Tendai Huchu, the Edinburgh Festival and the Literary Death Match

Tendai Huchu and his new novel The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician are featured in two events at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Friday 28th August.

At 11am, the 2014 Caine Prize shortlisted author will read from his new novel and discuss with Ellah Wakatama Allfrey how the heritage, traditions, and vibrancy of African storytelling continue to inspire and influence his writing in the Robert Louis Stevenson room at the Royal Overseas League in Princes Street.

Then, Tendai will rush off to the Stand Comedy Club in York Place, where, at 4.25pm, he will compete in a Literary Death Match. Part comedy show, part literary event, part game show, a Literary Death Match brings together four writers to read their most electric writing for five minutes or less before a panel of three ‘all-star’ judges. Tendai will be competing with Salla Simukka (author of As Red As Blood), Kirsty Logan (The Gracekeepers) and John Osborne (Radio Head). The judges – Mark Doty, poet and winner of many book awards, Holly Jack, Scottish actress, and Charlie Baker, stand-up comedian – will take turns providing humorous commentary and select two favourites to advance to the final. The two finalists then compete in a vaguely literary competition to determine the Literary Death Match champion.

Literary Death Match events have become popular worldwide, so far in 57 cities, being described as ‘The most entertaining reading series ever’ (LA Times) and as ‘Revitalizing the coolitude of the printed word’ (Interview)

Tendai’s writing has attracted much interest recently. A recent review of his debut novel, The Hairdresser of Harare, in The New York Times included the passage: ‘Too often in the United States, we have created a single narrative about foreign countries, particularly African countries: They’re impoverished and war-torn and beset by disease or, more benignly, simply teeming with exotic animals.

‘Thankfully, the single story seems to be giving way as American publishing has embraced a vibrant chorus of voices from the African continent — Adichie, NoViolet Bulawayo and Chigozie Obioma among others. To which we can now add one more, Tendai Huchu.’

And Jeanne-Marie Jackson in her review in Slipnet, ‘Tendai Huchu’s The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician – An African Novel and Then Some’ added: ‘Tendai Huchu’s new book reminds us that serious thinking is as important as driving home what we already know.’

In The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician, three very different men struggle with thoughts of belonging, loss, identity and love as they attempt to find a place for themselves in Britain. The Magistrate tries to create new memories and roots, fusing a wandering exploration of Edinburgh with music. The Maestro, a depressed, quixotic character, sinks out of the real world into the fantastic world of literature. The Mathematician, full of youth, follows a carefree, hedonistic lifestyle, until their three universes collide. In this carefully crafted, multi- layered novel, Tendai Huchu, with his inimitable humour, reveals much about the Zimbabwe story as he draws the reader deep into the lives of the three main characters.

The official United Kingdom launch of the novel will take place later, on 30th October as part of the Edinburgh Independent & Radical Book Fair. The Fair is an annual literary festival providing five days of cultural and literary events, which are free for all to attend. The Fair attracts writers, publishers and readers often neglected by mainstream bookshop events and other literary festivals. It aims to support small and independent presses who struggle to get shelf space in major bookshops. Over 70 local and international publishers take stalls to display their titles.

The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician is published in Zimbabwe by amaBooks, in the United Kingdom by Parthian Books and in Nigeria by Kachifo. It is due to be published in North America by Ohio University Press, in Germany by Peter Hammer Verlag and in Italy by Corpotre.

from: http://www.thezimbabwean.co/2015/08/tendai-huchu-the-edinburgh-festival-and-the-literary-death-match/

The Complete Review reviews The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician

The Maestro, the Magistrate & the Mathematician is set largely in Edinburgh, focusing on the three title-characters -- all 'Zimbos' (Zimbabweans) currently living in Scotland. Each chapter focuses on one of them, with every other chapter centered around the Magistrate and the other chapters not quite alternating between the Maestro and the Mathematician. There is eventually some overlap, but their stories and fates remain largely distinct.

       The central character used to be a well-respected magistrate in Zimbabwe but left the country with his wife and now fifteen-year-old daughter. While his wife has found good employment he has remained jobless, his credentials useless here: 'They think we come from the jungle. They think we have kangaroo courts. They will say, 'How can you practice law here when you couldn't even preserve the rule of law in your own country ?''

        He is finally reduced to taking on a night-shift spot as a caregiver at an old-age-home. The situation has drained some of the life out of his relationship with his wife, and he is also having trouble adjusting to how quickly (and untraditionally) his daughter is growing up.

       The Mathematician is the student Farai, who is working on his doctoral thesis, on 'The Economic Incentives for Sustaining Hyperinflationary Environments' -- a subject of some interest in Zimbabwe, which recently suffered through a rare modern instance of hyperinflation. Farai wants to explore how economic actors can profit from hyperinflationary conditions -- at least short term ones.

