High Low In-between

by Imraan Coovadia

From Kalahari.net:
Set in KwaZulu-Natal, High Low In-between charts the relationship between Nafisa, who is coming to terms with her husband's murder, and the people around her: her dysfunctional family as well as her patient, Millicent Dhlomo, who is dying of AIDS. With gathering momentum, the novel exposes the reader to Nafisa's world of organ donation, greedy AIDS denialists, quack doctors, bribes and the looming threats by the South African Revenue Service. Having been part of the struggle, Nafisa now faces the sinister complications of the post-apartheid dispensation and finds herself ostracised once more. We learn with Nafisa what it is to live in a time of various plagues: in which a slip of a needle is a prospective death, in which your husband can be murdered because he received a kidney he didn't know was acquired illicitly, in which death by AIDS has become a currency in the hands of the morally bereft and the politically expedient, and in which acquiring, concealing, and channelling funds determines the lives and prospects of us all.

Genres: South Africa

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Imraan Coovadia was born in Durban in 1970. He is the author of the novels The Wedding, Green-Eyed Thieves, High Low In-between and The Institute for Taxi Poetry.

He has also published a study of V.S. Naipaul, as well as a collection of essays, Transformations, and has contributed to publications including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, N+1, The Independent, Threepenny Review, Chimurenga, and The Times of India.

His work has won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the University of Johannes­burg Prize, the M-Net Prize, and a South African Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

He is a graduate of Harvard College and directs the writing programme at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Reviews

[Tuck]

Coovadia's 1st 2 novels were fairly humorous and tongue in cheek (while still investing heavily in the unique and exciting cultures of South Africa, thus making things out-of-balance, scary, unfair, grotesque, money grubbing, generous and open to a fault, and sexy [with all that carries with it there, namely the virus]) and this one is deadly serious. in fact everyone is dying, killed, or dead. Sharky, the son from San Francisco (working for national geographic as a photog [ok, ok, some parts ARE funny]) comes home to Durban for a big celebration only to find the tail end of the new govt (umm..who was that? the dude that denied AIDS even existed, and if there was some sort of problem, sa could solve it with some good fresh food and a long hot soak) crumbling under the weight of 50% of heterosexual females with HIV, modernity coming smack dab into confrontation with old, old customs, a huge population of colonized minds, and a dead dad.
Things go downhill from there for Sharky and his mother and their coterie of SA Indian professionals and black workers. Perhaps one of the best novels to help of reader understand a bit about SA, but also perhaps one of the most magical and spiritual novels about SA that may leave the reader conflicted about god(s), truth, meaning, and hope.

Sharky's mother especially talks about her looking glass world, and author tries to explain this concept over and over. I still don't know if i get it, but have been thinking about maybe part of that looking glass culture is way of saying that the apartness, and this isn't just black dudes eating by themselves in the elementary school lunch room (though it's the same idea), of SA is SO driven in to peoples heads and cultures that it is impossible to see or imagine the other. Just as you look in a mirror and mostly see your own ugly mug, but cannot see around it, through it, or even what is in the background "behind" you, so is SA and people just cannot, cannot see others for who and what they are, but rather it's just an idea in your head. Black dudes are scary and violent, white dudes are rich and racists, indians, indians are what, besides muslims, or not, communists, or not? Looking glass people? This is a classic South African novel that should be grouped with any of the best literature from there.

[Adrian]

I saw Imraan read from a (I believe) yet-unfinished book. It was charming and funny, so I decided to pick up a book of his.

This tries to be a lot of things: a comment on life in South Africa, a comment on Indian life in South Africa, a murder mystery, and a Murakami-like weirdness-in-life novel. It doesn't fully succeed on any count. I got a bit captivated by the murder mystery part, but there aren't really any clues as to who did it--it's not like a traditional murder mystery in that regard.

Maybe 2.5 stars would be more accurate.

[Gitte]

Read it in German translation. A bit confusion, also due to languaga/translation. You stay oddly distances to the characters. Is Nafisa going mad? But interesting insight into the Indian community of South Africa, and of their history.

[Kirsten]

One of my favourite novels! I live in South Africa and this novel just perfectly sums up the intricacies of South African contemporary society. The story is not as much about the crime as about a portray of the country. A beautiful book!

[Zanna Hugo]

I liked it. It was more of a reflection on South Africa (negative in many parts, but still quite realistic) and the Indian community. A fitful read with a bitter understanding of characters that I never would have thought upon. Elegantly written with masterful prose. Not a story for the sake of it.

[Tiah]

A melancholy portrait of a country cannibalizing itself. Oddly hopeful, despite the despair.

[Olivia]

Sunday Times Literary Award 2010