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Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo review – a Zimbabwean Animal Farm

Set in the aftermath of Mugabe’s fall, Bulawayo’s long-awaited second novel is a spellbinding allegory

N ine years ago, NoViolet Bulawayo published her debut novel We Need New Names . This coming-of-age tale, which grew from her Caine prize-winning short story Hitting Budapest , features 10-year-old Darling and friends struggling to survive in a Zimbabwean shantytown. They do so with extraordinary resilience and humour; a thread that runs powerfully through her second novel, Glory.

We Need New Names was widely acclaimed as a powerful story of displacement written in distinctive and poetic prose, and made Bulawayo the first Black African woman to be shortlisted for the Booker prize. The language in Glory is just as spellbinding, with added stylistic dexterity.

Inspired by George Orwell’s Animal Farm , Glory is set in the animal kingdom of Jidada. After a 40-year rule, the “Old Horse” is ousted in a coup, along with his much-despised wife, a donkey named Marvellous. At first there is great rejoicing and hope for change under a new ruling horse, Tuvius Delight Shasha (the former vice-president turned rival of Old Horse). Hope, however, quickly vanishes and into the period of post-coup despair steps a young goat named Destiny, who returns from exile to bear witness to a land where greed, corruption and false prophets are rampant. Elements of this story will sound familiar. In a note to the reader, Bulawayo explains that she attempted to write about Zimbabwe’s November 2017 coup and the fall of Robert Mugabe in nonfiction, but found a better form in political satire.

As with We Need New Names, Bulawayo leans into exaggeration and irony to tell hard truths. Glory is jam-packed with comedy and farce, poking fun at an autocratic regime while illustrating the absurdity and surreal nature of a police state. Here, for example, is an extravagant, ironic list of Jidada’s government ministers reflecting the breadth and depth of corruption: “The Minister of the Revolution, the Minister of Corruption, the Minister of Order, the Minister of Things, the Minister of Nothing, the Minister of Propaganda, the Minister of Homophobic Affairs, the Minister of Disinformation, the Minister of Looting”. While in the chapter Queuenation, the human stance of animals waiting to buy scarce commodities brings a double comedy: “Standing on hind legs, the back leaning against a wall, tail curled or tucked between the legs. Sitting on the pavement. Squatting. Holding on to walls. Sleeping queues. Sleeping pressed together like hot loaves of bread in queues. Sleeping standing with one eye open in queues.”

There is much that is familiar from Zimbabwe’s post-coup history, from the popular slogans meaning the opposite of what is stated – “Open for business” and “New dispensation” – down to characters and events. Marvellous the donkey, “Dr Sweet Mother” with her “Gucci heels”, represents the former first lady of Zimbabwe, Grace Ntombizodwa Mugabe, who was awarded her PhD after just three months – or, as the novel has it, “before you could say diss, for dissertation”. Also familiar is the misogynistic scapegoating of the first lady as the reason for the Old Horse losing his marbles.

But one doesn’t have to know Zimbabwe to relish this novel. As with all good satire, the specific speaks to the universal; and many of these specifics are instantly recognisable – a video recording anguished cries of “I can’t breathe”; the sham commitment to “free, fair and credible elections”; the calls to “make Jidada great again”. Similarly, the heart-breaking descriptions of genocide, corrupt rulers and their cronies, and a traumatised nation living in fear, will chime with people all over the world. Glory is in good company with Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka’s 2021 biting critique of Nigerian society, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth . Perhaps we are seeing the beginning of a new wave of political satire from African writers.

Glory is also a fresh and modern take on our relationship to the virtual world and to the novel form itself. In Jidada there are two countries: “the Country Country that was the real physical space in which Jidadans walked and lived and queued and suffered and got pained, and then there was the Other Country, where Jidadans logged on and roared and raged and vented”. This Other Country is captured not only in hilarious hashtagging and tweets, but with soundbites from animals weighing in on current events. This social media-saturated narrative, interwoven with the oral storytelling techniques of idiomatic speech and call and response, makes Bulawayo feel like a pioneer. Even the stylistic use of the refrain “ Tholukuthi ”, meaning “only to discover” (as in, “you thought you were getting a novel as good as We Need New Names, tholukuthi Bulawayo’s second is even more dazzling”), nods to a social media moment. Around the time of the Zimbabwe coup, the song Tholukuthi Hey! was released, and once it went viral, the refrain became a meme. “Tholukuthi” serves both as incantation and a form of punctuation in a novel that will appeal across generations.

Bulawayo doesn’t hold back in speaking truth to power. She writes urgently and courageously, holding up a mirror both to contemporary Zimbabwe and the world at large. Her fearless and innovative chronicling of politically repressive times calls to mind other great storytellers such as Herta Müller, Elif Shafak and Zimbabwean compatriot Yvonne Vera. Glory, with a flicker of hope at its end, is allegory, satire and fairytale rolled into one mighty punch.

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In ‘Glory,’ talking animals bear a striking resemblance to real-life tyrants

In NoViolet Bulawayo’s new novel, “ Glory, ” a nation riven by decades of autocratic rule finds itself dividing once again. Seeking “to forget the screaming in their heads,” the citizens of Jidada flock to the Internet. Safe inside this “Other Country,” they rage against their government in ways that would be unthinkable in the physical “Country Country,” where cancellation is truly final.

The gulf between the world as it is and the world as it could be is as wide in Bulawayo’s novel as it is outside it. The actions depicted in the book are so familiar, the events so recognizable, the pain so acute, it’s easy to see how “Glory” began as a work of nonfiction. That the characters are animals — furred, feathered, scaled and all — is almost incidental.

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In a note to readers accompanying pre-publication copies of her book, Bulawayo reports that before writing “Glory,” she had been at work on a nonfiction account of the 2017 coup that ended Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s oppressive, 37-year reign. The 93-year-old strongman’s replacement was Emmerson Mnangagwa, the 75-year-old vice president whom Mugabe fired in one of his last acts as head of state. Mnangagwa, a former military leader with an allegedly brutal history and a vicious nickname, the Crocodile, won the presidency by a narrow margin in 2018. Mugabe died the following year.

“Glory” repeats this story almost as it happened. In Bulawayo’s telling, however, Jidada’s deposed autocrat is an elderly stallion long known as Father of the Nation but now derided as Old Horse. Following a bloodless coup staged by the nation’s canine military, the Father’s vice president and fellow old horse, Tuvius Delight Shasha, returns from a brief exile with promises of “a new dawn, a new season, a New Dispensation.” Tuvy, as he’s called, vows to make Jidada “great again.” In no time, he acquires a cultlike following, a new nickname (the Savior) and a reputation for megalomania, misogyny and corruption that surpasses that of his predecessor.

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An expected chain of absurdities follows. That is not a knock on Bulawayo’s storytelling gifts, which are prodigious. Her 2013 debut novel , “ We Need New Names ,” was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for its indelible tale of a Zimbabwean girl who immigrates to the United States. Among her new book’s many strengths is Bulawayo’s portrayal of the Jidadans’ experience as at once distinct and universal. A host of real-life tyrants can be seen in the novel’s four-legged bad guys.