       Farai has a local girlfriend, but also close family ties back home -- indeed, he's planning to visit again soon. He does acknowledge, however: 'The thing is, every time I go back, I feel more and more like a stranger. The lingo's changed, the bearer notes have more zeros, the whole vibe, the way people do things is completely different.'

       The Maestro is David Mercer, a white Zimbabwean also working in a menial position who is withdrawing evermore entirely into himself. An eastern European woman, Tatyana, wants to be involved with him, but he pushes even her away. He is a great reader -- but as Tatyana complains: "Books can't replace real life". In his downward spiral he eventually even rids himself of his books -- his last and only hold, aside from the last person he can turn to, Tatyana.

       These three very different characters, with their very different characters and at different stages of their lives, as well as the various people in their orbits, give Huchu the opportunity to draw a broad portrait of Zimbabweans abroad -- but without insistently focusing on their ex-pat-ness. The characters' different relationships with and attitudes towards their homeland play a role in their lives, but Huchu does not harp on this particularly obviously, and instead the three story-lines unfold as different and varying personal experiences. (Huchu amusingly sets up the contrast of his approach to that of Brian Chikwava's Harare North in having the Magistrate buy that novel -- but finding himself baffled by it ("He wasn't one for fiction anyway"), and, cheekily, his daughter, picking it up, complaining: "Dad, if this guy cannae be bovvered to learn proper English, why did he write a novel ?")

       The key figure in the novel turns out to be another party, going by the name of Alfonso, a character who seems almost to be a joker-figure and yet is a significant fixer and helper in the local Zimbabwean ex-patriate scene. It is Alfonso who first tries to get the Magistrate interested in the local chapter of the MDC (the Zimbabwean oppositional party, Movement For Democratic Change) -- a chaotic, disorganized tiny mess of an outfit that the Magistrate does then become active in, giving him a renewed sense of purpose and using his talents to good advantage.

       After weaving back and forth among its three main characters, The Maestro, The Magistrate and The Mathematician Huchu ratchets up the ambitions of the novel. An unexpected domestic development in the Magistrate's family would seem to offer more than enough drama -- indeed, that situation already feels a bit forced -- but Huchu has more in store, leading up to more than just a surprising final turn. Ambition seems to get the better of Huchu: the novel's satisfying build-up(s) aren't quite enough to carry through these final leaps which serve to make the novel weightier yet also come, at least in part, too far out of near nowhere.

       Overall, Huchu's ambitions are admirable. This is a pleasingly packed book, where it is long unclear where these stories might be going -- and it is here that Huchu's talents shine brightest: it's fun just going along with these characters when they are more or less meandering forward. It's when purpose creeps in too obviously -- in a tumble of final twists -- that the novel creaks a bit

       There's a cameo appearance by a (still unpublished) would-be writer named Tendai in the novel. Very full of himself, he riffs about how: "publishers don't get my flow, because it's intense, thermonuclear intense, twenty-first century existentialism with a twist". If not quite so intense, the real Tendai does, as in his debut, display real, deep talent in The Maestro, the Magistrate & the Mathematician. If some of the plotting (and perhaps the titles ...) could use some wrangling, and despite the occasional rough patches -- oversimplified scenes, especially of confrontation -- the ideas and the writing consistently impress. Huchu writes very entertainingly -- indeed, so accessibly that some of the depth behind it all can be in danger of being overlooked in too plain sight.

       In The Maestro, the Magistrate & the Mathematician Huchu ultimately does try to do just a bit too much too suddenly, but it's still very good entertainment, of both the light and heavier sort, through and through.

- M.A.Orthofer, 22 August 2015

http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/zimbabwe/huchut2.htm

Textures - an anthology of contrast

From www.hararenews.co.zw
June 17 2015

May this year saw Bulawayo-based publishers ’amaBooks launch Textures at Book Café – an event hosted with support from British Council and the Culture Fund Trust of Zimbabwe. The anthology is by two of Zimbabwe’s leading poets – John Eppel and Togara Muzanenhamo. Both were there to read to a warmly receptive audience, before a discus-sion on the book led by Ignatius Mabasa.
The fascinating feature of this anthology lies in the unexpected and significant contrasts between these two Zimbabwean poets; indeed, Polarities might be a more suitable ti-tle than Textures. Much of the conversation at the launch was around the interplay between form and content – both of which are vastly different between the poets.
Eppel reveals himself and his location in almost every poem whilst Muzanenhamo is almost invisible in his work, which is set in seemingly random global locations. Eppel, who described himself as a “suburban poet” draws inspiration mostly from the Hillside suburb of Bulawayo and his lyrical and meticulously crafted poems, whilst not without ambiguity and nuance, are an easy and pleasurable read. Eppel described the poetic forms such as the sonnet as a canvas. “I like to have a canvas, and to express my freedom within the limits of that space… it’s something of a paradox, I know. A good poet uses the rules of these forms, but so well so that a reader doesn’t even notice them.”
Through his poetry, Eppel shares his appreciation of nature, his loss of love, and his existential anxieties with the reader. In so doing, his vulnerability becomes a strength. In the opening poem of the anthology ‘A Suburban Night in August’, Eppel shows both his ability to create atmosphere from a few select details whilst sharing his loss of and long-ing for love. The diversity of Bulawayo’s rich nature provides both context and solace as he takes us with him on his late night walks through the suburbs and daytime excursions around the Dams. The formal structure of his poems creates a rhythm and rhyme which leads a reader without pause to sometimes unexpected conclusions. ‘Grey Heron’ for example ends with his need to rewire his house; ‘Hornbills in My Garden’ finishes with “…don’t forget to kill me once I’ve dined.”
Eppel has a determination to capture the essence of things, and perhaps uses poetry to distil his thoughts. This is most clearly revealed in ‘Cape Turtle Dove’. He runs through aspects of this iconic and common bird – its smell, colour, movement, rasp, pick – rejecting them with “that’s not it” until he comes to its “three syllables that rise and fall… and that’s it.” Eppel does not seek the exotic outliers to enrich his poems. The birds he selects are the most visible and common. The trees too. He captures the essence of his set-tings through the commonplace, local and everyday. Reading his poems is a delight especially for someone who has been there, who knows the Matabeleland dry season and the Hillside dams.
In contrast, it is unlikely that any reader could feel rooted in the soil of Muzanenhamo’s selection for this anthology. The poems have a global reach, the settings and stories are eclectic. Significance has to be sought. He is skilled in creating image and atmosphere, and his poems are looser in form.
Muzanenhamo is more than just a poet of the diaspora, but is a poet of the age of globalisation, fascinated with obscure and distant narratives. His subjects include a 19th century American jockey, early Tour de France competitors, Somali child soldiers, medieval Norwegian battles, jewellers, cricketers and brave pilots. It is refreshing to read a Zimbabwean poet who is free from the troubled history of Africa’s colonisation and liberation. I found his poems full of flavour though I was not sure what I was eating. They demand more work than Eppel’s to grasp, and for me have a taste that requires repetition to acquire. For most readers he digs “deep into the heart of the unknown.”
Muzanenhamo alluded to this at the launch, saying that writing poetry, “is very hard work and very frustrating, but the end product is something to be delighted in. Poetry can be read at three levels. Firstly they should be enjoyed as music, then the meaning sought. With my historical poems, the story then follows these.”
If you are of the rare species of poetry reader, buy this anthology. It contradicts the common perceptions of Zimbabwean literature. Give it time and frequent reading and you will be rewarded.

Tendai Huchu at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

2014 Caine Prize shortlisted author Tendai Huchu will read from his new novel, The Maestro, the Magistrate & the Mathematician, and discuss how the heritage, traditions, and vibrancy of African storytelling continue to inspire and influence his writing at the Royal Overseas League on Friday 28th August as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A limited number of copies of Tendai's book will be available for purchase. The official UK launch will be on 30th October as part of the Edinburgh Independent Radical Book Fair.
In a recent article, Wawa Book Review draws attention to the experience of immigrants as depicted in Tendai's new novel, drawing connections to David Foster Wallace, Teju Cole, and Samuel Selvon. Read the full review here.

'Told in stylish and dense prose, this novel subscribes to a certain American aesthetic of interrogating the immigrant experience in Europe ... Here is an important novel about migration that negotiates to differentiate itself from tradition by approaching character development through an inventory of the minutest of details, psychological projections as well as existential concerns.' - Wawa Book Review

In The Maestro, the Magistrate & the Mathematician, three very different men struggle with thoughts of belonging, loss, identity, and love as they attempt to find a place for themselves in Britain. The Magistrate tries to create new memories and roots, fusing a wandering exploration of Edinburgh with music. The Maestro, a depressed, quixotic character, sinks out of the real world into the fantastic world of literature. The Mathematician, full of youth, follows a carefree, hedonistic lifestyle, until their three universes collide. In this carefully crafted, multi-layered novel, Tendai Huchu, with his inimitable humour, reveals much about the Zimbabwean story as he draws the reader deep into the lives of the three main characters.

'An unusually astute and unflinching writer’ - The Guardian
‘Tendai Huchu illustrates universal notions well’ - The Examiner
‘Tendai Huchu seems to the be the great-grandchild of Jonathan Swift with many voices in his head’ - Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung
‘I could not let this book rest...The lead characters of The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician are made “accessible” through the craftsmanship of Tendai Huchu’ - Dr Rosetta Codling

The Maestro, the Magistrate & the Mathematician, Royal Overseas League,
100 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 3AB
Fri 28th August, 11am - 12 noon
Robert Louis Stevenson Room
£12 (£10) / 0131 225 1501
Part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe