ask although in those parts the words live and stay are interchangeable South Africans having inherited the language from the Scots speak of staying in a place when they mean living there Which is to say that natives are not expected to move away from what is called home Nicky says that Auntie Mercy has brought this good cool weather He loves rain and one day he ll have a car so that he can watch at close range the water tumbling about on the glass changing its mind But his mother says that changing your mind is not something to be admired You ve got to stick with thanks There s no other way Make your bed and lie in it Sylvie Felt a little guilty that they really should have slaughtered a sheep for Mercia s visit That was what one did in the past when people came from the city from a far to stay It would be an entire day of getting things ready not wasting anything The intestines cleaned in order to be stuffed a sausages The colon clogged with that dried for crackling fry tripe and trotters scraped clean with a razor blade and the soft meat hung out in the evening breeze to dry Then there were the delectable organs that could not be wind dried liver heart kidneys spleen sweet breads and for a special treat braised brains That night with the water miles away a full lascivious moon stretched out on the sand gazed up narcissistically moonstruck at itself the light so bright that their shadows stretched before them October was filled with moral quandaries. October book releases 2025 and Zoe Wilcomb masterfully spins her tale to a searing conclusion A treasure 256

October By Zoë Wicomb By Zoë Wicomb

1595589627

9781595589620

256

Hardcover

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wicomb is an interesting author she s lived in scotland for many decades now retired i think this novel about a scottish professor who has to go home to south africa namaqualand to see about her little brother and his wife and son as brother is sick turns out he is alcoholic and yes is sick but also tormented. October book club ideas so professor tries to take situation in hand to fix it but she cannot not really as she simultaneously has shucked off her home in south africa her sanctimonious and brutal father her meek mother her ner do well drunken brother her dysfunctional country while too not becoming scottish getting dumped by her boyfriend of decades and living the exile of those who leave their rural stifling homes to a humanistic sophisticated and liberal bigger world. October birthdays it happens but then now what does one do when family and home need you but won t accept you either you are stuck up and fancy or essentially a stranger or you are rich and holyier than though and swoop in to fix things but not appreciated. October daye epub so this is what happens to our professor mercia one year in october wicombs most profound and accessible novel to date a masterpiece in many ways plus has very affecting and evocative parts about the overberg and veld of namaqualand too the new press is one of the most exciting and interesting publishers going today 256 Wicomb s novel muses about the intersectional tension of being an ex patriot one who has left a place who in older life finds herself left both in her place of immigration and in what used to be home. EBook october 2022 At the heart of the novel are questions about how the imposed veil of systemic racism seen through the structures of apartheid black colored white so infects the double conscious that is the coloreds of South Africa that they almost lose a sense of self and ultimately of home What happens when one s humanity is caught up in other people s understanding of your respectability. October pdf calendar 2024 In the midst of this is also a father and son story and questions about faith and about sexuality and sexual abuse Those who have been victims of rape should be warned of this. October country ghost mountain This is not a light airy novel but it rewards those who take the time to enter its world of memory and deracination 256 Zoe is a very good writer I was engrossed in the story once I got about 1 3 of the way through It was slow reading because I had to really pay attention to what she was saying Every sentence was thought out and captivating I truly felt for the characters and would recommend it for those who don t mind sad stories The underlying descriptions of her feeling hit home I could relate I am glad I won this Goodreads giveaway Thank you 256 Beautiful read with diction and syntax that will stay with you for days but very slow moving Mid life analysis of being torn in heart and place between Scotland and South Africa between her family and reality this tale begins and ends with the first line Mercia Murray is a woman of fifty two years who has been left. October sky pdf Left by her partner and left by what she thought she knew of her family 256 A brilliant challenge to every paradigm of social and familial responsibility and any knowledge of post apartheid South Africa I can even try to claim Intimate character development with a time shifting eloquent narration that draws invites and insists on attention and thought 256.

, EPub october calendar She was a winner of the 2013 Windham Campbell Literature Prize for Fiction, October 2024 a first read for me by Zoe Wicomb but won t be my last was a wonderful reading experience And I do mean experience, Kindle october but my goodness I got an enjoyable education with Afrikaan language: EBook october 2022 Lodewyk A Dutch and Afrikaans given name for Louis in English There are a dozen , October stuff your kindle day She returns to South Africa where she grew up in North Cape where Mercia will meet endless amounts of strife, October 2024 while still dealing with fresh hurts Two very different lifestyles two very different cultures The author highlights both cultures well, October books events fragile and brittle I was quickly absorbed with the colorful characters, Boeken oktober bookchoice The novel is dark and brooding and merits at least two readings one for plot and one to sit with Wicomb s evocative and thoughtful postcolonial prose.5 stars or a rating of Very Good.I ll try to explain.I not only enjoyed this story the themes of Home.very engaging family storytelling.Old memories return Old hurts