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Between Two Worlds
Set in Soweto outside Johannesburg, Between Two Worlds is one of the most important novels of South Africa under apartheid. Originally published under the title Muriel at Metropolitan , the novel was for some years banned (on the grounds of language derogatory to Afrikaners) even as it received worldwide acclaim. It was later issued in the Longman African Writers Series, but has for some years been out of print and unavailable. This Broadview edition includes a new introduction by the author describing the circumstances in which she wrote Between Two Worlds .
222 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
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485 people want to read
About the author
Miriam Tlali
11 books22 followersMiriam Tlali (born 11 November 1933) is a South African novelist. She was the first black woman in South Africa to publish a novel, Muriel at Metropolitan, in 1979. She was also one of the first to write about Soweto.
Miriam Masoli Tlali was born in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, and attended St Cyprian's Anglican School and then Madibane High School. She studied at the University of the Witwatersrand until it was closed to Blacks during the apartheid era; she later went to the University of Roma, Lesotho. She left there because of lack of funds, and became an office clerk.
Tlali's first book, Muriel at Metropolitan (1979; originally called Between Two Worlds), is a semi-autobiographical work and its "viewpoint is a new one in South African literature". She later wrote other books, inclusing Amandla (1980), Mihloti (1984), and Footprints in the Quag (1989).
(from Wikipedia)
Miriam Masoli Tlali was born in Doornfontein, Johannesburg, and attended St Cyprian's Anglican School and then Madibane High School. She studied at the University of the Witwatersrand until it was closed to Blacks during the apartheid era; she later went to the University of Roma, Lesotho. She left there because of lack of funds, and became an office clerk.
Tlali's first book, Muriel at Metropolitan (1979; originally called Between Two Worlds), is a semi-autobiographical work and its "viewpoint is a new one in South African literature". She later wrote other books, inclusing Amandla (1980), Mihloti (1984), and Footprints in the Quag (1989).
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
August 3, 2019
"I had thought I had seen everything there is to see, heard everything there is to hear, in my experience with people, black, white and brown, in this Republic of South Africa. But I was to realize that I had so far seen and heard very little of this beloved land of ours, especially as far as relationships between the different races are concerned." – Miriam Tlali, Between Two Worlds
I have no idea how I’d never heard of Miriam Tlali before I came across this book by chance at my local library. Tlali, I learned, passed away in 2017 and she had the honour of being the first black female South African novelist to be published.
Between Two Worlds is a story that illustrates apartheid in 1960s South Africa through the eyes of Muriel, a black bookkeeper who is overqualified for the position at the Metropolitan Radio, a retail store that sells radios, electrical appliances, and furniture in Soweto. On a daily basis Muriel has to deal with petty racism, reminders from her white coworkers that they consider her to be less than human, and knowing she would be able to find better work had there not been an apartheid society.
Tlali’s writing gives us an important lens into various parts of South African society, such as race relations, the Land Act, and Pass Laws. It’s easy to have a basic idea of what apartheid was, what it was like for the people living under it, but without hearing stories from the actual people involved, it’s difficult to imagine how it permeated every area of people’s lives, and the many different ways it manifested. Apartheid without question was a gross injustice and learning more details through Tlali’s novel really had me very indignant at, for example, how despite racist societies putting down a group of people and seeing them as subhuman, those in power still did their best to take advantage of these people and take them for every penny.
Tlali is so observant and often witty too, and it is so reassuring that she was able to see the hypocrisies she faced on a daily basis so clearly. Also, she never had any doubt as to what a brilliant black woman she was, although the society she lived in tried to say otherwise. She was aware of the ethical dilemma she faced being a black woman employed by white South Africans:
“How was I going to work with people who were not even prepared to give me a chance and who were squeezing as much money as they could out of my own black fellow workers?”
Another thing I liked about this book was it’s a snapshot of how communications were conducted in the 1960s. Before the internet, the main way to communicate was through letters, and it was dizzying to think about how many letters and follow-up letters had to be written before email came along.
The following link shares more about the life and activism of this incredible woman:
http://theconversation.com/rest-in-po...
I have no idea how I’d never heard of Miriam Tlali before I came across this book by chance at my local library. Tlali, I learned, passed away in 2017 and she had the honour of being the first black female South African novelist to be published.
