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Rachel’s Blue
After a few stalls of beets, kale and zucchinis, and of candles made from beeswax and shaped into angels by a beekeeper who is also selling bottled honey, Jason stops to listen to yet another busker . . . He concludes that it is not for her voice – rather airy and desperate – that her open guitar case is bristling with greenbacks. It is for her strawberry blonde bangs peeping out from under her hat, and her deep blue eyes, and her willowy stature, and her brown prairie skirt of plaid gingham, and her bare feet with tan lines drawn by sandals, and her black T with “Appalachia Active” in big white letters across her breasts – the entire wholesome package that stands before him. She is trying hard to make her voice sound full-bodied and round, but she was not born for singing. She loses a beat to say “thank you” after Jason deposits a single, and then she tries hard to catch up with the song before it goes out of control.
At that moment Jason recognises her. Rachel. Rachel Boucher from Jensen Township . . .
Athens County, Ohio, USA. When Rachel Boucher and Jason de Klerk meet again – five years after high school – they immediately renew their friendship. But for Jason their friendship is just a stepping stone to something more – a romantic union that seems to have the blessing of the whole community. That is until Rachel becomes involved with Skye Riley.
As Skye and Rachel grow ever closer, Jason’s anger at the relationship boils over into violence, violence that turns the community on its head, setting old friends and neighbours against one another. But this is just a taste of things to come as, it turns out, Rachel is pregnant . . .
At that moment Jason recognises her. Rachel. Rachel Boucher from Jensen Township . . .
Athens County, Ohio, USA. When Rachel Boucher and Jason de Klerk meet again – five years after high school – they immediately renew their friendship. But for Jason their friendship is just a stepping stone to something more – a romantic union that seems to have the blessing of the whole community. That is until Rachel becomes involved with Skye Riley.
As Skye and Rachel grow ever closer, Jason’s anger at the relationship boils over into violence, violence that turns the community on its head, setting old friends and neighbours against one another. But this is just a taste of things to come as, it turns out, Rachel is pregnant . . .
272 pages, Paperback
First published May 5, 2013
9 people are currently reading
270 people want to read
About the author
Zakes Mda
33 books258 followersZakes Mda is the pen name of Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda, a novelist, poet and playwright.
Although he spent his early childhood in Soweto (where he knew political figures such as Walter and Albertina Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela) he had to finish his education in Lesotho where his father went into exile since 1963. This change of setting also meant a change of language for Mda: from isiXhosa to Sesotho. Consequently Mda preferred to write his first plays in English.
His first play, We Shall Sing for the Fatherland, won the first Amstel Playwright of the Year Award in 1978, a feat he repeated the following year. He worked as a bank clerk, a teacher and in marketing before the publication of We Shall Sing for the Fatherland and Other Plays in 1980 enabled him to be admitted to the Ohio University for a three-year Master's degree in theatre. He completed a Masters Degree in Theatre at Ohio University, after which he obtained a Master of Arts Degree in Mass Communication. By 1984 his plays were performed in the USSR, the USA, and Scotland as well as in various parts of southern Africa.
Mda then returned to Lesotho, first working with the Lesotho National Broadcasting Corporation Television Project and then as a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Lesotho. Between 1985 and 1992 he was director of the Theatre-For-Development Project at the university and founded the Marotholi Travelling Theatre. Together with his students he travelled to villages in remote mountain regions working with local people in creating theatre around their everyday concerns. This work of writing theatre "from the inside" was the theme of his doctoral thesis, the Ph.D degree being conferred on him by the University of Cape Town in 1989.
In the early nineties Mda spent much of his time overseas, he was writer-in-residence at the University of Durham (1991), research fellow at Yale University. He returned for one year to South Africa as Visiting Professor at the School of Dramatic Art at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is presently Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio University.
Although he spent his early childhood in Soweto (where he knew political figures such as Walter and Albertina Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela) he had to finish his education in Lesotho where his father went into exile since 1963. This change of setting also meant a change of language for Mda: from isiXhosa to Sesotho. Consequently Mda preferred to write his first plays in English.
His first play, We Shall Sing for the Fatherland, won the first Amstel Playwright of the Year Award in 1978, a feat he repeated the following year. He worked as a bank clerk, a teacher and in marketing before the publication of We Shall Sing for the Fatherland and Other Plays in 1980 enabled him to be admitted to the Ohio University for a three-year Master's degree in theatre. He completed a Masters Degree in Theatre at Ohio University, after which he obtained a Master of Arts Degree in Mass Communication. By 1984 his plays were performed in the USSR, the USA, and Scotland as well as in various parts of southern Africa.
Mda then returned to Lesotho, first working with the Lesotho National Broadcasting Corporation Television Project and then as a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Lesotho. Between 1985 and 1992 he was director of the Theatre-For-Development Project at the university and founded the Marotholi Travelling Theatre. Together with his students he travelled to villages in remote mountain regions working with local people in creating theatre around their everyday concerns. This work of writing theatre "from the inside" was the theme of his doctoral thesis, the Ph.D degree being conferred on him by the University of Cape Town in 1989.
In the early nineties Mda spent much of his time overseas, he was writer-in-residence at the University of Durham (1991), research fellow at Yale University. He returned for one year to South Africa as Visiting Professor at the School of Dramatic Art at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is presently Professor of Creative Writing at Ohio University.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 8, 2016
Firstly, I'd like to commend Ntate Mda for deviating from his usual classical story telling. I once read somewhere that a "classic is a book no one reads" and I fear that Ntate Mda's books were slowly moving in that direction.
An author needs to capture new markets like any service provider. This book introduces Zakes Mda to my daughter and her friends making reading all his other offerings easier to adopt as they become mature readers.
I don't normally gravitate towards Ntate Mda's books but I was intrigued by the title when I came across it in a national newspaper a year ago. I thought "mmm, what a catchy title". I was drawn to it because I couldn't decipher whether the "Blue" was a verb or the whole title was a possessive noun. And the cover, so beautifully calm. The kaleidoscope of blues gave off a calming effect. Like the sea.
The story is told in an easy manner devoid of the verbosity I'd come to associate with Zakes Mda's style of writing. Rachel, the protagonist, was left to tell her story in a contemporary manner associated with girls her age. Her mannerisms and lackadaisical attitude towards her life and life in general, was typical of young girls. She lives in a small tight-knit community. When she is assaulted by a family friend, her grandmother, Nana Moira, wants the two families to come together and talk. Rachel will have none of that and the ensuing court case not only splits the community apart but Rachel's character is torn into stringy shreds. She stands her ground and this, traumatic as it was, sees her develop a steely resolve to protect her child, Blue, at all costs.
Zakes narrates Rachel's story in the third person giving the reader spectator value. Zakes approaches themes like loss, death, rape, survival and the lengths a mother would go to protect her child with, so much care and sensitivity. In Rachel, Nana Moira sees the woman she could've become had she taken corrective action earlier in Rachel's formative years. Not only are Zakes' characters taken into consideration in the narration, his readers too. The story could've easily turned into a stroppy tale with lots of tears from and for both the characters and readers, but it left me with so much empathy towards everyone involved. I found myself rooting for Rachel. I wanted her to beat the stereotype. I wanted Jason to own up to what he did and make amends. Instead he continued to be an asshole. I wanted Skye, Blue and Rachel to ride into the sunse, a girl can only but dream.
I read this book at a poignant moment in South Africa, the "16 Days Of Activism Against the Abuse of Women and Children". Jason's trial brought to the fore the unfairness of the justice system. Why is the burden of proof on the woman to prove that the assault took place, and not on the perpetrator to prove his innocence?
I enjoyed this read immensely and I highly recommend it.
An author needs to capture new markets like any service provider. This book introduces Zakes Mda to my daughter and her friends making reading all his other offerings easier to adopt as they become mature readers.
I don't normally gravitate towards Ntate Mda's books but I was intrigued by the title when I came across it in a national newspaper a year ago. I thought "mmm, what a catchy title". I was drawn to it because I couldn't decipher whether the "Blue" was a verb or the whole title was a possessive noun. And the cover, so beautifully calm. The kaleidoscope of blues gave off a calming effect. Like the sea.
The story is told in an easy manner devoid of the verbosity I'd come to associate with Zakes Mda's style of writing. Rachel, the protagonist, was left to tell her story in a contemporary manner associated with girls her age. Her mannerisms and lackadaisical attitude towards her life and life in general, was typical of young girls. She lives in a small tight-knit community. When she is assaulted by a family friend, her grandmother, Nana Moira, wants the two families to come together and talk. Rachel will have none of that and the ensuing court case not only splits the community apart but Rachel's character is torn into stringy shreds. She stands her ground and this, traumatic as it was, sees her develop a steely resolve to protect her child, Blue, at all costs.
