Yvonne Vera's short novel, Without a Name, is set in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, as the country is in the midst of the struggle for independence.
It was 1977, freedom was skin deep but joyous and tantalizing. (...) Freedom was any kind of opening through which one could squeeze. People fought to achieve gaps in their reality. The people danced in an enviable kind of self-mutilation.
Mazvita has fled her hometown, Mubaira. It is no longer a refuge, a retreat, a home. She hopes to begin anew elsewhere. Harari -- the big city -- is the obvious place. She recognizes it "as the limitless place in which to dream, and to escape." Unfortunately, she is not able to escape what happened to her.
In the beginning Mazvita is waiting for a bus:
She stood still. She stood next to one of the poles, on the outside. She stood on the outside. She stood alone.
She remains, ultimately, alone and an outsider, despite apparently adapting and seeming, at times, to fit in well. But events defeat her. Twice she finds men with whom she can share her life. There is Nyenyedzi -- but he wants to return with her to Mubaira, and she can't do that. And then, in Harari, there is Joel.
But Mazvita is pregnant, part of the burden she brought with her from Mubaira. She has the child. It is, of course, not Joel's and he wants nothing to do with it. And it is ultimately all to much for Mazvita, who finally does the unthinkable.
She came to the city with so much hope:
She trusted the future and her growth and desire. She had faith in untried realities because she trusted her own power for change, for adaptation.
Her own power is not enough. Realities are harsher than she could have anticipated, and the world less adaptable. The city was a place of hope, but she also realizes: "She hated the city and its commitment to a wild and stultifying indifference."
She is driven to a horrible deed. She drives herself to it. Seeing, under the circumstances, no alternative. It is a wrenching conclusion, heartbreaking and confusing. It is a terrible end Vera's characters come to. (It is also, in this case, perhaps too stark, an exaggerated manipulation, done for tear-jerking effect. Vera explains a lot, but even so the act does not fully convince.)
The language of the novel veers towards the terse, elliptic, poetic. Fortunately, Vera can not sustain it throughout, and some sensible narrative shines through. It is an uneasy blend, but here, in what is essentially a long short story, she can get away with it.
The characters are mainly simply sketched. The focus is so tightly on Mazvita that the baby, Joel, and even Nyenyedzi remain underdeveloped, shadowy background figures even when they are by Mazvita's side.
There's something to the story. It is decently set up, and it certainly hits a nerve. Vera's flights of language waft too far, but there is some solidity here too.
Pages: 103
Paperback
Baobab Books, 1996
Good condition; cover slightly soiled/has some small creases
B125