Between Two Worlds is a story that illustrates apartheid in 1960s South Africa through the eyes of Muriel, a black bookkeeper who is overqualified for the position at the Metropolitan Radio, a retail store that sells radios, electrical appliances, and furniture in Soweto. On a daily basis Muriel has to deal with petty racism, reminders from her white coworkers that they consider her to be less than human, and knowing she would be able to find better work had there not been an apartheid society.
Tlali’s writing gives us an important lens into various parts of South African society, such as race relations, the Land Act, and Pass Laws. It’s easy to have a basic idea of what apartheid was, what it was like for the people living under it, but without hearing stories from the actual people involved, it’s difficult to imagine how it permeated every area of people’s lives, and the many different ways it manifested. Apartheid without question was a gross injustice and learning more details through Tlali’s novel really had me very indignant at, for example, how despite racist societies putting down a group of people and seeing them as subhuman, those in power still did their best to take advantage of these people and take them for every penny.
Tlali is so observant and often witty too, and it is so reassuring that she was able to see the hypocrisies she faced on a daily basis so clearly. Also, she never had any doubt as to what a brilliant black woman she was, although the society she lived in tried to say otherwise. She was aware of the ethical dilemma she faced being a black woman employed by white South Africans:
“How was I going to work with people who were not even prepared to give me a chance and who were squeezing as much money as they could out of my own black fellow workers?”
Another thing I liked about this book was it’s a snapshot of how communications were conducted in the 1960s. Before the internet, the main way to communicate was through letters, and it was dizzying to think about how many letters and follow-up letters had to be written before email came along.
The following link shares more about the life and activism of this incredible woman:
http://theconversation.com/rest-in-po...
July 10, 2019
This was a random library find -- the spine caught my eye, so I checked it out. And it turned out to be a lost gem. Set in 1960s South Africa, it is the semiautobiographical story of Muriel, a Black woman who secures a secretarial job at a white-owned furniture and electronics layaway shop. The novel is not plot or character driven; instead, its structure is something like an accounting of microaggressions -- all the everyday acts of anti-Black dehumanization that Muriel and her coworkers are subjected to by their white workplace superiors, whose jobs they are capable of doing but are banned from taking on. It's literally an accounting of racism in that the layaway shop setting captures the recurring cycle of debt and aspirations of ownership that Black South Africans get trapped in by a system designed to prevent them from accumulating wealth. This novel perfectly captures how much of the structural violence of racism occurs in the guise of civility and banal interactions. And it is also about how people hold on to a sense of dignity and agency in the face of this.
July 9, 2014
This was an odd book - it dealt almost exclusively with the protagonist's work life, and was more episodic than plot-driven. Her husband never even got a name. Muriel herself only started to pick up character development about halfway through: for the most part she is an observer and commentator on the world around her.
I did really like this book, though. Muriel's internal POV is a nice place to be: wry, insightful, starkly aware of the race politics around her, but generous to everyone. The prose is clear and elegant, and the political neatly woven together with the practical.
I bought this book to wash my brain of the obnoxious white apologist readings of post-apartheid lit that I'd encountered marking the Matu here. I can safely say that if I wished to set South African novels for 18 year old ESL speakers, I would definitely chose this over Coetzee's Disgrace
I did really like this book, though. Muriel's internal POV is a nice place to be: wry, insightful, starkly aware of the race politics around her, but generous to everyone. The prose is clear and elegant, and the political neatly woven together with the practical.
I bought this book to wash my brain of the obnoxious white apologist readings of post-apartheid lit that I'd encountered marking the Matu here. I can safely say that if I wished to set South African novels for 18 year old ESL speakers, I would definitely chose this over Coetzee's Disgrace
dnf
May 26, 2025Część 11 wyrzucania książek z mojego pokoju
8:3
Cieszyłem się na książkę napisaną przez autorkę z RPA ale była tak nudna że nie chcę jej czytać do końca.
8:3
Cieszyłem się na książkę napisaną przez autorkę z RPA ale była tak nudna że nie chcę jej czytać do końca.
August 13, 2018
I really loved this book, it's a story told from the perspective of a working black south African woman during apartheid. What really pleased me is the fact that she simply shows things the ways they are, she doesn't tell us what's wrong or what's right. Her approach of the injustice and the political atmosphere is really didactic. Muriel the main character present us different episodes of her working life, she introduces her colleagues, her customers to us by their names. But her husband and children are just that (husband and children) no name... It is funny at times, sad and realistic.
