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An Imperfect Blessing

Nadia Davids

3.92 · Rating details · 95 ratings · 18 reviews

It is 1993. South Africa is on the brink of total transformation and in Walmer Estate, a busy suburb on the slopes of Devil’s Peak, fourteen-year-old Alia Dawood is about to undergo a transformation of her own. She watches with fascination and fear as the national drama unfolds, longing to be a part of what she knows to be history in the making. As her revolutionary aspira ...more

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Paperback, 416 pages

Published April 2014 by Random Struik

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Jul 28, 2016 Shagufta rated it it was amazing

I LOVED this book. This book is an incredible story of a Cape Malay family in Cape Town during apartheid South Africa and it is a beautifully told story. My video review of this book can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbMZ5... ...more

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Feb 25, 2019 Francine Maessen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary

I know books shouldn't be judged by their covers, but that doesn't say that South African literature doesn't have a serious problem with continuously giving good literature a chick-lit cover. ...more

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Dec 16, 2014 Leila rated it really liked it

Nadia Davids’ Imperfect Blessing is a fantastic coming of age story about a teenage girl named Alia who grows up as South Africa transitions out of its apartheid government. Set in 1994 in a Coloured community in Cape Town, Alia struggles with her dual Muslim and Coloured identity as she navigates integrated schooling, a relationship, her parents’ viewpoints, and her uncle Waleed’s radical adventures. In this novel, Davids manages to craft a modern family tree and successfully recognize each of
Nadia Davids’ Imperfect Blessing is a fantastic coming of age story about a teenage girl named Alia who grows up as South Africa transitions out of its apartheid government. Set in 1994 in a Coloured community in Cape Town, Alia struggles with her dual Muslim and Coloured identity as she navigates integrated schooling, a relationship, her parents’ viewpoints, and her uncle Waleed’s radical adventures. In this novel, Davids manages to craft a modern family tree and successfully recognize each of its branches and its deep, yet mangled roots.

I read this book as part of a class on South African fiction at my university. This book fit nicely into our unit on Coloured identity because it offered a nuanced portrait of the many takes on what it means to be Coloured in modern-day South Africa.

Davids is a native of South Africa, and her close ties to Cape Town reveal themself in the novel, wherein geographical particularities are rendered with expertise. The scenery and landscape of Cape Town and the Cape Peninsula are enhanced with frequent mentions of street names, landmarks, and cultural references. The city practically came to life and was a living, breathing, and dynamic space that was as much a character as any person in the novel.

An Imperfect Blessing is a novel that feels distinctly South African. And even though it is currently only being published in South Africa and the U.K., the book invites readers that are from other countries and cultures. It did not feel watered-down, so it definitely requires that the reader do some investigative work while reading. As I flipped each page of the 410-page book, I tended to have Google open. The Afrikaans words and cultural references make the novel more authentic and realistic, so the extra translation work was worth it.

In this work of fiction, David exposes herself as a playwright because most of the intensive character development, exposition of Muslim-Coloured culture, and political revelations about South Africa occur through scenes and conversations that are exceptionally long. Alia’s afternoon at Hal’s and Cousin Tasneem’s wedding are two scenes that stood out to me for their length and their impactful presentation of relationships and societal challenges. Each of these longer scenes felt like an act in play, but sometimes they felt drawn out. Despite this, Davids’ knack for writing images and making people come to life is evident in these long scenes. For example, at Tasneem’s wedding, Davids skillfully depicts the colors and textures of the gowns and the textures of the food. She even differentiates between the tables, subtly exposing the crucial difference between “the Christian table” and the rest of the tables in the hall.

As far as characterization goes, Davids does a fantastic job depicting the relationships between people. Waleed and Adam are brothers with different outlooks on life, yet are always in search of a common ground. Alia and Nasreen’s relationship is wonderfully tender and filled with the regular stuff of sisterhood. Adam and Zarina’s relationship is characterized by a fierce desire to raise their children properly and remain loyal to each other even in the face of family crisis. Alia and Nick’s relationship stands out because it is so new and explores all the cheesy possibilities of a blossoming romance. Waleed and Anna’s relationship is characterized by intense love, but frustrating cultural differences. Aside from these richly developed key relationships, Davids introduces several characters that we get to see briefly, but then kind of fade into oblivion as the large novel progresses. Particularly, I think the novel would have benefitted from a closer examination of Nick’s (presumably "Cape Coloured") Coloured family. I think providing more details about this family’s dynamic and cultural practices would have been a great comparative move to make in order to highlight the particularities and uniqueness of Muslim-Coloured identity. It would have made it clearer to international audiences who may be unfamiliar with the term “Coloured” that “Coloured” has many, diverse variations. However, by focusing solely on the Dawood family, Davids makes this a novel explicitly about them. So, I can absolutely understand how delving into Nick’s family may have decentered the narrative away from the Dawoods.