This is not a humorless book. The animals are gleeful insulters (“You have a demon of idiocy!”) and inventive cussers. Tuvy and the Father are as foolish as they are evil. The latter’s reaction to finding himself in hell, to which he’s been led by a lipstick-wearing monkey, is wickedly funny. Bulawayo even delights in satirizing a certain U.S. president, represented here as a tweeting primate prone to subliterate warnings of electoral malfeasance. His handle: @bigbaboonoftheUS.

Jane Smiley’s new novel gives voice to her favorite animal, the horse

The citizens of Jidada often speak with one voice. They recite long lists, grim tautologies (“killed dead,” “died death”) and anecdotes that circle back on themselves like tail-chasing dogs. Traumatized by violence at home and abroad, they repeat phrases that fill entire pages of the book: “and talks to the dead,” “and considered the maths of the revolution,” “I can’t breathe.”

“Glory” reads longer than its 400 pages. Bulawayo shifts among omniscient narration, first-person plural, oral history and even chapters written as Twitter threads. The effect can be disorienting, but individual voices stand out. None resonates as strongly as that of Destiny Lozikeyi Khumalo, a goat who returns to Jidada after a decade away. Hoping to exorcise the trauma that prompted her departure, Destiny becomes a chronicler of her nation’s history and an advocate for its future. Her writing provides a “way of rising above the past, of putting together that which was broken.”

In her author’s note, Bulawayo shares how her book’s most obvious literary inspiration, George Orwell’s anti-Stalinism allegory “Animal Farm,” became a trending topic on social media in the wake of Mugabe’s ouster. The parallels between post-revolution Manor Farm and post-coup Zimbabwe were too painful to ignore. “Pivoting from nonfiction to create ‘Glory’ became an extension of my fellow citizens’ impulse to articulate the absurd and the surreal,” she writes.

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Any satire worth its weight in talking animals is really a warning — to the powers that be, the complicit and anyone who thinks nothing so terrible could ever happen to them. When Destiny diagnoses Jidada’s condition as “the willingness of citizens to get used to that which should have otherwise been the source of outrage,” she could be describing a great number of places. By almost any measure, “Glory” weighs a ton.

Jake Cline is a writer and editor in Miami.

By NoViolet Bulawayo

Viking. 400 pp. $27

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‘Glory’ Review: Finding Meaning Within Satire

Based in part on the 2017 Zimbabwe coup, Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo’s highly anticipated novel “Glory” is centered around the crumbling political system of Jidada, a fictional nation inhabited by animals like Destiny the goat or Tuvy the horse. When Jidada's leader, the Old Horse, loses his power, the nation’s citizens grapple with the question of who should take his place. In its threatened collapse, their society shockingly mirrors reality. All of their conflicts, from Twitter feuds to revolutionary violence, are applicable to ones that are witnessed in the world today.

Bulawayo employs stunning imagery, humorous dialogue, and thought-provoking Twitter-like threads in telling the story of “Glory.” These components lend greater depth to a story that already touches on a variety of political issues, including controversies involving conversative, old-fashioned views of women, and racial tensions. Through elements adopted from the real world, Bulawayo encourages readers to be more aware of the societal power structures that govern their own lives.

Readers witness many progressive changes in the society of animals as the kingdom reshapes itself. Bulawayo reveals how twisted the state of the world really is and mocks the ridiculous behavior of those who stand in the way of progress. She makes outrageous claims that are clearly intended to be humorous, making her novel toe the line of satire.

“Glory” is packed with various dynamic characters, which often makes it difficult to paint a full picture of Jidada in one’s mind; there are simply too many characters to keep track of. Nonetheless, the overwhelming number of characters does not detract from the message of a need for social and political reform conveyed throughout the novel.

One of the best parts of the novel’s layout is the inclusion of the aforementioned simulated Twitter thread chapters. Like the Twitter feuds of the human world, the threads are both informative of the atmosphere of the animals’ society and incredibly entertaining. Characters share sarcastic responses to online claims, such as in @goldenm’s tweet: “It’s spelled Dictatorship bruh. DICTATORSHIP. I mean you should know the spelling seeing it’s on your forehead.”

These tweets also summarize the kingdom’s attitude after what took place in previous chapters, pushing readers to keep up with the fast-paced story. One Tweet from @movernshaker states in response to another user: “Sit down, you didn’t start shit in 2017. Tuvy and the dogs carried out a coup, y’all were just used to sanitize it. And now they’ll finish their thing, WATCH and LEARN.”

Additionally, the novel highlights meaningful feminist issues through bold dialogue. Through characters like Aunt MaKhumalo and others, Bulawayo proves she is not afraid to write about sensitive topics. On the contrary, she takes pains to emphasize the ridiculousness of having such outdated opinions about women’s rights in modern society.

Above all, Bulawayo very clearly calls out the holes in our political systems throughout the novel. “Even the sticks and stones will tell you that an animal can’t just preach change without embodying it themselves, and that that change has to begin at the top and then trickle down to the rest of the masses,” she writes. In an important call to action, she prompts readers to reevaluate the performance of their political systems. In doing so, this novel effectively guides readers toward a greater consciousness of societal issues through a fictional, humorous, and animal-filled scope.

—Staff Writer Hailey E. Krasnikov can be reached at [email protected].

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Glory : Book summary and reviews of Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

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by NoViolet Bulawayo

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Published Mar 2022 416 pages Genre: Literary Fiction Publication Information

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About this book

Book summary.

From the award-winning author of the Booker-prize finalist We Need New Names , an exhilarating novel about the fall of an oppressive regime, and the chaos and opportunity that rise in its wake.

NoViolet Bulawayo's bold new novel follows the fall of the Old Horse, the long-serving leader of a fictional country, and the drama that follows for a rumbustious nation of animals on the path to true liberation. Inspired by the unexpected fall by coup in November 2017 of Robert G. Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president of nearly four decades, Glory shows a country's imploding, narrated by a chorus of animal voices that unveil the ruthlessness required to uphold the illusion of absolute power and the imagination and bulletproof optimism to overthrow it completely. By immersing readers in the daily lives of a population in upheaval, Bulawayo reveals the dazzling life force and irresistible wit that lie barely concealed beneath the surface of seemingly bleak circumstances. And at the center of this tumult is Destiny, a young goat who returns to Jidada to bear witness to revolution—and to recount the unofficial history and the potential legacy of the females who have quietly pulled the strings here. The animal kingdom—its connection to our primal responses and its resonance in the mythology, folktales, and fairy tales that define cultures the world over—unmasks the surreality of contemporary global politics to help us understand our world more clearly, even as Bulawayo plucks us right out of it. Although Zimbabwe is the immediate inspiration for this thrilling story, Glory was written in a time of global clamor, with resistance movements across the world challenging different forms of oppression. Thus it often feels like Bulawayo captures several places in one blockbuster allegory, crystallizing a turning point in history with the texture and nuance that only the greatest fiction can.