June 29, 2009
Written from the perspective of a black working woman in South Africa during apartheid. Reminds me in some aspects of things I've read about the South (of America)... Institutionalized racism, stupid rules (can't use the same bathrooms), a certain degree of anger and fear, a certain degree of resignation. I don't know much about South Africa, so I don't know how historically accurate this is, but Muriel's story is frustrating. So many of the characters want change, but are unsure of or scared of how to get it. Muriel seems to understand that her white coworkers are not evil people, but people who are acting the way they've been trained to - and sometimes even allowing themselves to operate outside of that. Some of the characters do fall into stereotypes and stereotypical behavior - but many of them do not. Unfortunately, there's no grand satisfying conclusion - only a small satisfaction, and one fraught with its own dangers.
October 16, 2016
Muriel is an office worker at Metropolitan Radio, a shop in Johannesburg selling radios and household goods to both 'white' and mostly 'black' people. Many of the customers buy goods on an installment plan; many of them are unable to pay the installments. Muriel is 'black' but has to work in close proximity to 'white' office workers. In this book, Muriel describes many episodes during her career at Metropolitan during the 1970s, in the depth of the apartheid era in South Africa.
This book provides a delicately portrayed depiction of what it was like being a 'black' person under apartheid. By downplaying her anger at the iniquity of life as a second-class citizen in South Africa, Muriel provides one of the most effective criticisms of apartheid that I have read so far. Rarely does Muriel 'lose her rag', but as a reader I began to understand how awful and unfair life for hard-working 'black' people was during the era of apartheid.
A great book, that needs more airing.
This book provides a delicately portrayed depiction of what it was like being a 'black' person under apartheid. By downplaying her anger at the iniquity of life as a second-class citizen in South Africa, Muriel provides one of the most effective criticisms of apartheid that I have read so far. Rarely does Muriel 'lose her rag', but as a reader I began to understand how awful and unfair life for hard-working 'black' people was during the era of apartheid.
A great book, that needs more airing.
May 29, 2007
You'd think a book describing a Black woman's experience during apartheid-era South Africa would be interesting--but it's not.
January 18, 2020
'No,' I said. 'I'm not happy here because I’m between two fires. My own people on the one hand and the white staff on the other.'
'What do you mean?'
'Well, it’s enough that I’m having so much trouble with the African customers. One can understand their attitudes. Obviously they are suspicious of anyone in a position such as mine. They think I’m just bent on squeezing money out of them to swell the coffers of my white boss. I can understand, too, why the men are usually offended when I ask to being subjected to unnecessary scrutiny. They can't stand that sort of thing, especially from a mere woman.'
'I see,' said Donald.
'But what I can’t stand,' I continued, 'is their attitude.' I pointed to the women on the other side.
'They just can’t live and let live. They want to push me out because they think I am here to compete with them. If only they could accept that I’m here only to do my work and earn my living.'
Muriel at metropolitan by Miriam Tlali tells a story of ordinary workaday experiences. With restraint and humor she tells us what it was like working for Mr Bloch and his people in a furniture and radio stores. There was no strongly dramatic moments in the narrative, no unbearable tensions leading to climatic peaks. There are tense moments of anger and anxiety such as we all suffer at work. And there are the usual moments of resentment which we all eperience when we feel we are being imposed upon, or overworked and underpaid.
But in 1970's South Africa, Muriels's story is strongly linked with apartheid.
'Well... I don't know... I would have to call in a builder to see whether we can build a toilet. And I will have to build a separate office for you. They said I could not use the same office as you. I told them, I told them I was in the workshop most of the time and not in the office. But the law...'
From beginning to end her narrative we witness the ignorance of the white workers on "the other side" of the office. Every day the whites inflict innnumerable petty insults on the blacks and ignore that the blacks are perfectly capable of feeling wounded.
'I can't stand those voices… those baboons there, sitting and talking.'
'But we are not making any noise, Mrs. Kuhn,' I said; 'Adam was just telling me…'
'Well I said shut up! I don't care what he's telling you. And don't you dare answer me back!'
I said; 'I'm just trying to explain that…'
'What are you, after all?' The woman was now standing and looking at me, shouting at the top of her voice across the bars.
'What do you mean, what am I? I am a human being, of course.'
The whites also ignore the fact that the blacks view and discuss their speech and behavior with a critical ability.
