Casting with a Fragile Thread: A Story of Sisters and Africa

by Wendy Kann

In this poignant, lyric memoir, a sister's tragic death prompts a woman's unbidden journey into her turbulent African past

A comfortable suburban housewife with three children living in Connecticut, Wendy Kann thought she had put her volatile childhood in colonial Rhodesia--now Zimbabwe--behind her. Then one Sunday morning came a terrible phone her youngest sister, Lauren, had been killed on a lonely road in Zambia. Suddenly unable to ignore her longing for her homeland, she decides she must confront the ghosts of her past.

Wendy Kann's is a personal journey, set against a backdrop as exotic as it is desolate. From a privileged colonial childhood of mansions and servants, her story moves to a young adulthood marked by her father's death, her mother's insanity, and the viciousness of a bloody civil war. Through unlikely love she finds herself in the incongruous sophistication of Manhattan; three children bring the security of suburban America, until the heartbreaking vulnerability of the small child her sister left behind in Africa compels her to return to a continent she hardly recognizes.

With honesty and compassion, Kann pieces together her sister's life, explores the heartbreak of loss and belonging, and finally discovers the true meaning of home.

Genres: Africa, Memoir, Zimbabwe, Nonfiction, Biography, Adult, Autobiography

304 pages, Hardcover

First published May 2, 2006

Reviews

[Josie Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casting with a Fragile Thread by Wendy Kann is an honest account, at least in the author’s narrow viewpoint, of the author's childhood in Zimbabwe, formally known as Rhodesia. While this story is highly personal, beginning with the death of her sister, and ultimately connecting with her past growing up in the country, it considers the Rhodesian Civil War, the totality of white privilege/colonialism, and the political climate the author grew up in and left behind without making it a central focus, which becomes difficult to stomach, as we read about the 8 million darker skinned native African people who are largely ignored and unconnected with in this narrative. We see her self-awareness and world-view change as she grows a little bit, and her personal family story is interesting, if almost typical, but Kann never seems to face her family's' role in colonialism or racism, even as an adult. At one point in the story, the author says that as a 30 something year old adult growing up with native Zimbabweans, it is only after her sisters' death and in caring for her nephew with a household servant that she first feels an actual connection to a black person. Wendy grew up the oldest daughter, privileged, in a separate but equal version of Africa, only seeing a small part of the story, and never choosing to look outside it. While a good read, and while Wendy Kann did not have the ideal childhood one would assume, as she grew up in a broken home with an alcoholic dysfunctional mother, and she lost her father early on, she paints an idealistic colonial view of a white Africa, without ever giving much thought to anything but the white experience. Part memoir, part accounting, this is a book worth reading, if for one white woman's perspective on a colonial childhood with an increasingly fragile thread between sisters among a home broken, but it must be read knowing that this is but one fragile and indistinct thread among many, marginalizing the Rhodesian and Zimbabwean story.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This painted an horrific picture of having an alcoholic mother, tearing your family apart. It is also one of the few books I've read about this period in time (Rhodesia to Zimbabwe) that acknowledges the implicit racism that underpinned a way of life.

[Kacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This became one of those books I told myself, "I wish I had supplemental texts to better connect with this story." I took this book on vacation thinking it would be an interesting read about sisters and growing up in Rhodesia during the on set of civil unrest and war. While I enjoyed Kann's writing style and her story, I did fall asleep a few times while reading it on the beach. I fell asleep. Multiple times. My sister was reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed at the same time, which I'd read earlier this summer, and I kept commenting, "don't you wish she would go more in depth about something? ANYTHING?" To which my sister shot back, "she isn't an expert on the Pacific Crest Trail" - um, well, then how about being an expert on her own life? Reviewers should really write, "be warned: this author writes for a couple hundred pages and you'll be left wondering what to focus on: Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, racial struggles, her personal issues, or her relationships with her sisters and family." To be fair, I think having studied women/gender issues and post-colonial literature for years, I'm a more demanding reader.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm left puzzled by why the writer still doesn't see the connection between the fury and violence perpetrated against her friends and neighbors and the fury and violence used to create the system in the first place. She's clueless.

[Rozanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first half of the book was quite interesting, but I ended up really disliking the author by the time I finished her book. Seems to me like as soon as Rhodesia became Zimbabwe she left and went to find another place in which she could continue to a live a life of privilege, entitlement, and obliviousness to those who are less fortunate than herself. She lands in Westport, Connecticut, which I'm sure fits the bill perfectly for her (even though she spends a good deal of time moaning about how she doesn't fit in. Oh, boo hoo.) She returns to Zimbabwe in the late '90s but devotes less than a paragraph of her book to a discussion of the political situation there. What? She doesn't even notice that nearly half of Zimbabweans have AIDs, the economy is in freefall, and the nation has something like the worst record of human rights abuses in the world, thanks to Robert Mugabe's repressive regime. No. When she returns to Zimbabwe she goes shopping with her sister and they gossip about who's gotten divorced, etc. Ugh.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not badly written, and an interesting life story of growing up white and wealthy (though with a completely dysfunctional family) in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe during their 13 year civil war. On the other hand...so little self-reflection about her role as a white person (200,000 out of 8 million population) during this time and any of her own culpability. And no mention at all about Mugabe's current leadership, i.e., running the country into the ground and allowing white homesteaders to be randomly killed and forced off their land?

[Katrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book honestly left me pissed off at the author. I understand that she grew up in Rhodesia during apartheid, and to a certain extent that way of thinking would affect one's life. But even after living out the majority of her adult years in America, she still seems to cling to a lot of the same thinking, which disgusts me. It was hard to feel any compassion for her and her story when she seemed to be such an unsympathetic character.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the best part of this book is that the author does not engage in revisionist history in order to make herself seem more politically correct.

[Mary K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book didn’t win an award, why??? An absolutely beautifully written book, mesmerizing, heart wrenching, fascinating story. I googled the author and was disappointed to see that this was her first and last book.

[John Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This memoir begins when the author is an adult living in the US and her youngest sister in Zambia dies in a car accident. Wendy Kann and her two sisters had grown up in Rhodesia as rather privileged whites, but her family was dysfunctional with the mother suffering from mental illness. Their father remarried, but he is killed in the Civil War. We don't find out much about the sister who dies in the car accident, but Wendy's life as she moves on to live a privileged life in South Africa and the US, with a stint in Hong Kong. The life story should be interesting as the family went through so many heartaches and the country was so volatile, but mainly I was left feeling that it was a book about white privilege in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and the US. While she writes honestly, she does not dig deeply and any of the major issues are dealt with very superficially.

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

(The following is the review I wrote which was subsequently published in the Deseret News.)

CASTING WITH A FRAGILE THREAD: A STORY OF SISTERS AND AFRICA: Wendy Kann: Henry Holt and Company: Nonfiction: 284 pages

Growing up in a tumultuous part of Africa would be hard for anyone. Add to that a plethora of familial problems and you get a general idea of Wendy Kann's life. This autobiography mainly deals with the author's struggle to find, and sometimes create, herself. The book follows Kann's life from when she was a little girl in colonial Rhodesia to a worrisome mother in Connecticut. It portrays her feelings and thoughts—or occasional lack thereof—about her mother's alcoholism, her father's death, her stepmother's precarious acceptance of her, her reactions to the Rhodesian war, her courtship and marriage, her attempts to belong in America, her experiences in Hong Kong, and her aspirations on being a good mother. Dealing with her sister's untimely, premature death and the pressing need to take care of her sister's child helps Kann realize how her past and where she comes from have made her who she is.

It is amazing and refreshing to see the author put all of herself in the book. She is not the admirable heroine. She has faults and fears. She makes mistakes. She is human. Her emotions are real, her opinions are honest. And her quest to feel like she belongs is one that any reader can relate to, no matter how their background compares with Kann's. A realistic though sad story, it is a unique journey.

[Jerry Jares · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story about the death of Wendy's beloved younger sister in Africa. After discussing the burial and its aftermath, the author goes back and recounts the early lives of the three girls in Zimbabwe. After divorcing their unstable and alcoholic mother, Wendy's dad married someone new. When Wendy's father died, Gail (the new wife) was left with 5 children to care for and no income (There were 3 daughters and the new couple had a daughter. A son was born soon after the father's death). There is a question if he committed suicide (using a vehicle). Gail could barely cope and she soon remarried.

There were only 200,000 whites in Rhodesia and 8 million blacks in the country. Even though there was a civil war going on, the only thing that seemed different to the girls was the fact that the white men were required to go into military service for 6 months. Because the blacks worked for the whites (house servants, restaurant workers, farm hands), Wendy hardly noticed them.

America, through Wendy's eyes, is an enjoyable adventure; looking at someone from another culture, looking at us. The first time Wendy met up with 'aerosol food' (aerosol whipped cream) was a hoot.

This is a well-written memoir about Wendy's maturation, from her beginnings in Africa through her growth, as she moved from one part of the world to another. When she returned to Africa later, her awareness of the uniqueness of each individual (black and white) was well-developed.

[Ronit · Rating 3 out of 5]

As one who has left Africa and understands its lures and complexities, I have read several books about people who left Africa and then return. What stands out in this book is that the reader can truly can feel the author's sense of loss of identity when coming to the US, and respect her coming into herself through tragedy and determination. The first chapter lacked the depth of description that make all the others so multidimensional. Her description of life of a family on the farm is so real the reader can almost feel the dust between one's teeth. Her frank description of her painful personal losses as a child and the resultant emptiness she experienced in herself and sensed so deeply in her sister, is tangible.

The unabashed racism that is so pervasive in parts of Africa is shocking and difficult to digest. The story is told only from the white person's perspective; Africans are just cardboard cutouts. On the one hand I appreciate the author's honesty in not covering up her own racism and her lack of awareness of the Africans as people, yet some current insight into this would have been appreciated.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love memoirs of Southern Africa -- and these three sisters were a little older than me but many of the places the author talks about are familiar (the Victoria Falls hotel in Livingston, the Monomatapa hotel in Salisbury, Mazabuka, Harare, etc.). I was left with a drifting feeling after I finished this book -- which was perhaps the point. A white African coming to terms with the Rhodesian war and moving away from Africa to other post-colonial places, such as New York and Hong Kong. Was surprised at how little of this story took place outside -- definitely not my experience of Africa.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not so much a story of Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe as a childhood memoir, life in a very dysfunctional family. The death of her youngest sister is a catalyst to the author writing about their childhood.

[Suzan Lemont · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was engaging and so poignant and she definitely has the potential to be a great writer with some underlining-worthy lines peppered throughout, but it's sadly marred from being really great by her lack of ability to self-reflect on topics like white supremacy, privilege, the effects of trauma, and the deep process of coming to terms with your past. She does none of this and comes across as being self indulgent, kind of shallow, and lacking in empathy completely until tragedy forces her into it. But still, there's remarkably little owning up to her own cruelty towards her mother and youngest sister, nor much divulgence of real growth gained from introspection and owning up to your mistakes. It started very strong but ended rather abruptly and kind of dangling in midair. So that was disappointing. I see the author teaches Feldenkrais in Connecticut but I have to wonder if it's just another hobby she drifted into, trying to find out who she really is.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raised in Rhodesia before independence, Wendy and her sisters grew up as privileged whites but struggled for acceptance from their parents. After the nation became Zimbabwe, Wendy left for South Africa and eventually the United States. Following a sister’s death in a car accident, she returned, traveling into Zambia where Lauren was living at the time.
This is a light read - in the sense of easy to follow but it's not light in terms of the struggles they faced. Much of the section of their growing up is about Wendy with some mentions here and there of Lauren. I had the sense when I was done that perhaps this was written as a way for her to work through the emotions of all they had been through and the grief of Lauren's death.

[Audrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a memoir of 3 sisters Zimbabwe in Africa.

To say these girls came from a dysfunctional family is an understatement. The girls grew up during the time of white privilege in their country as they grew into adulthood violent revolution occurred and things staring to change rapidly around them, both in their personal lives and in their country.

Throughout the book the sister telling the story, Wendy, the oldest, seemed a little clueless to what was going on around her and since the three sisters were vying for the attention of their step mother, they really didn't become close until adulthood.

[Malavika · Rating 3 out of 5]

A heartbreaking book. I can’t imagine how I would cope with life as a sixteen year old if I had an alcoholic mother, my father had died, and I was living with a temperamental step mother. I love the two sisters loyalty to their nephew. But at certain parts, the books seemed to drag a bit.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story of sisters, motherhood, love.

[Stacie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, I just loved this book because the author kept me reading with her simple, enthralling descriptions and perspectives. I wish she would write another book!

[Angelica Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

My brother and parents are mentioned in the book. A very sad story about a dear friend.

[Lisa Groff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty much ok. It was easy to read, but sometimes I felt like I didn’t know if there was a point to it

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was well written, an interesting look at a life so very different from my own. She did not present herself as enlightened or even all that likeable, but honest, I thought.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

White African expats always feel their lives worth a memoir; unsurprisingly they have little say about where they are from because they never knew it

[Cathy Altman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and captivating memoir. Brought back many of my childhood memories growing up in Zimbabwe and the. Moving to the US.

[Sally Grey]

The tragedy here is not Lauren's death, but her life.

[Elaine Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful memoir of an unusual and resilient life. Well written and eye-opening!

[Liralen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Born a privileged white child of what was then Rhodesia, the author watched her idyllic childhood and picture-perfect family spin rapidly out of control. Her vibrant, eccentric mother descended into unspecified mental illness, which led to her parents’ eventual divorce and her father’s remarriage. The stepmother — chosen, as the author implies, in (large?) part for her youth and beauty, alternately tried to do right by her stepdaughters and proved that she had no idea what she was doing.

But that’s not the interesting part of the book, and neither, as it turns out, is the premise — a memoir of growing up and the author’s sister dying.

No, what’s interesting is what isn’t quite said. This was Rhodesia, and then Zimbabwe, in the 60s and 70s. Race was a source of tremendous tension — and yes, race is touched on here, but only just. The author acknowledges that she was raised by her parents, as they were raised by theirs, to view black people as less than human. She has done enough growth, by the time of the writing of the book, to realise that until her sister’s death she’d never made any kind of emotional connection with a black African. She’d stepped outside her upbringing enough to marry a Jewish man whose mother was dating a black man — though not enough to feel comfortable bringing him home to Zimbabwe, or to challenge her brother-in-law’s practice of paying African workers on his farm pennies.

There’s an undercurrent of race to the book, but it feels as though the author is not ready to dive into it in any depth. Nor does she seem ready to get into the messy business of sibling relationships — her parents, long dead (and in her mother’s case, long out of the picture), are easier to discuss, though after raising the possibility of suicide in her father’s death she quickly backs away from it. Her stepmother, too, is easier, perhaps because she is not a blood relative (though I wish the author had done into more depth regarding her adult relationships with her stepfamily). But the undercurrent with regard to the author’s sisters is one of guilt — guilt that she didn’t step up and be a surrogate parent to her youngest sister; guilt that they weren’t closer and she wasn’t kinder.

I do not mean to castigate the author for what she did or did not do (or think). Much of the book discusses her youth, when she was ill-equipped to either parent her sister or challenge her upbringing — and the point of memoir is not (or should not be) to present oneself in the best possible light. But I wish she’d been ready to take it a step further, to delve into race and class and guilt and discrimination rather than skimming the surface.

[Kate Puleo Unger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really struggled with this book. I enjoyed the first part and then the last two parts, but the middle just didn't hold my interest. I actually stopped reading this book for about a month, and then I had to force myself to read the second half just to get it done.

Wendy Kann is remembering her sister Lauren after her tragic death in a car accident. The book begins with the story of Wendy, Sharon, and Lauren shortly before and after Lauren's death. Then it jumps back to their childhood and follows Wendy as she grows up, moves away, gets married, has kids, etc. The last part picks up where the first part left off with Sharon and Wendy trying to make sure Lauren's son, Luke, is cared for after her death.

I wanted to like this story. I really did. And I enjoyed some of the sister relationship parts, and the history of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe was fairly interesting. But while reading this book, I was reminded why I don't really like memoirs. They're a string of random memories and not really a continuous story, and, unfortunately I found that during a lot of the book, I just didn't care.

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