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Media Reviews

Reader reviews.

"Manifoldly clever…brilliant... Glory is its own vivid world, drawn from its own folklore. This is a satire with sharper teeth, angrier, and also very, very funny." —Violet Kupersmith, The New York Times Book Review "A crackling political satire." —The New York Times "Genius." —#1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds "Few writers possess a literary voice as inimitable as Bulawayo's…[The] dazzling voices of this novel will draw you deep into its ambitious and mystifying heart." —Vulture "An absurd yet captivating examination of themes such as toxic masculinity, hero worship, and performative change." —TIME "Bulawayo's storytelling gifts…are prodigious…Any satire worth its weight in talking animals is really a warning — to the powers that be, the complicit and anyone who thinks nothing so terrible could ever happen to them…By almost any measure, Glory weighs a ton." —Washington Post "Bulawayo's chronicle of the new government's corruption and the old one's brutality dramatizes Zimbabwean history while also illuminating the challenges of many developing nations." —The New Yorker " Glory goes beyond its immediate inspiration in how, despite the Zimbabwean particulars, it expresses a people's frustration, terror, resilience, uprising, and hope in a way that can be applied to a multitude of nations and political realities around the globe. Hope is not an easy thing…but, like Glory , it is indeed glorious in its power." —NPR " Glory demonstrates what it is impossible to teach: there are no rules. Everything, even inconsistency, serves story. NoViolet Bulawayo joins writers like Ursula K Le Guin, Mohsin Hamid, and Colum McCann to revolutionize the possibilities of fiction. Glory will give writers permission to break free from rigid etiquette and use the storytelling habits of the world, and the concerns of that world as their mise en scène. For that alone Bulawayo deserves all the available accolades." —The Boston Globe "Inspired by Robert Mugabe's fall from power in 2017 and George Orwell's classic fable Animal Farm , Bulawayo satirizes the dysfunctional politics that curse so many African nations in this long-awaited sophomore effort after her 2013 Booker finalist debut, We Need New Names ." —Buzzfeed "With ingenuity and skill, Bulawayo masterfully controls her story." —San Francisco Chronical "Imaginative, sweeping, hard-hitting, eye-opening, and unabashedly political, Glory is an important read." —Washington Independent Review of Books "Glory is like nothing we've read before. It's a strange, creative, experimental book that will take the reading world by storm, a satire grounded in hope." —Book Riot "With its entirely nonhuman cast of horses, goats, donkeys, dogs, cats and cattle and its merciless focus on politics, NoViolet Bulawayo's novel Glory is bound to evoke George Orwell's Animal Farm for many readers. But this is no reboot. Beyond those broad similarities, Bulawayo's story is her own." —Tampa Bay Times "A surreal venture that lays the struggles of social upheaval bare." —Leanne Butkovic, Thrillist

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NoViolet Bulawayo Author Biography

NoViolet Mhka Bulawayo is the pen name of Elizabeth Zandile Tshele Bulawayo was born in 1981 and raised in the Tsholotsho District, Zimbabwe. She attended Njube High School and later Mzilikazi High School for her A levels. Bulawayo completed her college education in the US, studying at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and earning bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Texas A&M University-Commerce and Southern Methodist University respectively. In 2010, NoViolet earned her MFA at Cornell University where she was a recipient of the Truman Capote Fellowship, and most recently, a lecturer of English. She is now a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. In 2011 Bulawayo won the Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story Hitting Budapest about a ...

... Full Biography Author Interview Link to NoViolet Bulawayo's Website

Name Pronunciation NoViolet Bulawayo: Elizabeth Zandile Tshele is pronounced approximately zan-dal-shull. Her pen name, NoViolet Bulawayo, is pronounced as it looks

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Book review: Glory, by NoViolet Bulawayo

One of the less appreciated benefits of literary prizes, or even being shortlisted for a prize, is the space of opportunity they afford the writer. It short-circuits one of the most pernicious and true clichés about publishing. Publisher says “Wow, this is daring and interesting and new!” Book garner praise. Publisher says “Author, go and do that daring and interesting and new thing again!” Too often there is a kind of escalator paradox at work. It is easy to get on, but rather difficult to turn round half way up and go back to start on a different route.

I was very impressed indeed with NoViolent Bulawayo’s debut, We Need New Names; so much so that I argued hard it be on the shortlist for the Booker Prize, which it duly was. Although one would term in a realist novel, set in Zimbabwe and the United States, there were interesting technical and formal flourishes. An abiding anxiety for critics, reviewers and judges is that we praise something and then hold our breaths when the next book comes out: was the first a one-hit wonder, a flash in the pan?

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It is therefore a delight to be able to say that Bulawayo’s new novel, Glory, is even better and radically different. It is set in a fictitious African country called “Jidada with a -da and another -da”, and opens with the celebrations for the anniversary of the Independence Day. Jidada has been governed for 40 years by if the “Father of the Nation”, “the Old Horse”, a former freedom fighter. Importantly, he is also a horse. During the celebrations Bulawayo also introduces the Prophet Dr OG Moses, a pig; Marvellous Dr Sweet Mother, the Old Horse’s conniving wife and a donkey and the ferocious Commander Jambanja, a dog in charge of “the Defenders”. It is too neat to refer to this as a kind of Zimbabwean Animal Farm. What seems important is the anthropomorphic animals are fictions. How a dog smokes a cigarette or a horse holds a steering wheel is not the kind of question to ask of this book. If there were one book I would compare it to it would be Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow, an equally acerbic, precise, heart-rending and hilarious analysis of tyranny.

The Old Horse presides over a cabinet that includes the Minister of the Revolution, the Minister of Corruption, the Minister of Things, the Minister of Nothing and even the Minister of Looting. Bulawayo captures the insane double-think of dictatorship. On one hand, the reality of Jidada’s situation is undeniable: but it is the West, the very West he expelled, that is to blame “for economic sanctions, for ugly trade practices, for aid addiction, for the shutting down of factories and businesses in Jidada, for the absence of jobs, for the poor performance of farms, for the brain drain, for the homosexuals, for the power cuts and water cuts, for the miserable state of Jidada’s public schools and government hospitals and bridges and public toilets and public libraries, for the loose morals among the youth, for the potholes on the roads and the unpicked trash on the streets, for the fluctuating crime rates, for the atrocious pass rates in national examinations, for the defeat of the Jidada national soccer team at the recent continental finals, for the drought, for the strange phenomenon of married men having second families on the side called small houses, for the rise in sorcery, for the dearth of production of exciting works by local poets and writers”. At the same time, Jidada and its leader is praised in the most hyperbolic and delusional terms for being the greatest country in Africa. Bulawayo uses litanies to great effect throughout, and the incantatory feel gives a timeless quality to the book.

