A review by lydiogames
The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera

challenging dark slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

sometimes you've got to know when you're beat and this thing just isn't for me I think. a vital and important read with real things to say but ultimately far too fractured in its prose and perspective to ever feel like a comfortable read. and sure, that's partly the point, but Marechera is clearly guided by superb writing talent and demonstrates real flashes of both fascinating prose and mind opening symbolism, metaphor, observation. it's instead left feeling inescapably messy, dictated with some awkward turns of phrase and text (that I have to assume are simply the result of Zimbabwean dialect, totally happy to admit it's not my place to knock that, but it doesn't help on top of such a push-pull series of events). and god does this get repetitive. feels like there's a near endless description of beatings happening one after the other with much of the same actions and metaphors over and over ("stains!", "crushed my face"). unfortunately just held a little too distant from the "I" of the novel and the frequent disparaging of women and feminine characteristics that seem pretty deeply ingrained with little meaningful reflection or even a real personable quality, just frequent and simple acknowledgements of it. 

still though, can recognise the strengths of this thing and to an extent I completely understand all of the acclaim; much more of a me thing. it's impressive all the same, and did truly start off strong, but lost me and lost me further as things continued.