Mrs. Kuhn turned to Mrs. Stein.
'She thinks she's like us, you know, Mrs. Stein.'
'That's an insult, Mrs. Kuhn,' I replied. ‘I don't think I'm like you. I don't want to be like you. I am very proud of who I am. I don't envy you. You're too small, too full of hatred. You are always occupied with issues that do not really matter.'
The whites also take pride in not being able to cope with the African names of the customers.
'But I wish we filed the cards according to the customers' first names. They are easier to spell than those terrible surnames.'
But this story also enlightens, surprises, and even delights readers, both black and white, and perhaps it served as engouragement to more black South Africans, at that time in silence, to examine and express their lives.
'I began to feel a little amused. I remember how I had heard the whites remarking about how blacks suffer from very many types of diseases; that even the slightest physical contact with them can be very dangerous as most of them have unhygienic habits and are carriers of many infectious diseases. But avoiding physical contact with blacks won't immunize the whites. Can't they see that the only way to ensure that the air that they breathe and the food thatthey eat will not be contaminated by blacks is to raise the standard of living of blacks and give them adequate education? I wondered what the use was of living in fear.'
'What do you mean?'
'Well, it’s enough that I’m having so much trouble with the African customers. One can understand their attitudes. Obviously they are suspicious of anyone in a position such as mine. They think I’m just bent on squeezing money out of them to swell the coffers of my white boss. I can understand, too, why the men are usually offended when I ask to being subjected to unnecessary scrutiny. They can't stand that sort of thing, especially from a mere woman.'
'I see,' said Donald.
'But what I can’t stand,' I continued, 'is their attitude.' I pointed to the women on the other side.
'They just can’t live and let live. They want to push me out because they think I am here to compete with them. If only they could accept that I’m here only to do my work and earn my living.'
Muriel at metropolitan by Miriam Tlali tells a story of ordinary workaday experiences. With restraint and humor she tells us what it was like working for Mr Bloch and his people in a furniture and radio stores. There was no strongly dramatic moments in the narrative, no unbearable tensions leading to climatic peaks. There are tense moments of anger and anxiety such as we all suffer at work. And there are the usual moments of resentment which we all eperience when we feel we are being imposed upon, or overworked and underpaid.
But in 1970's South Africa, Muriels's story is strongly linked with apartheid.
'Well... I don't know... I would have to call in a builder to see whether we can build a toilet. And I will have to build a separate office for you. They said I could not use the same office as you. I told them, I told them I was in the workshop most of the time and not in the office. But the law...'
From beginning to end her narrative we witness the ignorance of the white workers on "the other side" of the office. Every day the whites inflict innnumerable petty insults on the blacks and ignore that the blacks are perfectly capable of feeling wounded.
'I can't stand those voices… those baboons there, sitting and talking.'
'But we are not making any noise, Mrs. Kuhn,' I said; 'Adam was just telling me…'
'Well I said shut up! I don't care what he's telling you. And don't you dare answer me back!'
I said; 'I'm just trying to explain that…'
'What are you, after all?' The woman was now standing and looking at me, shouting at the top of her voice across the bars.
'What do you mean, what am I? I am a human being, of course.'
The whites also ignore the fact that the blacks view and discuss their speech and behavior with a critical ability.
Mrs. Kuhn turned to Mrs. Stein.
'She thinks she's like us, you know, Mrs. Stein.'
'That's an insult, Mrs. Kuhn,' I replied. ‘I don't think I'm like you. I don't want to be like you. I am very proud of who I am. I don't envy you. You're too small, too full of hatred. You are always occupied with issues that do not really matter.'
The whites also take pride in not being able to cope with the African names of the customers.
'But I wish we filed the cards according to the customers' first names. They are easier to spell than those terrible surnames.'
But this story also enlightens, surprises, and even delights readers, both black and white, and perhaps it served as engouragement to more black South Africans, at that time in silence, to examine and express their lives.
'I began to feel a little amused. I remember how I had heard the whites remarking about how blacks suffer from very many types of diseases; that even the slightest physical contact with them can be very dangerous as most of them have unhygienic habits and are carriers of many infectious diseases. But avoiding physical contact with blacks won't immunize the whites. Can't they see that the only way to ensure that the air that they breathe and the food thatthey eat will not be contaminated by blacks is to raise the standard of living of blacks and give them adequate education? I wondered what the use was of living in fear.'
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July 24, 2022Between Two Worlds by Miriam Tlali 🖤
I could not in good conscience share a book about a white South African’s experience of Apartheid without also sharing the perspective of a Black South African during the same years.
Between Two Worlds is the first English language book written by a Black woman to be published in South Africa. I read this in a History of South Africa course I took during undergrad and it truly stuck with me.
Tlali tells the story of Muriel, a Black bookkeeper, as she moves from employer to employer in 1960s Johannesburg. Muriel finds herself trapped in a labour system designed to exploit her. Tlali captures both elements of “grand apartheid,” such as the Land Act and the pass system, as well as the more “petty apartheid,” such as the passport system and segregation in everyday activities, like washroom facilities and public transportation. The novel excellently demonstrates how parts of apartheid that one might find mundane or small — such as separate drinking fountains or a pass system that dictates where a person can travel — collectively weigh on a person’s psyche over time, which serve to both dehumanize and humiliate another human being. I liked how the story also made fun of condescending white liberalism. I found it impressive how Tlali could take a story with relatively low stakes and effectively communicate how petty apartheid batters down a person’s self-esteem over time, as well as the paradox of trying to succeed in a system designed to make you fail.
Overall: 🐑 🐑 🐑 🐑 (4 sheeps)
Read If You Liked 📚:A Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.
#bookstagram #apartheidliterature #southafricanliterature #readersofinstagram
I could not in good conscience share a book about a white South African’s experience of Apartheid without also sharing the perspective of a Black South African during the same years.
Between Two Worlds is the first English language book written by a Black woman to be published in South Africa. I read this in a History of South Africa course I took during undergrad and it truly stuck with me.
Tlali tells the story of Muriel, a Black bookkeeper, as she moves from employer to employer in 1960s Johannesburg. Muriel finds herself trapped in a labour system designed to exploit her. Tlali captures both elements of “grand apartheid,” such as the Land Act and the pass system, as well as the more “petty apartheid,” such as the passport system and segregation in everyday activities, like washroom facilities and public transportation. The novel excellently demonstrates how parts of apartheid that one might find mundane or small — such as separate drinking fountains or a pass system that dictates where a person can travel — collectively weigh on a person’s psyche over time, which serve to both dehumanize and humiliate another human being. I liked how the story also made fun of condescending white liberalism. I found it impressive how Tlali could take a story with relatively low stakes and effectively communicate how petty apartheid batters down a person’s self-esteem over time, as well as the paradox of trying to succeed in a system designed to make you fail.
Overall: 🐑 🐑 🐑 🐑 (4 sheeps)
Read If You Liked 📚:A Long Walk To Freedom by Nelson Mandela, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.
#bookstagram #apartheidliterature #southafricanliterature #readersofinstagram
December 3, 2024
This was my read the world selection for South Africa.
Set in Johannesburg at the height of apartheid in the 1960s, Muriel is a black woman working as a clerk and bookkeeper at an electronics and furniture store, where her colleagues are both black and white people. However there are vastly different rules and pay rates separating the two and Muriel experiences both casual and blatant racism every day of her working life.
Despite being grudgingly accepted over time by her white female colleagues as they “bond” over typically female issues, Muriel is never quite one of them and is conflicted over the loyalty she is bound to display to her workplace even when her fellow black compatriots are treated differently and abysmally in her store.
This is an interesting examination of apartheid in South Africa as witnessed and relayed by a black female author - the first to be published in South Africa. Whilst it also looks at gender issues of the time, it is predominantly focused on racial differences and how black people were treated at the time.
There is very little about Muriel’s life outside of the workplace in this book and although for the most part it is both interesting and uncomfortable reading, a good chunk of the workplace chatter gets a bit tedious. More a 3.75 rating, but am rounding up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.
Set in Johannesburg at the height of apartheid in the 1960s, Muriel is a black woman working as a clerk and bookkeeper at an electronics and furniture store, where her colleagues are both black and white people. However there are vastly different rules and pay rates separating the two and Muriel experiences both casual and blatant racism every day of her working life.
Despite being grudgingly accepted over time by her white female colleagues as they “bond” over typically female issues, Muriel is never quite one of them and is conflicted over the loyalty she is bound to display to her workplace even when her fellow black compatriots are treated differently and abysmally in her store.
This is an interesting examination of apartheid in South Africa as witnessed and relayed by a black female author - the first to be published in South Africa. Whilst it also looks at gender issues of the time, it is predominantly focused on racial differences and how black people were treated at the time.
There is very little about Muriel’s life outside of the workplace in this book and although for the most part it is both interesting and uncomfortable reading, a good chunk of the workplace chatter gets a bit tedious. More a 3.75 rating, but am rounding up to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.
September 15, 2019
I was surprised how few reviews this book has on here. It definitely does deserve a wider audience.
There have been many books written about the apartheid in South Africa. There are very few that were written in it and even fewer written by black authors. That is one of the reasons why this is a very important book.
The author was great at observing and at describing her own microcosm that she lived in as part of her working life.
She described how apartheid affected the lives of a lot of people and how many disadvantages many non-white South Africans had to endure. How little they got paid compared to less qualified and educated white people as well as how they were treated as second class (or lower) citizens. This book is a testament to those struggles and also to the great resolve that the author had to endure them.
I see people criticising this book as not much happens in it. I saw that as the point. Her life was mundane and hard. She couldn't have written it any other way.
A book that should be read and reviewed a lot more. One of the most important to come out of South Africa and one that nearly didn't make it out at all. I definitely recommend that people read this.
There have been many books written about the apartheid in South Africa. There are very few that were written in it and even fewer written by black authors. That is one of the reasons why this is a very important book.
The author was great at observing and at describing her own microcosm that she lived in as part of her working life.
She described how apartheid affected the lives of a lot of people and how many disadvantages many non-white South Africans had to endure. How little they got paid compared to less qualified and educated white people as well as how they were treated as second class (or lower) citizens. This book is a testament to those struggles and also to the great resolve that the author had to endure them.
I see people criticising this book as not much happens in it. I saw that as the point. Her life was mundane and hard. She couldn't have written it any other way.
A book that should be read and reviewed a lot more. One of the most important to come out of South Africa and one that nearly didn't make it out at all. I definitely recommend that people read this.
September 30, 2022
Insightful and educational read. I did not know much about apartheid before taking the African Literatures class that I'm currently in, and this book helped me to really understand the deeply rooted impact of apartheid on Black South Africans. In American schools, racist institutions from other countries are not discussed as of course Abraham Lincoln ended racism. Unfortunately, I feel that there is a lot we miss in our lack of education about global issues, and learning about apartheid through the eyes of the narrator, who lived it firsthand, opened my eyes to a piece of history I was ignorant of. Apartheid's systematic and dehumanizing treatment of Black people in South Africa goes beyond segregated bathrooms and uphends the individual's sense of self completely. The concept of the passbooks was very shocking to me and I felt the little pains every time an adult was referred to as "boy" or "girl" in order to bring down their worth. It shocked me how long apartheid went on and I'm sure its effects are felt today as they are by segregation in America. I appreciated the narrator's factual and real-life writing as it brought the story and the issues that were discussed to life.
October 14, 2021
There is a lot to appreciate about this book in terms of its social and historical value as the South African Apartheid text. The cast of character are interestingly characterized in a painstakingly slow, but also rewarding ways. However, its direct, un-stylized writing and rather blunt presentation of the social discussions makes rather forgettable in terms of the literary merit. I remember the talks about the gentrified neighbourhood, the language-policing, the absolutely horrendous mistreatment of the African citizens as the descriptions of the Apartheid, but it’s because these are the things that our main directly tells us rather than these elements coming into the characterization. On the other hand, the use of the workplace racism, on the other hand, is developed very nicely and there’s a very compelling payoff of it. For the most part, I appreciate Muriel as our narrator, however what I don’t appreciate is the blatant antisemitism that is very hard to ignore.
March 5, 2019
I enjoyed this book. Muriel takes a job at Metropolitan Radio in Africa during apartheid. The reader gets to listen to the employees conversations, to get a feel for the daily atrocities, that black people were subjected to. There was quite a lot, that was so unfamiliar to me. Reading this book was a great way to get a snippet of what my brothers and sisters had to go through in the Mother Land. I was originally drawn to this book because it was written by a South African author. I would recommend this book.
March 17, 2019
Miriam Tlali was the first Black womxn to write about apartheid South Africa. In this book, she details the life of Muriel, who is a typist at a furniture store. In some ways, the book is autobiographical. It is a story I believe can still be told almost 40 years later. It was funny, frustrating and authentic. Black womxn have always been doing the work and this book is proof of that. I loved every moment of reading this book.
January 23, 2025
« well, i suppose like people the world over, we want to feel that we possess something. we need something firm to hold on to, even if it is only a piece of wood. it gives life a meaning, just to hurry home and sit and look at the furniture, even if it is ill suited for the brick boxes they build for us. »
April 2, 2024
this was really really good. very interesting. the layers are insane. the plot isn’t crazy and wild but i’m not upset about it. this is very well written and thought out. it is also incredibly important to history
September 12, 2021
Really interesting, illuminating, and anger-inducing novel about apartheid South Africa.
March 12, 2025
The fact that people actually speak like the white people in this book
April 5, 2025
pretty good but a little bland
July 31, 2022
T for Tlali
2022 alphabet-of-african-authors reading challenge
History should be experienced from novels and memoirs and spoken word. That’s when you get to feel the injustice of oppression and power of one over another.
Tlali’s Between Two Worlds is perfectly named. So much more meaning than the original forced-on-the-author-title Muriel at the Metropolitan. The title loses the impact of societal impact on the protagonist.
Between Two Worlds could work well as a drama. The setting of the office in Metropolitan Radios is the perfect stage for the comings and goings of a microcosm of Apartheid South Africa. The vignettes of Muriel’s interactions with customers and ‘colleagues’ break down perfectly into scenes of little lives peddling out micro dramas.
It is real and evocative. And the talented Leleti Khumalo will be a perfect Muriel. Yes, please and thank you.
2022 alphabet-of-african-authors reading challenge
History should be experienced from novels and memoirs and spoken word. That’s when you get to feel the injustice of oppression and power of one over another.
Tlali’s Between Two Worlds is perfectly named. So much more meaning than the original forced-on-the-author-title Muriel at the Metropolitan. The title loses the impact of societal impact on the protagonist.
Between Two Worlds could work well as a drama. The setting of the office in Metropolitan Radios is the perfect stage for the comings and goings of a microcosm of Apartheid South Africa. The vignettes of Muriel’s interactions with customers and ‘colleagues’ break down perfectly into scenes of little lives peddling out micro dramas.
It is real and evocative. And the talented Leleti Khumalo will be a perfect Muriel. Yes, please and thank you.
September 3, 2021
This is my very first read by a South African writer. It's a semi-biographical novel written from the point of view of Muriel, an educated black bookkeeper at a hire purchase shop in Johannesburg city, who chronicles in episodic chapters her daily encounters and the main events at the shop , with a focus on the complex relationship between black and white resulting from a system based on Apartheid.
The book is very easy to get through, the language is very simple, yet descriptive and evocative. She uses Africaan language in some exchanges between black characters, which either immediately explained by the author or on the book footnotes. She tends to jump back and forth in time in some chapters, which has no disruptive effect on the flow of reading. Unlike other reviewers who think that the novel lacks a plot because of episodic nature of events, I believe it does have a plot, it's all about how her work at the shop has revealed so much about the black situation, and the impact of this revelation on Muriel's growing interior conflict: whether she should forcefully surrender to reality, or join the fight her own way with undesirable consequences.
The book is very easy to get through, the language is very simple, yet descriptive and evocative. She uses Africaan language in some exchanges between black characters, which either immediately explained by the author or on the book footnotes. She tends to jump back and forth in time in some chapters, which has no disruptive effect on the flow of reading. Unlike other reviewers who think that the novel lacks a plot because of episodic nature of events, I believe it does have a plot, it's all about how her work at the shop has revealed so much about the black situation, and the impact of this revelation on Muriel's growing interior conflict: whether she should forcefully surrender to reality, or join the fight her own way with undesirable consequences.
November 13, 2016
This is a quite interesting book. Episodic, with details almost thrown in--it takes until the middle of the book to discover Muriel is married with children, for example. Muriel is an excellent observer, and the book is a commentary on all that is going around her. In that sense, it allows oneself to understand her experience, and is quite realistic in that way. It's political but delivered in a way that is engaging and wry, not didactically.
April 7, 2020
This is an important book and a wonderful example of what South Africa looked like during apartheid. It is full of historical importance and anyone who wants to learn more about this time needs to read this books. Some parts were really difficult for me to read, but they were necessary. This book will always stay with me.
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