219:, sleeping rough, being beaten up by thugs and policeman alike and struggling with alcoholism, as it is of the Rhodesia it describes.... The 'hunger' of the book's title does not refer only to the literal starvation which was ravaging post-independent Zimbabwe at the time. Rather it implies a more far reaching and metaphorical hunger of the soul – the vacuous yearning and emptiness within the national consciousness, aspiring for more but held back by poverty and corruption."
283:
chaotic narrative from the perspective of mostly unlikeable characters. Marechera's writing feels less like satire than the experience of being forced to relive someone else's nightmare—the characters' demons have somehow become yours, but you may never be able to decipher why you (or they) are being so tormented. Whether this aesthetic was a self-indulgent, European import or a revolutionary, antinationalist
African innovation depended on whom you asked."
276:
shocked me, not because it brought me the news about some bit of brutality or another—literature from every continent and era has made that more or less routine—but because I was shocked by the words on the page, the book in my hands. Marechera seemed to be coming at me with everything, yet with an
271:
Novelist Drew
Johnson said in 2009: "Marechera's knack for surprise and ambush would be the envy of any airport thriller writer, yet here it's entirely divorced from plot. Surprise is managed in a way that I don't know how to explain or what exactly to compare it to—it's just genuinely unexpected.
282:
relies on a formal and stylistic mode heavily imbued with the very chaos and grotesquery that his texts criticize, ... deliberately alienating the reader at every level of content and form. Content: sordid representations of sexuality, domestic abuse, drunkenness, and profanity; form: a disjointed,
295:
film adaptation of the book as a drama-documentary, with which
Marechera was initially involved, and for which he returned to Zimbabwe in 1982 ostensibly for five weeks, soon ran into trouble when the author fell out with the producer. Marechera withdrew from the film, and he never again left the
34:
176:, this work is actually a collection of one novella of 80-odd pages ("House of Hunger") and nine satellite short stories. The small group of texts in its entirety reflects the author's vision of (mainly township) life in
200:
The book is typically described as "vulgar", "obscene", "lewd", "morally objectionable", "irreverent", "notorious", "brutal," and "violent", but also as "honest" and "beautiful". Marechera's distinctive
184:'s rule of the country that at independence became Zimbabwe) — with a minority of the shorter pieces in the book depicting an African exile's experience of life in
246:
wrote that reading
Marechera's work was "like overhearing a scream". Because it was so vivid about the experience of growing up in slum conditions in
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242:. At the award ceremony, with typically unconventional and disruptive behaviour, Marechera threw plates at his fellow guests.
169:(1952–1987), his first published book, and was published three years after he left university and ten years before his death.
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enormous artistry. His life seemed to be at stake in his words and, while I was reading, so did mine."
211:
Commenting on the semi-autobiographical nature of the book, April McCallum has said: "Marechera's debut
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Brendon
Nicholls, "Postcolonial Narcissism, Cryptopolitics, and Hypnocritique: Dambudzo Marechera's
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547:"From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe via Oxford and London. A Study of the Career of Dambudzo Marechera"
371:"Mesochronous Marechera: African Aesthetics, Violence, and Temporality in The House of Hunger"
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19:"House of Hunger" redirects here. For 2022 horror novel by Alexis Henderson, see
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436:"Zimbabwe, Literature: Dambudzo Marechera and The House of Hunger"
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564:"On Dambudzo Marechera: The Life and Times of an African Writer"
494:"On Dambudzo Marechera: The Life and Times of an African Writer"
472:"A brief survey of the short story, part 54: Dambudzo Marechera"
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412:"The House of Hunger review — A brutal coming of age"
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536:. London: Indigo Productions for Channel 4, 1982.
280:Michelle Decker has written, "Marechera's satire
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230:the following year was joint winner — alongside
254:(his former publisher as editorial director of
215:is as much a product of being down and out in
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586:"Waiting for the Rain in the House of Hunger"
222:First published to critical acclaim in 1978 (
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700:When Did You Last See your Father?
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864:Where I Used to Play on the Green
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21:House of Hunger (Henderson novel)
307:Heinemann African Writers Series
224:Heinemann African Writers Series
192:, where Marechera had studied).
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369:Decker, Michelle (2020-01-10).
16:1978 book by Dambudzo Marechera
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592:(Zimbabwe), 17 March 2014.
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451:"Zimbabwe's Rebel Writer"
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581:, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2013).
511:"The Last Book I Loved,
410:ianopolot (2019-10-03).
309:(No. 207), 1st edition;
266:I got my things and left
102:Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia)
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1086:African Writers Series
830:A Month in the Country
786:The Condition of Muzak
634:Guardian Fiction Prize
240:Guardian Fiction Prize
159:short story collection
1106:Zimbabwean literature
388:10.1353/ari.2020.0003
196:Content and reception
1101:Metafictional novels
972:The Devil's Own Work
660:The Dear Green Place
532:Austin, Chris, dir.
354:"Dambudzo Marechera"
172:Sometimes subtitled
137:Black Sunlight
27:The House of Hunger
1030:Reading in the Dark
996:The Eye in the Door
818:The House of Hunger
575:The House of Hunger
534:The House of Hunger
523:, 18 November 2009.
513:The House of Hunger
438:, The Culture Trip.
274:The House of Hunger
228:The House of Hunger
213:The House of Hunger
146:The House of Hunger
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823:Dambudzo Marechera
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190:Oxford University
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984:Poor Things
868:Glyn Hughes
813:Neil Jordan
737:John Berger
664:Archie Hind
654:Clive Barry
649:Crumb Borne
232:Neil Jordan
188:(mainly at
58:Short story
1075:Categories
1059:Jackie Kay
1001:Pat Barker
944:Carol Lake
920:The Levels
835:J. L. Carr
779:Robert Nye
590:The Herald
520:The Rumpus
421:2020-09-12
338:References
163:Zimbabwean
977:Alan Judd
964:1991–1998
914:Jim Crace
910:Continent
899:Hawksmoor
875:Waterland
845:1981–1990
801:Roy Heath
714:1971–1980
674:Eva Figes
641:1965–1970
397:1920-1222
238:— of the
182:Ian Smith
71:Heinemann
64:Publisher
775:Falstaff
178:Rhodesia
127:30208116
1054:Trumpet
455:Witness
203:collage
186:Britain
165:writer
155:novella
153:) is a
1061:(1998)
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853:Kepler
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416:Medium
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305:1978:
248:Harare
217:Oxford
44:Author
206:prose
54:Genre
815:and
393:ISSN
327:ISBN
314:ISBN
287:Film
151:1978
121:OCLC
108:ISBN
93:1978
79:(US)
73:(UK)
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