In An Imperfect Blessing, Davids tackles apartheid’s large, structural issues, but she mainly grapples with the domestic, everyday manifestations of living under a white supremacist system. Key examples of Davids’ skillful handling of the structural and the domestic are when straight-haired Uncle Waleed gets dreadlocks, when Alia blasts Nick’s supposed lack of identity, and when Anna struggles to stop “objectifying the Black body.” Ultimately, in An Imperfect Blessing, Davids renders larger, societal issues as revealing themself in the most intimate and personal moments. By doing this, she makes apartheid seem less abstract and writes it as something that was incredibly real that had very human ramifications.

Despite the sometimes-heavy subject matter of the novel, I thought that Davids managed to inject a light, humorous tones into many moments. This made the novel a pleasurable read. I particularly enjoyed exploring the nuances of the characters’ relationships and reading about how they try to grow up with the nation. Throughout the novel journey, Davids expertly interweaves moments of the family’s past without departing from the narrative too abruptly. Particularly, Waleed was crafted as a nuanced and realistic person. Waleed was incredibly likable because he always made efforts to work for the greater good of others. Waleed was my favorite character in the novel because his story was a touching Künstlerroman that all aspiring artists can relate to.

The novel is a beautiful portrait of a family that uses extended scenes to characterize and advance the plot. This book is fulfilling, but I do think that Davids’ message of family love, strength, and empowerment could have gotten across just as well in about 300 pages. The descriptions of details and imagery were rendered beautifully, but sometimes felt drawn out. Overall, An Imperfect Blessing is an impressive novel that manages to tackle a wide array of subject matters. It is a teenage coming of age story, but it is also the coming of age of an artist. It is ultimately a hopeful story about the growing up of a girl, her uncle, their family, and a nation that is shifting away from apartheid. Anyone interested in studies of culture, race, colonialism, religion, multiculturalism, and academia would find this book incredibly appealing because it expertly weaves each of these topics into each other without seeming too jumbled or overly ambitious. Anyone who has enjoyed Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns would also enjoy An Imperfect Blessing. This book was incredibly useful for enhancing my understanding of what it can mean to be “Coloured” in South Africa.
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May 15, 2017 Jocelyn Newmarch rated it really liked it

I wanted to read Nadia’s novel as I briefly overlapped with her at UCT and knew her very vaguely. I suppose, to be more exact, I knew of her – I saw her by sight and knew her by reputation as already a skilled playwright – I don’t think she knew me. Much of Nadia’s work is about examining Muslim culture as it is lived in Cape Town (for instance, the play At Her Feet, which features an all-female cast of characters performed by the actor Quanita Adams). An Imperfect Blessing, similarly, follows a I wanted to read Nadia’s novel as I briefly overlapped with her at UCT and knew her very vaguely. I suppose, to be more exact, I knew of her – I saw her by sight and knew her by reputation as already a skilled playwright – I don’t think she knew me. Much of Nadia’s work is about examining Muslim culture as it is lived in Cape Town (for instance, the play At Her Feet, which features an all-female cast of characters performed by the actor Quanita Adams). An Imperfect Blessing, similarly, follows a Muslim family from Walmer Estate in Cape Town during 1993 – a year before the first democratic elections – with flashbacks to the political violence of 1986.

Now that I’ve started following local fiction again (I blush, I blush, at my lateness), I am enjoying reading about places and characters which feel both familiar and unfamiliar to me. It is such a special privilege to hear another writer’s description of a place where I’ve spent time. The book opens with a paean to Walmer Estate (Woodstock and its neighbouring suburbs are favourites of mine), noting that people who live on a hill always feel a little superior, and the power of the wind in Cape Town, with the very houses themselves pitching forward towards the harbour. This image of instability, of the wind threatening to blow you away, becomes a central metaphor in the novel.
The Dawoods are solidly middle-class, Adam is a politically detached businessman who is chiefly concerned about his family’s wellbeing and their standing in the community; Waleed, his younger brother, is an activist and a PhD student with a white girlfriend. While both experienced police violence first hand, Adam’s reaction was to keep his family – and particularly his children safe – while Waleed’s impulse was to reach out to the resistance movement. Their mother is a lonely widow who pushes her children away despite her best efforts to keep them close, and who resents Adam’s wife Zulaigha and Waleed’s girlfriend Anna. Meanwhile, Adam’s teenage daughters Nasreen and Alia are testing the limits of parental and school control and working out what the new political freedoms mean for their own household and community.

There’s a lot in here about identity. For instance, Alia’s Christian boyfriend, Nick, confesses that when he sees images of Bushmen in the old South African History Museum (dioramas that I remember vividly) he thinks of his family, but Alia does not. He’s envious of Alia, who has a rich tradition from her Cape Malay and Indian heritage (as well as Irish forebears), while his grandmother refuses to discuss his own family history. Devastatingly, Alia throws this back at him during an argument which threatens to derail their relationship. Yet, at another moment in the book, Waleed thinks of unknown slave ancestors, brought in shackles to the Cape, whose language has now been forgotten. There are no winners in the game of identity politics.

Points for improvement? I felt the ending petered out, with ends too-neatly tied up. I would have liked a little more tension, a little more uncertainty here. Nevertheless, the book is well worth a read, particularly if you know Cape Town at all. As an outsider to this community with Muslim friends – some from Walmer Estate – I enjoyed reading about the Dawood family and felt I’d gained a deeper insight into Muslim culture. I also really enjoyed the dialect words which were included, which help to give a very specific sense of place, and as a Cape Town expat myself, provided a link with a home I’ve left behind.
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Nov 10, 2020 Talitha rated it it was amazing

I don't know how I missed this book as it came out in 2014. I was also coming of age as the protagonists in the late 19080's and early 1990's in South Africa, but in a white community. The book made me realise yet again how naive we were at the time. We thought President Mandela's rainbow magic would resolve all our problems, but we overlooked the deep seated trauma experienced by the majority of the population. Davids captures the story of one Muslim family of District Six so well by painting t ...more

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Apr 04, 2019 Smin rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019

Fascinating glimpse and engaging look into a Cape Malay family during the early 1990's in Cape Town, South Africa ...more

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Mar 03, 2018 Marion Roux rated it liked it

A look inside a comfortable Muslim family during the placements out of District Six.

All the politics of the time and the impact on different members of the family

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Jan 21, 2019 Claire rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reading-between-the-wines

A beautifully written book with both witty and sensitive insight into a moment in South Africa's history. ...more

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Sep 05, 2018 Emmanuel Mandela rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I enjoyed Nadia Davids exudation of words. I relish how she was able to juxtapose the family life of the Daewoods and the political quagmire in South Africa . A good read.

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May 02, 2015 Ahrrr Kayyy rated it liked it

I first came across this book when it made the shortlist of Nigeria's Etisalat prize for Africa literature. I searched every bookshop, in multiple cities, on two separate trips to South Africa, looking for this book - in vain. I finally managed to find an e-copy on www.hive.co.uk. - around the same time that the author generously gifted me a hard copy of her book (Twitter - you have your uses!). That was a lovely gesture, Nadia. Thank you.

[Let this also be a lesson in why I should not try to re I first came across this book when it made the shortlist of Nigeria's Etisalat prize for Africa literature. I searched every bookshop, in multiple cities, on two separate trips to South Africa, looking for this book - in vain. I finally managed to find an e-copy on www.hive.co.uk. - around the same time that the author generously gifted me a hard copy of her book (Twitter - you have your uses!). That was a lovely gesture, Nadia. Thank you.

[Let this also be a lesson in why I should not try to read fiction on kindle - it's a totally different experience. Had I picked up the real book, I would have completed it much sooner, and probably appreciated the book a lot more].

I liked the book because it depicted in a humorous way a community in South Africa not often written about. It tried hard to be a coming-of-age/ South Africa at-a-time-of-political-transition-type book, but like Zia Haider Rahman's 'In the light of what we know', I thought it tried too hard with the many 'big ideas'. The book works best as a comment on the more 'everyday', letting the political backdrop be a more effortless part of the story. The Fozia character. How she dealt with the disappointment of her wayward son. The Zarina character. They were real. (The Farouk character, who everyone called 'Carlton' - Fresh Prince reference intended - because of his conservative style, who nonetheless cleared the club floor with his dancing, made me laugh. 'The crowd, in which there was a strict and unforgiving hierarchy of coolness, began to look at him as though his clothing was a choice, not a disaster').

I loved the everyday comments to which I could relate ("It's Jummah!" said Adam, outraged. How can you SWIM when it's Jummah?")

The narcissism of the Waleed character was another fine example (his self- centredness - how 'system patriarchy had fed him a looped myth that this was acceptable') - ah yes. Spot on! The inevitable outcome of the overly doting South African muslim mother, who will forgive all the rules broken by her son. Smirk. It's time someone called this out.

The political backdrop worked much better on the level of Alia's letters to her boyfriend Nick - it wasn't trying too hard -unlike the references to the disappearance of political activists who were no more than young children. And it's in this sort of anecdote that the strength of the book lies:

'Some idiot started going on and on to me about how we should forgive the Nats because that was what "The Lord" wanted us to do. Christians, man...(joking). And then I came home and watched some TV coverage of the day: nothing you wouldn't have seen, Madiba beaming, aerial shots of mile-long queues, all the commentators talking about the 98% voter turnout. I called Lizzie. I could barely hear her above the music in the background. She invited me round, she said Gugs was HOPPING, mad with joy, and I begged my mother to take me there but she kept saying she was tired.'

There may not be much of a plot, but along with Rayda Jacobs' books, it's about the best that I've read. For that, I am deeply grateful.

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Dec 18, 2014 Katherine Baltes rated it really liked it

Nadia Davids' first novel, An Imperfect Blessings is smart, evocative, and complicated. Set in 1993 South Africa, the story follows fourteen-year-old Alia Dawood and her experiences as a young Coloured and Muslim teenager coming of age on the eve of South Africa's transition to democracy. Davids' command of language is beautiful, and she often uses unusual metaphors that enhance the scene and set her writing apart. At one point, the family sits in "an asymmetrical silence," and a visit from Alia Nadia Davids' first novel, An Imperfect Blessings is smart, evocative, and complicated. Set in 1993 South Africa, the story follows fourteen-year-old Alia Dawood and her experiences as a young Coloured and Muslim teenager coming of age on the eve of South Africa's transition to democracy. Davids' command of language is beautiful, and she often uses unusual metaphors that enhance the scene and set her writing apart. At one point, the family sits in "an asymmetrical silence," and a visit from Alia's Uncle Waleed makes "the ordinary shot through with the celebratory." And though the viewpoint of the novel does occasionally switch--most notably, to Waleed or Alia's sister Nasreen--Davids has done a fantastic job of capturing the voice and feelings of a young teenager, as well as Alia's individual struggles. Davids characterizes Alia's room a "one of messy beginnings...she knew what sort of room she wanted, and it wasn't this one. It was as if the room, like her personality, was something she couldn't quite get right." Davids follows Alia's attempts to discern her personality, and, for the reader, it is a well-written and worthwhile journey.

At times, however, it can feel as though Davids is trying to do too much. Placing Alia, her family, and their daily lives at the center of a story about apartheid makes An Imperfect Blessing an important and easily accessible work. But the characters are constantly confronting dozens of questions--the mundane, the existential, questions about injustice, and those particular to being Coloured and Muslim in apartheid-era South Africa. And while the volume and heightened difficulty the characters face is beautifully written, prompts questions, and may mirror real life, it results in a plot that occasionally feels forced and rushed. The narrative switches often between Waleed and his struggles with language, his thesis, and his girlfriend, and Alia, struggling with fashion choices, a first boyfriend, and where she belongs amidst South Africa's hyper politicized and racialized landscape. While the contrast between the two characters raises important points, the reader can sometimes feel as though Davids is moving too quickly through too much material.

But on the whole, Davids has done a fantastic job sifting through and writing about a large volume of often-disparate subjects. She has written a book that is a coming-of-age story of both a young woman and a country, and has juxtaposed the beautiful and the ordinary with the atrocities and tragedies of apartheid, making the depiction realistic rather than a forced or jumbled collection. Though the details and amount of material she tries to tackle can sometimes feel overwhelming, Davids has written a brilliant and beautiful novel.
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Dec 19, 2014 Jacqueline Mack rated it really liked it

I’ve always found coming-of-age stories difficult to read, only in that they have always failed to catch my attention. They seem cliché, always focusing on teen angst and the mental/emotional development of a single character. And yet Nadia Davids’s An Imperfect Blessing was surprisingly pleasant to read, considering it fits the textbook definition of the genre so well. I credit that to the multi-layered aspect of the novel. An Imperfect Blessing isn’t just about the coming-of-age of Alia Dawood ...more

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Dec 18, 2014 Alexandra L. rated it really liked it

Nadia David's An Imperfect Blessing is an excellent novel that details life living under a Coloured and Muslim identity in South Africa very personally and honestly. Set in 1994, the text creates a very distinct South African feel. David's discusses a coming of age narrative of a teenage girl, Alia, as she and her community transition out of the age of the Apartheid. She does an excellent job of allowing her work to feel very close to home as she discusses issues of schooling, the development of ...more

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Nov 09, 2014 Tiah added it

Interview with the author:
http://shortstorydayafrica.org/news/i...

Quotes:
- Alia's room was one of messy beginnings. -

- But this was his farewell performance and he was speechifying towards a legacy. The pleasure and engagement of his audience was fleeting, but the reproduction of the full text in the school magazine was forever. -

- But then, you can't put a price on overseas. Even if the fabric is poor quality, people go nuts for an import. -

- Samoosas and mind games. -

- No, she hated all sp ...more

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Jan 02, 2016 Zara Rahman rated it it was amazing

I loved this book. I picked it up in a little bookstore in Cape Town, and was drawn to it because it had a character with the same name as my mum. It gave a totally different view on post-apartheid South Africa to those I've read so far - this time, from the perspective of a girl growing up in a Muslim community. It's a cross between a coming-of-age story, but with a difficult political and cultural situation. Really, really recommended. ...more

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