Despite its flaws, South African author Ntikeng Molele's latest novel has its flaws, there's something alluring about Revolutionary's Home. This is Molele's most political novel, and the parallels drawn between love and politics and their pitfalls are interesting.
Revolutionary House is timely. The group argues for the urgent need for South Africa's political elites to step back and assess their own shortcomings before considering possible paths to a better future. For too few, little has changed since democracy in 1994.
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This is Mr. Morelle's eighth novel, and the narrator follows Mr. Winston, who is “first and foremost a politician.” He is an active member of the eponymous headquarters of South Africa's fictional ruling party, the House of Revolutionaries. But he can no longer put up with the party's shortcomings.
Mr. Winston became increasingly unstable, suffering from a medically unexplained and seemingly incurable illness, and “stopped caring or asking questions'' about politics or his three relatively successful fast-food restaurants. . He is keen to cleanse himself of personal and political baggage. After a messy divorce, he begins living on the streets of Johannesburg, sleeping in a bed “made from plasma TV boxes under the Nelson Mandela Bridge” and working odd jobs as a car and dishwasher.
As a scholar of South African post-apartheid fiction, I have been reading Molele for many years. The award-winning novelist is a unique voice in South African fiction.
His work is auteur with unusual depictions and perspectives, often from the perspective of flawed male characters and with philosophical intent. However, 'Revolutionaries' House' is in line with his previous works 'Small Things' (2008), 'Rusty Bell' (2014) and 'Pleasure' (2016), which are my personal favorites. I don't.
Mr. Winston's women
The novel is divided into five chapters, four of which are named after the women who left an indelible mark on Mr. Winston's life.
There is Alessandra Pereira, a “Brazilian from Santa Teresa” and a “goddess with admirable political instincts” who works for the United Nations. Monica (also known as Baritone Monica) is the outspoken and provocative sister-in-law with whom Mr. Winston begins the “ultimate romance” and whose marriage to Naomi “tumbles from dizzying heights and falls to pieces.” This became the reason.
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There's Mira Chakrabarti, the strict manager of Little Paradise, the overcrowded and chronically underfunded relief center where Mr. Winston was taken by police. She had “manly hands, an unkissable mouth, chapped lips, armpit hair, and teeth badly stained with tobacco,” and her sudden death left him shaken.
And then there's Mumarelato, an attractive young nurse he meets at the hospital after the accident. she has:
Her eyes are proportionate to her round face, her mouth is like an exotic island in a sea of flawless skin, and her skin is like two-toned strong coffee, prepared with no lactose intolerance in mind. Masu.
These women serve as a kind of destiny for him. In mythology, Fate is three goddesses who define a person's destiny. His ex-wife has not received her own chapter, suggesting that perhaps their chapter is not yet completed, or perhaps not yet written.
What is off-putting, however, is the protagonist's blatant male gaze, his oversimplified, stereotypical, and disgustingly objectified portrayal of women. This depiction of a problematic woman must be seen as part of the narrator's self-involved personality. But Mr. Winston's sexist attitudes and sometimes downright kitschy image are disgusting.
The obsession with the female body and the sexualization of women is a recurring and rather negative trademark of Morelle's writing. South African literary scholars Daniela Demir and Wamwe Mbao have made similar arguments about Molele's previous works Breasts etc. (2023) and The Discovery of Love (2022).
mr winstons johannesburg
Throughout the novel, Winston writes, “a sad malaise is evidenced, with drainage systems clogging when it rains, power outages creating claustrophobic traffic, and brazen levels of vandalism and arson against government property.” , paints a bleak picture of central Johannesburg.
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This is similar to other works such as Niku Mhlongo's This City is Mine (2024), Kugebetli Moele's Room 207 (2006), or Fathwane Mpeh's Welcome to Our Hillbrow (2001). It is consistent with similar views of the city in novels by South African novelists.
However, Mr Winston's disillusionment with South Africa's “unfair politics” and apparent lack of credibility will not help his case. His hypocrisy and artificial, redundant way of expressing himself, while befitting a narcissistic politician, only adds to how ungrateful he is.
Nothing
In the novel's final chapter, Chapter 5, “The Void,” Mr. Winston reaches a dramatic and simple conclusion.
Human life, including love and politics, in its nature and essence, can be said to be completely meaningless in the face of mortality.
Alongside this existential “nothingness” there is also the “nothingness” of significant change in South Africa and its political elite.
And there is “nothingness” in Mr. Winston's development. Considering the long time he spent on the streets of Johannesburg (more than 10 years, if the reader is to believe the period), he seems to have learned almost nothing.
It's a shame that overall Mr. Winston remains a rather abstract and aloof character, never becoming concrete or relatable. Political fiction is still needed in South Africa. We can only hope that Mr. Morele's next attempt is not so timid and lukewarm.