The celebrations are interrupted by protestors, and the generals are surreptitiously plotting a coup d’etat. One strand of the narrative involves the installation of a new leader, and choral sections chart the varying reactions. It is a new dawn, the Old Horse wasn’t so bad, we’ll wait and see, what if Tuvy, “the Saviour of the New Dispensation” is as bad if not worse? But another strand humanises all this through the story of Destiny, a young woman who has returned to Jidada, and who is seeking her mother and her family history. Without giving anything away, this part of the story reduced me to tears. Yet it is a funny book, and scenes like Tuvy’s quasi-sexual relationship with a Siri or when he names every street in the country “Tuvy” are sharp; as especially is a section entitled “Return of the Living Queues”. The novel is punctuated with African words, most frequently “tholokutho” which peals off nearly every page. It is a difficult word to translate, as most exclamatory words are, but it literally means “you find that” and expresses astonishment or bewilderment. I found substituting the very un-African “gosh” quite useful.

So why animals? The ending is redemptive and given how closely it limns to Zimbabwean contemporary history, the closure has to be fictional. It is brave, and moving, as the citizens learn, slowly, to be unafraid. Bulawayo invites you to suspend disbelief in order that you believe.

Glory, by NoViolet Bulawayo, Chatto & Windus, £18.99

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Book Review: Glory Be

A cranky church lady from Lafayette goes Sherlock Holmes

by Chris Turner-Neal

February 22, 2024

"Glory Be" by Danielle Arceneaux, Simon & Schuster 2023

The first sentence of Glory Be , the first in a new series of mystery novels by Danielle Arceneaux, is “Glory Broussard was tired of waiting.” Neither Glory nor the reader has to wait long: in the first few paragraphs, Glory emerges as a character. Formerly Miss Lafayette (Colored Division), now a cranky church lady working as a small-ball bookie out of the local CC’s Coffee, Glory steps into the world without hesitation as a relatable, vivid, hilarious protagonist. The plot moves along as fast as the character development: within the first few pages Glory’s best friend Sister Amity, an uncloistered nun with a wild past, is discovered strangled.

Glory pitches a fit at the crime scene, causes a commotion at the funeral, and raises hell with the investigators. Confident that the initial determination of suicide is mistaken, Glory begins her own investigation, with the reluctant support of her daughter Delphine, in town for the funeral and to lick wounds after a matrimonial spat.

Our protagonist is no Miss Marple: she falls down, screws up, misallocates blame, gets recognized, and prickles at everyone. If the traditional mystery-novel sleuth is a stiletto, Glory is a blunt instrument, beating at official indifference and red herrings while shouting that she won’t let her friend’s death go unavenged. I absolutely loved her, even if I don’t think I would have the energy to deal with her in real life.

"Local readers will also enjoy watching Glory operate in a recognizable Greater Lafayette. Meche’s Donuts, Ambassador Caffery Parkway, having to drive to Jennings in the rain: it’s all there. You don’t need southwest Louisiana cred to enjoy this book, but it’s an extra treat for people who have moved around in the world Arceneaux describes."

Part of the book’s strength is that it succeeds as a novel. As we follow Glory along her journey, we learn more about her past, which in turn explains why the murdered Sister Amity was so dear to her and why she cannot let the “suicide” go. Divorced and depressed, Glory finds a new purpose in her investigation of Amity’s death, getting her feet back under her and finding herself with a more urgent reason to get out of bed than her feuds at the women’s group.

We also explore the complicated character of Delphine—who acts as Glory’s “Watson” after returning to Lafayette at a moment of crisis in her own life, even as her mother fusses at her (and fusses at her, and fusses at her…). If the novel sometimes feels a little crowded (mystery and self-discovery and mother-daughter relationships and an ill-advised flirtation and older women being dismissed by powers that be and hoarding and the potential difficulties of interracial marriage and…), it’s in part because Arceneaux’s publisher is as eager for more Glory as her readers will be, and a second book is due for release in late 2024. She’s got a series to set up.

Local readers will also enjoy watching Glory operate in a recognizable Greater Lafayette. Meche’s Donuts, Ambassador Caffery Parkway, having to drive to Jennings in the rain: it’s all there. You don’t need southwest Louisiana cred to enjoy this book, but it’s an extra treat for people who have moved around in the world Arceneaux describes. Similarly, the book will be funny for any reader, but some jokes will hit harder for people who’ve lived here: for example, passing reference is made to a woman from New Iberia who got drunk, fell into the bayou, and was attacked by an alligator. External readers may understand intellectually that “Louisiana Woman” is the worthy competitor of “Florida Man,” but those who have lived here and have actually seen similar headlines will nearly collapse in giggles.

One of the benefits of this book-reviewing gig is that I get books for free, which allows me to bestow on Glory—and Arceneaux—this accolade: I’ll pay full cover price for Glory’s next adventure.

simonandschuster.com .

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THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism , by Tim Alberta

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Alberta, a staff writer for The Atlantic, asks how so many devout Christians could be in thrall to a figure like Donald Trump, whom he calls a “lecherous, impenitent scoundrel.” According to one of the scoops in the book, Trump himself used decidedly less vivid language to describe the evangelicals who supported Senator Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican primaries, telling an Iowa Republican official: “You know, these so-called Christians hanging around with Ted are some real pieces of shit.” Many of Cruz’s evangelical supporters eventually backed Trump in 2016 ; in the 2020 election, Trump increased his share of the white evangelical vote even more, to a whopping 84 percent.

This phenomenon, Alberta says, cannot simply be a matter of evangelicals mobilizing against abortion access and trying to save lives; after all, they have kept remarkably quiet when it comes to showing compassion for refugees or curbing gun violence, which is now, as Alberta notes, the leading cause of death for children in the United States.

What he finds instead is that under the veneer of Christian modesty simmers an explosive rage, propelling Americans who piously declare their fealty to Jesus to act as though their highest calling is to own the libs. No wonder the popular image of evangelicalism, according to one disillusioned preacher, has devolved into “Mister Rogers with a blowtorch.”

Alberta’s previous book, “American Carnage” (2019), detailed Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party. His new book reads like a sequel, tracing the Trumpian takeover of American evangelicalism, but this time Alberta begins with his very personal connection to his subject. He is “a believer in Jesus Christ,” he writes, “the son of an evangelical minister, raised in a conservative church in a conservative community,” a suburb of Detroit.

In the summer of 2019, just after “American Carnage” was published, his father died suddenly of a heart attack. At Cornerstone, his father’s church, some of the congregants approached the grieving Alberta not to console him but to complain about his journalism, demanding to know if he was on “the right side.” One church elder wrote a letter to Alberta complaining about the “deep state” and accusing him of treason.

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A Terrible Glory

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Book Review

Reviewed by Anne Boling for Readers' Favorite

The Indians assisted settlers, teaching them how to raise crops and even sharing their food with them. In return, the white man looked on the Indians as savages and treated them like animals. The American government, on more than one occasion, cheated the Indians. Eventually, the Indians fought back. Custer’s reputation grew as an Indian fighter. A Terrible Glory is a history buff’s dream come true. James Donovan carefully researched the Battle of Little Bighorn. He considered recent findings. While we can never be certain what happened June 25, 1876, we can speculate. A Terrible Glory is written brilliantly. This book is hard to put down. There are over 500 pages, and yet the book is mesmerizing to the end. The photographs add much to the text. They make this tiny bit of history come alive.  Donovan aptly describes the battle and aftermath.  “There were skulls to crush, eyes to tear out, muscle and tendons to sever, limbs to hack off, and heads to separate from bodies.” A Terrible Glory will fascinate many. History buffs should rush out and get their copy today.