Zakes narrates Rachel's story in the third person giving the reader spectator value. Zakes approaches themes like loss, death, rape, survival and the lengths a mother would go to protect her child with, so much care and sensitivity. In Rachel, Nana Moira sees the woman she could've become had she taken corrective action earlier in Rachel's formative years. Not only are Zakes' characters taken into consideration in the narration, his readers too. The story could've easily turned into a stroppy tale with lots of tears from and for both the characters and readers, but it left me with so much empathy towards everyone involved. I found myself rooting for Rachel. I wanted her to beat the stereotype. I wanted Jason to own up to what he did and make amends. Instead he continued to be an asshole. I wanted Skye, Blue and Rachel to ride into the sunse, a girl can only but dream.
I read this book at a poignant moment in South Africa, the "16 Days Of Activism Against the Abuse of Women and Children". Jason's trial brought to the fore the unfairness of the justice system. Why is the burden of proof on the woman to prove that the assault took place, and not on the perpetrator to prove his innocence?
I enjoyed this read immensely and I highly recommend it.
February 9, 2020
This is going to be a tough one to review.
Mda does a fantastic job of highlighting a very real problem in the US. For the sake of giving you the nasty shock I had while discovering this, I am not going to say more than that. In fact, I think the shock and the distaste and the horror all assist in building towards Mda's 'message' - that there is something very wrong in a legal system that can enforce 'this'.
To make this work, Mda first follows Jason de Klerk. The reader feels for him, as the reader knows they should. The spurned young man who is pining for the young woman. Of course we want him to succeed, find happiness. But then he does something terrible and this contrast, this betrayal of our trust as a reader, helps to highlight the horror of his act. From then on, the reader is solely with either Rachel or her grandmother. Don't relax though. Mda has enough going on there to make any reader squirm and cringe.
While not a pleasant book to read, 'Rachel's Blue' is an important book to read.
Mda does a fantastic job of highlighting a very real problem in the US. For the sake of giving you the nasty shock I had while discovering this, I am not going to say more than that. In fact, I think the shock and the distaste and the horror all assist in building towards Mda's 'message' - that there is something very wrong in a legal system that can enforce 'this'.
To make this work, Mda first follows Jason de Klerk. The reader feels for him, as the reader knows they should. The spurned young man who is pining for the young woman. Of course we want him to succeed, find happiness. But then he does something terrible and this contrast, this betrayal of our trust as a reader, helps to highlight the horror of his act. From then on, the reader is solely with either Rachel or her grandmother. Don't relax though. Mda has enough going on there to make any reader squirm and cringe.
While not a pleasant book to read, 'Rachel's Blue' is an important book to read.
July 6, 2020
This is my first book by Mda that I have read so I am curious to read others to compare the style. I felt that the story was delivered in such a staccato manner that it never felt like a complete book, but more the ramblings of an untalented story teller. There was little to no character development, the timeline was erratic and the scenes were not well set. The story could have had so much more depth, there was so much that could’ve been expanded upon and so much that was unnecessary. Overall I am disappointed, but after the climactic scene I was very engaged, so at least there is that.
September 19, 2018
A different Zakes Mda, with a necessary conversation brought to the reader with much care for the issue and the human impact.
December 30, 2014
I was slightly disappointed with this one. I'm used to Zakes' usual story-telling style in the African tradition. Though his characters were well developed and believable, somehow the story lacked impact.
I gave a lot of thought to why this one didn't quite make the grade and I've come up with a couple of reasons:
1. the lapse of time during which events occur is not well indicated and treated too casually; this might have been fixed by providing dates as chapter headings;
2. the seriousness of the events under discussion were somehow handled in a too off-hand manner; though Zakes reported objectively rather than passing judgement, somehow he missed the mark.
If you have never read Zakes' work before, I would suggest starting with one of his other books, such as Ways of Dying.
I gave a lot of thought to why this one didn't quite make the grade and I've come up with a couple of reasons:
1. the lapse of time during which events occur is not well indicated and treated too casually; this might have been fixed by providing dates as chapter headings;
2. the seriousness of the events under discussion were somehow handled in a too off-hand manner; though Zakes reported objectively rather than passing judgement, somehow he missed the mark.
If you have never read Zakes' work before, I would suggest starting with one of his other books, such as Ways of Dying.
September 21, 2016
Interesting content and sadly based on real life laws...but I didn't enjoy the writing or the characters.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews