WHAT WE LOSE

By Zinzi Clemmons
 
This debut novel was the choice for my October book club, and I honestly couldn’t put it down.  At just over 200 pages, it is a quick read, but less because of length and more that the writer's thoughts carry you along as though she has taken over your brain.  Her language is at once simple and poetic.  It often feels like stream-of-consciousness, and yet she is always concise.
 
The story follows a young woman, Thandi, who is from a mostly white Philadelphia suburb and is dealing with the illness and loss of her mother to cancer.  We also learn about her mother’s upbringing in South Africa and the narrator’s trips there.  In telling her mother’s story, she reveals her own  story and how losing her mother changed her life.
 
Although there is much in Thandi’s life that is different from mine, I had the distinct impression, while reading, that I was reading an author of exactly my generation.  Something about her use of language and reactions to the world around her felt so true and natural, it often didn’t feel like reading at all.
 
I highly, highly recommend this book and will certainly be following the career of this wonderful new talent! (Lily)