Seven Steps to Heaven

by Fred Khumalo

This multilayered family saga is a riveting tale of love, betrayal, and a search for identity—sexual and otherwise. Sis Lettie, the streetwise philosopher of the shebeens and entrepreneur par excellence, and her son Kokoroshe, a street urchin turned lawyer, are at the center of this dark and understated novel.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Drama, Africa, Fiction

338 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Fred Khumalo is the author of the novels Bitches’ Brew, which was a joint winner of the 2006 European Union Literary Award, and Seven Steps to Heaven. His memoir, Touch My Blood, was shortlisted for the Alan Paton Prize for Non-fiction in 2007, and his most recent book, #ZuptasMustFall and Other Rants, was published in 2016. His short fiction has appeared in various anthologies, literary journals and magazines. He holds a MA in Creative Writing from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where he lives.

Reviews

[Tiah]

I...I feel like I should have liked this more than I did. That said, I'm still mulling it over - which is a brilliant sign for a book; and, probably means I should give it more stars.

Actually, I think it means this star system stinks. Why can't we do half stars?

[Phumlani · Rating 3 out of 5]

A disturbingly dark and challengingly deep plunge into the mind of split personality disorders and schizophrenia . The first two thirds of the book are simple enough and flow easily, as you draw to the end when Thulani’s body is taken over by the second then the third personality it gets very confusing, I had to go back and reread other pages in order to fully understand what was going on. Sizwe’s character is introduced to us as a drunkard in a Hillbrow shebeen along with some characters that are given a huge chunk of attention at the beginning but end up not making any contribution to the story in the end,it’s as if the author completely forgot about them somewhere along the book,he described them,built them up then just neglected them rather unceremoniously.

The author clearly researched the split personality phenomenon and it shows. The only slight problem with that is how much of the story he was willing to compromise in order to fit the split personality in. An example is how the Parents and the community seemingly lose interest in the protagonist to the point of not even finding out that he is in prison yet he made national news.

It’s a well written book,worth a read,quite entertaining and quirky. It’s a good read, I recommend it.

[Shelagh P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3 and a half stars*
Another university course book. I battled to connect with this book and its characters at first - in hindsight this feeling of disconnect may have been what Khumalo was aiming for at the outset. Persistence on the part of the reader is, however, rewarded by the remaining two-thirds of the book. "Seven Steps to Heaven" is a thought-provoking read that challenges ideas of identity and friendship.

Note: the back cover blurb for the book is completely misleading and does not help when faced with the disorder of the beginning of the book.

[Bernadette · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I wasn't forced to read it, I would've passed. Had an inkling of being a good book, but just became to confusing. Also, no one speaks in such a pretentious way, especially not youngsters.

[Amarinthea · Rating 2 out of 5]

That was a relatively enjoyable read with a few laughs and intriguing characters in Sizwe and Thulani, but, I am left wanting though. The ending was rather anticlimactic for me.

Another pet peeve that kept me from giving it 3 stars were the continuous typing and grammatical errors during the second half of the book, which, coincidently was just as rushed in the writing process as it was in the editing process. Also, the write-up on the back of the book tells you absolutely nothing about the two protagonists, Sizwe and Thulani, but talks of Lettie and Kokoroshe, who played minor roles in the plot of the story... Why Jacana? The person who wrote that must not actually have read the book...

Back to the point; I would have wanted to know more about how Sizwe ended up in Johannesburg; what happened to Nolitha and his parents? The character of Patrick was superficial and added nothing to the storyline, (he just made me feel sick and disgusted), and Sizwe's rushed demise to madness feels inauthentic to me, even if in hindsight, it had been coming a long time. Huge plot holes in how this revelation is revealed.

[Janine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seven Steps to Heaven remains a controversial book, not only in its content but in its reception. It is a polarizing novel; a brilliant tale with a brilliant theme written in a way that could be considered brilliant in itself but for some reason is not necessarily received well be readers.
Khumalo's social commentary is at the forefront, as is his examination of the mental illness of the postcolonial individual, that of the colonised taking on the issues of the colonised. The book cleverly tackles the idea of the unreliable narrator as the protagonist slowly falls into a deep hole of deceit and duplicity where the reader cannot trust anything they read.
I do believe that this would make a decent film, with the viewer truly seeing Sizwe's decent as he becomes Thulani after many years of identity crisis and untreated mental health issues.

Needed for a University Module; bought at The Book Shoppe (Tokai; Western Cape).

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. That covered a lot of ground. My one main complaint is that the second half of the book felt a little rushed, especially towards the ending. On the other hand, the sort of whirlwind effect at the end might have been exactly what Khumalo was going for. Going to need time to process this.

[Mias Strauss]

Well developed hidden meaning and theme of novel is obscured by overused and exaggerated, explicit language and scenes.