I'm a junkie on this subject. Have read most of the major books on the battle, so I'd say, honestly, I wasn't prepared to be impressed. But I feel compelled to write a review here because I'm so pleasantly surprised. This topic has been well published, but this new book is GREAT. This author must have done some serious digging, because this book includes material I've never seen in any other book. Robert Utley was right about this book (if you're not a regular of the genre, he's the dean of writers on the American West). He's quoted as saying 'the research into firsthand sources is broader and deeper than I have ever seen'. To Custerphiles like myelf, that says something. There IS a lot of information here, but it's skillfully blended into the narrative, and the author did a good job of synthesizing all the material (the Indian and white accounts, and the new archaeological and forensic research and analysis from the past few decades). It also seems like the author went to great lengths to show the Indian side of the story, which is a plus. As you'll see, the book contains 83 pages of notes. But don't let that fool you; it's not a dry, academic type of read at all. (In fact, I'd say it's better written than anything else I've read on this subject.) And there's a lot of extra supporting material in all those notes, if you want to read them. But, notes or no notes--this is just a great read, and a wonderful new entry in the field. Good job, Mr. Donovan. (And, by the way, your publisher did a nice job, too. I'm a "book" person, and this book is quite handsome, both inside and out.)

Wesley Mullins

For nearly a century and a half, the Battle of Little Bighorn has been a part of our nation`s collective knowledge and language, an event used as a metaphor for everything from foolhardy determination to one last, heroic quest. Even those who don't know of Custer's achievements in the Civil War or his desire for political office know that he was front and center in the most famous massacre in American history. Although many accounts of the battle exist, James Donovan`s "A Terrible Glory" claims to be the first book to relate the entire story, and the first to include new findings which significantly alter the perception of this battle, the military response to the events and the attraction the public has had for the great mystery of what happened in Custer's final hours. Donovan weaves overwhelming research and detail into his narration, often pausing and backing up to paint the full picture of the events as they develop. His characters, from Custer to Crazy Horse and General Grant, are presented with the depth of a Larry McMurtry novel, a monumental achievement in recreating men who died over a hundred years ago. He approaches the battle from all angles, allowing the different stories to slowly build toward their inevitable clash. The marriage of captivating story with enchanted researcher/writer often proves to be an incendiary combination. Donavon's meticulous approach and seemingly total immersion into writing this story create the feeling that the author rode alongside the subject of his life's work. With "A Terrible Glory", we ride with him.

Michael Okeefe

This is the best Custer/Little Big Horn book in years, maybe the best ever. It delves deeply into the critical issues of the Sioux Campaign of 1876, but not with the volumes of trivia that put a reader to sleep. It is a lively, enjoyable read, factual, and balanced as far as fairness to the indians and U.S. Cavalry. Its strength comes from the incredible research done by the author, as the 83-page bibliography attests to. It includes new and indepth findings about Custer and the Seventh Cavalry, Frederick Whittaker (Custer's first biographer), and about the 1879 Reno Court of Inquiry where the Army tried to minimize the disastrous defeat and loss of military personnel at the hands of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. The battle coverage is exciting, uncontrived, and certainly educational. The aftermath of the battle is extremely well-covered, underscoring the dranatic effect the battle's outcome had for Native Americans, U.S. military capabilities, and American history in general. Every reader will learn new things, even the most serious students of the Little Big Horn battle. Its fun to be so entertained while being educated as well. Thanks, Mr. Donovan.

Castle Mclaughlin

Because I am working on a related project, I've read quite a bit of the Custer literature lately, both scholarly works and more popular treatments. I hasten to clarify that I am not a Custer enthusiast or expert, and that the existing literature is sprawling at least. I was skeptical of yet another general treatment of the battle, but Donovan's writing makes the scene come alive in almost cinematic fashion. Reading this book enabled me to clearly visualize how events unfolded, which is no small task. As a scholar with a general working knowledge, I'm impressed with his diligent mining of primary sources, old and new, and by his artful use of obscure but telling details to bring events and people-mainly U.S. Army soldiers- to life. The bibliography leaves little to be desired, but the book reads like a novel. While personalities come vividly to light, Donovan does not dwell on the persona of Custer, and he rejects the notion that Custer's actions doomed the Seventh cavalry. Rather, by linking together unfolding circumstances and decisions as if a clock is ticking, he makes the battle seem almost like a "perfect storm" of errors colliding to ensnare Custer and his men-perhaps this was Sitting Bull's medicine? He also makes a strong case for Custer having been scapegoated after the battle in order to obscure the conduct and decisions of others, including his superiors and, of course, Reno. In other words, an informed and nuanced reading, narrated with remarkable clarity and verve.

David W. Wilma

It is interesting that the most celebrated events in U.S. military history are its defeats - Pearl Harbor, Bataan, The Bulge, Fredericksburg. Perhaps no military engagement has been researched and analyzed and commented upon, often erroneously, as much as the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 when Sioux and Cheyenne warriors killed George Armstrong Custer and several hundred troopers of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry. Beginning immediately after the discovery of the tragedy by the U.S. Army, players and observers began to spin events to their advantage creating an amazing cacophony of contradictory accounts, speculation, blaming, and name calling that continued for more than a century. The event gave rise to a sub species of historian, the Custer Buff, people who read everything they can about the battle, its run up, and its aftermath. Soon after the nation was stunned by the defeat, large, full-color paintings decorated barrooms showing the Civil War hero and widely-heralded Indian fighter firing his revolver as swarms of warriors overran his position on a dry hilltop in Montana. The paintings read "Custer's Last Stand." In A Terrible Glory Donovan goes back to square one in his research relying on primary sources - the statements and recollections of the participants and eyewitnesses supported by archaeological evidence. With such a famous event there were naturally inconsistent, conflicting, and even fraudulent accounts of what happened when Custer, some say against orders, split his regiment to attack a Sioux village. Even Custer's commander said he violated orders. Donovan shows this as a classic case of CYA and blame the dead man. Others who had something to hide joined in manipulating facts. This is a carefully researched and very readable account of Custer's life, U.S. Indian policy, and the campaign that shattered one of the Army's most esteemed regiments. Donovan also follows the convoluted courses of events afterwards and the personalities who shaped and reshaped popular understanding of the battle. Where the accounts differ Donovan included in the endnotes discussions of contradictory evidence. In some cases makes his own judgment as to the likely course of events. I used two bookmarks, one for where I stopped reading the text and one for the endnotes. One participant held up for the most scorn was Major Marcus Reno, leader of the battalion assigned to attack the huge Indian village. The attack failed and Reno and his fellow fugitives fled into woods, across a river, and into a defensive position on some bluffs. The heavy-drinking Reno was, by most accounts, drunk and incapable of command, but when the Army held a court of inquiry, his fellow officers minimized his (and their own) failings. Drunk or sober, it doesn't sound as if Reno could have helped Custer much. The reader is provided with a balanced, well organized, and credible account of a very popular historical event. Some 400,000 people a year visit the battlefield where most of the dead soldiers were buried where they died. For any Custer Buff, anyone interested in the history of the Old West, and any student of the historical process, A Terrible Glory is a good read.

