Sometimes There is a Void by Zakes Mda

The subtitle of this memoir is "Memoirs of an Outsider", and at the end of the day, I am not exactly sure what he is referring to.  The obvious answer might be that due to his father's political activities he grew up outside of South Africa in neighboring Lesotho.  His is a typical African family with a complicated web of inter-relationships, but despite that Mda felt like he had been abandoned by his father, or at least he was not loved enough by him.  That might be the outsider status that he refers to.

Mda does not candy coat his story--nor does he really focus on some of the things that would be helpful to have a first hand account of.  Throughout the first half of the book, while South Africa is living under apartheid, there is very little detail about the effect that had on his life--and perhaps living in exile it did not have much of an impact, but he does write about people participating in armed rebellions, brothers being killed by compatriots, things that seem like a big deal, but instead Mda focuses on his personal life and his lack of ability to be a good partner with a woman.

The memoir is messy, as one reviewer tells it.  It is really about him and not the time he lived in.  There is very little background in this memoir, and at times I felt like he was using his access to a literary vehicle to make a case that his ex-wife was entirely mean spirited and he was blameless--well, a memoir does allow you to tell your side of the story, but ideally it is a story that others want to hear, and that was not the case for me.  I think you have to read his fiction to hear his thoughts on the political landscape of Africa.