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A review by bookedupandbusy
If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais
5.0
Set in South Africa post apartheid, this book tells the story of three women (two white and one black) each from different walks of life. When a black newborn baby lands on the doorstep of the two sisters, it challenges their beliefs about race, motherhood and the past.
I enjoyed this book so much. It was a captivating, emotional and educational read. There are many themes explored from rape, racism, motherhood, culture, white privilege and HIV/AIDS.
Each woman has a different background, Delilah was a disgraced former nun, her sister Ruth was a socialite who had lost her edge and Zodwa is a seventeen year old girl who lives in a squatter camp and is pregnant, yet it is a baby that is provided as the catalyst in connecting the three women.
The author does not shy away from showing the vileness of racism and deals with this issue in a very candid way. It is written in first person for the two white female characters and in third person for the black female character, which I found very poignant in getting to know each person’s traits. I enjoyed the pace of the novel throughout and I liked that the short chapters alternated between each person’s version of events. I do have some further questions and I would have liked for some character’s stories to be explored in more depth, but apart from that I can not fault this book and I guess we can’t always have closure on every book we read right? There is so much more to this story but I don’t want to give away any spoilers to the plot, so please read it!
I enjoyed this book so much. It was a captivating, emotional and educational read. There are many themes explored from rape, racism, motherhood, culture, white privilege and HIV/AIDS.
Each woman has a different background, Delilah was a disgraced former nun, her sister Ruth was a socialite who had lost her edge and Zodwa is a seventeen year old girl who lives in a squatter camp and is pregnant, yet it is a baby that is provided as the catalyst in connecting the three women.
The author does not shy away from showing the vileness of racism and deals with this issue in a very candid way. It is written in first person for the two white female characters and in third person for the black female character, which I found very poignant in getting to know each person’s traits. I enjoyed the pace of the novel throughout and I liked that the short chapters alternated between each person’s version of events. I do have some further questions and I would have liked for some character’s stories to be explored in more depth, but apart from that I can not fault this book and I guess we can’t always have closure on every book we read right? There is so much more to this story but I don’t want to give away any spoilers to the plot, so please read it!