These 10 interconnected stories present a portrait of a young coloured woman's coming of age in apartheid South Africa, spanning the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s. But the stories are not about that particular time, they rather reflect the desperate search of coloured South Africans for identity in a harshly hierarchical society where white is above coloured and coloured above black. Frieda Shenton, the main character who features in all the stories, and her immediate family are exceptional among the Afrikaans-speaking ...
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These 10 interconnected stories present a portrait of a young coloured woman's coming of age in apartheid South Africa, spanning the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s. But the stories are not about that particular time, they rather reflect the desperate search of coloured South Africans for identity in a harshly hierarchical society where white is above coloured and coloured above black. Frieda Shenton, the main character who features in all the stories, and her immediate family are exceptional among the Afrikaans-speaking coloured people of Little Namaqualand: well-educated, focused on social improve-ment and proud of their command of the English language and their Scottish forefather and name-giver, they are looked up to by the community. Yet they see themselves as a cut above the rest and regard them in the same stereotypical way that white people regard coloured people. The young and then mature Frieda must therefore cope with and transcend the essentially conservative values of mother who has modelled herself as a "lady". In telling Frieda's story, Zoe in actual fact explores class, race, gender and culture.
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