Joe McKinney

I am not, as some of the other reviewers here clearly are, a professional student of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. I bought this book as a reader interested in American History generally, and in the American West in particular. What I found was a highly readable book that seemed, to me at least, to treat the various actors involved in this battle fairly. James Donovan did an excellent job of placing the battle in its historical context. I enjoyed the general historical review leading up to the battle and the numerous firsthand accounts throughout the coverage of the battle itself, but I found the author's coverage of the aftermath of the battle to be especially informative. James Donovan's conclusions that the officers of the 7th closed ranks around Reno, despite his serious blunders and drunkenness, out of honor and political necessity was logically presented and well-supported. Prior to reading this book, I was under the impression that the 7th went into battle as a well-armed, well-supplied fighting force. I was also under the impression that the battle's clear cut hero was Benteen. Donovan's narrative goes to great lengths to clear up both of these misconceptions. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to build a better understanding of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, both in the particulars of the battle itself and in its larger context as a turning point in the history of the American west.

"A Terrible Glory" is one of the few books I've read on 1800's era history. I can't comment on the accuracy of the claims or facts presented in this book. However, I can comment on the book's "readability" and apparent credibility...and ATG is an enjoyable work!! My prior opinion on Custer was one of a vain fop. However, the author brings the the man into light a one of social genius and puckish ego. If accurate, everyone knows someone like Custer and the author's telling helps the reader step into the book easily. Presentation of facts and subsequent analysis are, in my opinion, fair and intelligently presented - no one has a time machine, so at some point the reader needs to suspend any argument and just read. One topic clearly and succinctly addressed is that of treatment of the Native Americans - of course, you'll judge for yourself, but I found the author to be fair and rational, avoiding emotional extremes on such a volatile subject. Someone with a topical interest in Native American settlement will likely find themselves confident in either their new knowledge or clarified retelling of history. Because of the easy writing and colorful subject, ATG is recommended as a read to consume in one or compacted sitting.

It starts long before the campaign and ends much more later on. It lefts no stone unturned, and actually uses all the data available in a tour de force of rigour. Actually if you are not going to read more then a book about it this one will do perfectly the job. It is neither pro-Custer or anti-Custer, makes a good job of simply saying what is known and formulating the best plausible guesses when explaining the parts of the fight harder to establish (there other authors are perhaps much more passionate in their arguments!). Highly Recommended for what it is fair History without undue passion.

George W. Lynn

The basic arguments over what actually happened at the Little Bighorn, why and who should be blamed haven't really changed much since 1876. If you like movies, is Custer the man from They Died with their Boots On? or the egomanical madman from Little Big Man? This tends to go with Custer as flawed hero and paints a very well drawn picture of Custer during the Civil War in which he was one of the great heros of the war, with cause. It's reasonably clear that no one from Custer on up through his chain of command believed that there was any real possibility of total disaster. After all,the largest military disaster prior to Custer's Last Stand was the Fetterman massacre involving some 80 men, and Fetterman had no reputation to speak of. So, everyone in the campaign was far more concerned that the Sioux would simply melt away before they could be engaged, much like the similar contemporary campaign and disaster against the Zulu in South Africa. In both cases, the locals were eager to fight it out, on their own terms, of course. The basic arguments are very well presented, and the author provides very reasonable arguments as to why Custer did what he did and what he was trying to accomplish. Could Custer's 2nd in command, Major Reno have turned the tide by pressing the attack on the Sioux from a different direction, and/or Captain Benteen? Why did Reno fail to act? The author has very strong opinions on those questions, but they should be taken with a least a grain of salt. There has never been a definitive answer and there never will be one as we can't know what Reno saw when he approached the village. We do know that all of Custer's command died and most of Reno's men survived. However, regardless of what you think of his arguments, the book is well written and provides excellent context.

The Battle of the Little Big Horn appears to be the most written military history single event ever. More than any event of World War II, the Civil War, or any other period of military history. However, most of the books that have been written on this event are either dry or biased or both. There have been a couple of good books on this topic: Robert Utley's book, Cavalier in Buckskin and Son of the Morningstar by Evan Connell (which is in reality a historical novel). However, this book beats them all, digging through all the boring, recent analysis on the battle, and integrating that with well-written older books to provide an excellent, yes, an excellent history of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, from the troopers perspective and from the Indians perspective integrating both sides into an interesting book. The chapter on the massacre of Custer's battalion is the best - concise and clear based on the best thinking over all the years of studying and re-studying this event. After that, the book goes through what happened afterwards, how the event was communicated, the impact, the early criticisms of Custer, Reno's farce of a trial, and what happened to the major players in this event afterwards: Reno, Benteen, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and the many of the minor players including Custer's wife - Lizzy. If there is one book that you own on the Battle of the Little Big Horn, this is it. I highly recommend this book to any individual interested in this battle.

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A TERRIBLE GLORY

Custer and the little bighorn--the last great battle of the american west.

by James Donovan ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2008

A worthy companion to Jay Monahan’s Custer, Evan S. Connell’s Son of the Morning Star and other standard studies of the...

Comprehensive account of George Custer’s career.

Dallas-based literary agent Donovan does much kind service to Custer, who has long been without champions. We think of Custer as vainglorious and foolhardy, thanks in great measure to Arthur Penn’s 1970 film Little Big Man ; only a vain man would have dressed like a longhaired gypsy dandy and gone galloping off to fight every Indian in the West, right? Donovan finds the upside: Custer dressed colorfully and wore his hair long in the interest of conspicuousness, reasoning that “if his men saw their commanding officer share the danger, they would fight even harder.” He always made a point to be at the head of the action, golden locks and bright red scarf gleaming. There was a reason that Custer was the youngest general in the Union Army. At places such as Gettysburg, he distinguished himself by brave action against heavy odds, and his Michigan horsemen “quickly earned a reputation as the best brigade in the cavalry corps.” Yet something seems to have happened to Custer out West. He shared the general disdain of the white soldiers for their Indian opponents, hubris that cost a young captain named William Fetterman and his men their lives and set in motion the events that would culminate in Little Bighorn—and later, Wounded Knee. But Donovan is no agenda-laden, blind defender of Custer; he carefully notes the results of the inquiry that followed the famed slaughter, when Custer’s commanding general damned him for “negligence and outright insubordination.” His thoroughgoing account lends considerable humanity to all involved, from the Hunkpapa warrior Rain-in-the-Face to the ordinary privates who died with Custer on that hot June day in Montana.

Pub Date: March 24, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-316-15578-6

Page Count: 544

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2008

HISTORY | MILITARY | UNITED STATES | GENERAL HISTORY

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by James Donovan

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KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

The osage murders and the birth of the fbi.

by David Grann ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2017

Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.

Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.

During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann ( The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession , 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.

Pub Date: April 18, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017

GENERAL HISTORY | TRUE CRIME | UNITED STATES | FIRST/NATIVE NATIONS | HISTORY

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by David Grann

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BOOK TO SCREEN

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY

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by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen

by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal

by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel

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Glory: A Novel Kindle Edition

• Print length 413 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Viking
• Publication date March 8, 2022
• File size 3534 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
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Independence

When at last the Father of the Nation arrived for the Independence Day celebrations, no earlier than 3:28 in the afternoon, the citizens, congregated at the Jidada Square since morning, had had it with waiting; they could've razed the whole of Jidada with their frustration alone, that is, if Jidada had been any other place. But the land of farm animals wasn't any other place, it was Jidada, yes, tholukuthi Jidada with a -da and another -da, and just remembering this simple fact was enough to make most of the animals keep their feelings inside like intestines. The fierce sun, said by those who know about things to have been part of His Excellency's cheerleading squad by decree, had been up glaring since midmorning, doling out forceful rays fit for a ruler whose reign was nearing all of-not one, not two, not three, but four solid decades.

The Jidada Party regalia worn by most of the animals for the occasion-jackets and shirts and skirts and hats and scarves in various colors of the flag of the nation, many of the articles embossed with the face of His Excellency-trapped the sun's terrible heat and made the wait even more unbearable. But not all of the animals were going to stand for the torturous wait-some indeed started to leave, grumbling about having work and things to do, about places to go to, about the leaders of other lands who arrived at things right on time like God's infallible machete. These disgruntled animals started as just a smattering-two pigs, a cat, and a goose-but the faction very quickly grew to a respectable mass, and, emboldened by both their number and the sound of their own voices, the dissidents headed for the exit.

At the gate the group found themselves face-to-face with the Jidada Defenders, tholukuthi the dogs appropriately armed with batons, ropes, clubs, tear-gas canisters, shields, guns, and such typical weapons of defending. It was a known fact all over the nation and beyond its borders that Jidada Defenders were by nature violent, morbid beasts, but it was especially the presence of the notorious Commander Jambanja, distinguishable in his signature white bandanna, that made the dissenters promptly turn around and retrace their steps, miserable tails between their legs.

ENTER THE FATHER OF THE NATION: THE RULER WHOSE REIGN IS LONGER THAN THE NINE LIFE SPANS OF A HUNDRED CATS. ALSO THE LONGEST-SERVING LEADER IN A CONTINENT OF LONG-SERVING LEADERS, AND INDEED IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD.

Now His Excellency's car wove its way through the throngs with the slowness of a hearse, and the animals fell over themselves like intoxicated frogs, hoping to catch a glimpse of the legendary Father of the Nation. At this point the sun, upon seeing arrive the leader who was decreed by God himself to rule and rule and keep ruling, a leader who'd in turn decreed the very sun to head his cheerleading squad, took a deep, deep breath and thoroughly blazed to impress. A select group of dignitaries-all mals, most of them old-accompanied His Excellency on hind legs. Accompanying the accompanying dignitaries were decorated Defender leaders in military gear, colorful embroidered ropes cinched at the waist, caps pulled low, shiny constellations of medals glinting on solid chests, star insignias bouncing off the shoulders, white gloves on front paws; these were the generals, tholukuthi the true lynchpin of His Excellency's rule. Throughout the square, animals whipped out their phones and gadgets to take pictures and videos of the procession of power.

BEHOLD, HIM. YES, THOLUKUTHI HIM AND ONLY HIM HIMSELF. THE ANOINTED ONE. THE ONLY ONE. THE SUPREME ONE. THE MOST MAGNIFICENT ONE.

With the arrival of His Excellency, Jidada Square came alive. Tholukuthi the Father of the Nation had such an aura his mere presence in any space automatically rearranged the atoms in the air and shifted any given mood-no matter how hostile or dismal or foul-to a positive and electric one. Those who know about things say this quality had especially been a dozenfold more potent a long, long, long time ago, during the first years of His Excellency's rule when his appearance alone made unripe things instantly ripen to the point of rotting, cured the sick of whatever ailments molested them, turned rocks to mush, deactivated storms and heat waves, rerouted floods, wildfires, and plagues of locusts, cured fatal viruses before they even thought of attacking, made dry rivers overflow with water, yes, tholukuthi the Father of the Nation's appearance alone had once upon a time started engines, bent steel beams, and in separate documented occasions, made scores and scores of virgins pregnant so that long before he married the donkey and sired children with her, streams of His Excellency's blood were already flowing throughout Jidada. And now, here was the Father of the Nation lighting up Jidada Square by merely happening, by simply being there. The place ignited in flaming applause, and even the animals who not too long before had been trying to leave were now part of the uproar, standing on hind legs and cheering His Excellency, not just with their voices and bodies, no, but also with their hearts and minds and souls. Cows mooed, cats meowed, sheep bleated, bulls bellowed, ducks quacked, donkeys brayed, goats bleated, horses neighed, pigs grunted, chickens clucked, peacocks screamed, and geese cackled-the cacophony reaching deafening levels as the entourage of power came to a final stop in front of a raised platform.

THE POOR AND THE RICH DO NOT PLAY TOGETHER

Under a sprawling white tent sat the Seat of Power Inner Circle of the Jidada Party, which of course was the ruling party, otherwise known as the Party of Power, of which His Excellency was president. With them were some of His Excellency's family members, friends, and honored guests. Tholukuthi the group of elites were, in all honesty and jealous down, a magnificent sight-the most exquisite cloth, expensive jewelry, and precious accessories of adornment, together with beautiful, well-groomed, and healthy bodies, told of wealth and good living. These animals represented some of Jidada's Chosen Ones, and were indeed proof of the Father of the Nation's benevolence, for most of them had been made rich by His Excellency, if not directly, then through some kind of connection to him. They were proud recipients of gifts of land, businesses, tenders, government loans that didn't need repaying, inheritors of confiscated farms, grantees of mines, industries, and all kinds of riches.

With not much to occupy them being that the celebrations hadn't started, the miserable animals in the sun feasted on the Chosen with coveting eyes, and at moments actually forgot the heat cooking their bodies, the hunger gnawing at their bellies, the thirst parching their throats, yes, tholukuthi besotted with the pretty picture of their shaded betters sitting in comfortable chairs and sipping cold beverages. The hot, salivating animals lapped at the sight with their eyes like it were a cool glass of honey-wine, and when they licked their dry, cracked lips, they were pleasantly surprised to taste faint traces of actual sweetness.

THOLUKUTHI HUH???

The car doors opened to a bloodred carpet, and the Father of the Nation emerged. As if on cue, Jidada Square gave a collective gasp. Tholukuthi Jidada Square gave a collective gasp because they'd seen emerge from the car a long horse so frail it looked like the slightest breath of breeze would send him teetering and crashing unto earth. It was a good thing then that it was just hot and there was no breeze. The animals watched agape as the Father of the Nation-older now than the last time they'd seen him, when he'd in fact been older than the last time they'd seen him prior to that-walked toward the platform, one careful, careful, foot after the other, his thin body weighted down by a huge green shirt on which were numerous black-and-white prints of his own face, though a much younger and handsome version. The Old Horse crawled and crawled on the very same hooves with which he'd once upon a time galloped up and down the length and breadth of Jidada at the speed of lightning. When he finally got to the platform, after what felt to the animals in the sun like it were two and a half years later, he leaned on a stand for support, hung his oblong head, and stood swishing his tail as if he were counting the minutes with it.

"What is this place? Who are all these animals? And why are they looking at me like maybe they know me?" the Old Horse said to no one in particular.

"Ah-ah, but what kind of question is that, Your Excellency?! They're your subjects ka, every one of them! Don't you know you rule this land, all of this Jidada, and that what your subjects want is to hear you speak? Today is Independence Day, Baba; we're here all of us celebrating our freedom, the freedom you sacrificed your life for in the long War of Liberation that you your very self pioneered and prosecuted to its victorious end those many years ago, which means, in essence, we're really here to celebrate you!" the donkey gushed with great glee. She reached to adjust the horse's shirt and smooth out his pitch-black but thinning mane.

Tholukuthi the donkey wasn't just any regular jenny but the wife of His Excellency, which may have been implied by how she looked and moved and spoke and generally carried herself with the unquestionable swagger of power. The Old Horse let her lead him to his seat. The animals closest to the pair promptly got up to make way-some straightened His Excellency's chair, some kissed his face, some fondled his tail, some kissed his ass, some adjusted his clothing, and some swatted flies that were not there.

"What I really want is a nap," the Old Horse said, carefully putting himself down like his backside was made of expensive porcelain. The Father of the Nation wasn't lying. He was at an age when what was most important to him was to be left alone, and besides, those who know about things said the state of affairs inside his head wasn't unlike a tumultuous country without a clear leader.

THOLUKUTHI AHA!

It happened that around the perimeter of the platform were mounted poles bearing the flag of the nation. The brilliant colors of black-red-green-yellow and white caught the eye of the Old Horse. He concentrated on the flags until the colors magically pulled him out of the mist clogging his head. Tholukuthi memory began to return to him. He recognized the flag; it flew in his heart and head and dreams. He didn't at that moment understand what the colors themselves meant, but they were indeed supposed to stand for something, that much he was very sure of. He focused on them and thought and thought-could it be the white perhaps stood for the teeth of his ferocious dogs, the Defenders? And the red for the blood they could very easily spill? "Perhaps," he said to himself, and his eyes moved on.

He recognized the tall, beautiful donkey by his side-smelling like fresh flowers and decked out in bright colors and flashy jewelry; it was Marvelous, Jidada's First Femal herself, otherwise called Sweet Mother for being his wife and for being sweet, and now generally referred to as Dr. Sweet Mother after earning her famous PhD. He saw too his beloved friends and family, and their presence filled him with joy. He also recognized his Comrades, and swiveled his head this way, that way, scrutinizing them to make sure those who were supposed to be there were there. Tholukuthi they were. Some nodded. Some waved. Some pumped their limbs in the Party of Power salute.

Next, the Old Horse surveyed the packed throngs in the square. They weren't just his subjects, they were bona fide supporters who'd stood with him and by him over the decades, with many of them going as far back as during the struggle for Jidada's Independence. They'd been loyal then and had stayed loyal and were still loyal and would always and forever be loyal. They died loyal and took that loyalty to the grave so that even their ghosts, too, were loyal. They left behind offspring who were born already loyal. The Father of the Nation then caught a glimpse of himself on a mirrored panel, and he didn't start in confusion because he at that moment happened to know exactly who he was and without needing Dr. Sweet Mother to remind him whatsoever. Now-fully in charge of his memory, he sat back and stretched his limbs in front of him and nodded to the sun directly overhead. He adjusted his glasses, made himself comfortable, and tholukuthi, with the seasoned serenity of a very old baby, promptly fell asleep.

LAND OF MILK AND HONEY

He dreamt of the days of glory when Jidada was such an earthly paradise animals left their own miserable lands and flocked to it in search of a better life, found it, and not only just found it, no, but found it in utter abundance and sent word back for kin and friends to come and see it for themselves-this promised land, this stunning Eldorado called Jidada, a proper jewel of Africa, yes, tholukuthi a land not only indescribably wealthy but so peaceful they could've made it up. His Excellency also saw himself in his dream as he'd been back then-beautiful and brimming with unquestioned majesty, a horse that stepped on the ground and the earth agreed and the heavens above agreed and even hell itself also agreed because how could it disagree? Tholukuthi lost now in Jidada's past glory, the Old Horse nestled deeper in his seat and began to snore a sonorous tune that the Comrades around him identified as Jidada's old revolutionary anthem from the Liberation War days.

DEFENDERS, DEFENDERS, DEFENDERS

Being that His Excellency was arrived, the Jidada Army Band started playing. Blood-stirring music accompanied the procession as it poured onto the main part of the square. The Jidada army, just like the rest of the security forces, was made up entirely of dogs. And now, dogs, dogs, dogs, and more dogs marched toward the tent, shimmering black boots lifting and landing with stunning synchronicity. Tholukuthi there were pure breeds and mixed breeds and cross breeds and mysterious breeds of no certain classification. Tholukuthi there were dogs in green tunics, dogs in khaki tunics, dogs in blue tunics. Tholukuthi there were dogs playing musical instruments, dogs flying the flag of Jidada, dogs flying the military flags, and dogs toting long, glinting guns.

It is often easy to forget the beauty and grace of a dog-a creature that can rip flesh into chunks, spill blood out of sheer impulse, crush bone like it were fragile China, hump anything from a human leg to a car tire to a tree trunk to a sofa, all without a single grain of shame, shit all over the place as if it excretes unadulterated gold, be faithful to its master even if that master were a known brute, murderer, sorcerer, tyrant, or devil, viciously attack without apparent provocation, devour human excrement no matter how well fed it is. But at that moment in Jidada Square on the occasion of the nation's Independence celebration, tholukuthi the dogs were simply magnificent. You wouldn't have known they were in fact sweating and drowning in the hot, heavy tunics that also covered tattered underwear that barely held together what needed holding. You wouldn't have known the soles of their boots were worn, or that the majority of them were actually famished being that they hadn't been paid their salaries for at least the previous three months.

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B098JB4MRM
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking (March 8, 2022)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 8, 2022
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 3534 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 413 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1784744298
• #43 in Literary Satire Fiction
• #80 in Black & African American Literary Fiction
• #138 in Political Fiction (Kindle Store)

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Noviolet bulawayo.

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