Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head is a buddy read for March 2021.

All are welcome to join in the discussion with Laurie, Brina, and Carolien.

Glad to see people will be reading Head. She's a wonderful, woefully unappreciated author.

Thanks for setting up the thread, Katy.

Aubrey, I look forward to reading this as I have meant to for quite a while.

Carolien and Brina, I hope you are both still interested in reading this. I plan to start in 2 or 3 days. And anyone else who would like to join are welcome.

I had this on my Mt TBR so I’d like to join in. I tend to progress more slowly because I read multiple books at the same time.

I plan to start towards the weekend or early next week. Looking forward to this one.

Carolien wrote: "I plan to start towards the weekend or early next week. Looking forward to this one."

Great, Carolien, that's about my timeline now since my current primary book is taking longer than anticipated.

Annette wrote: "I had this on my Mt TBR so I’d like to join in. I tend to progress more slowly because I read multiple books at the same time."

Annette, I typically read more than one at a time as well. I am glad you can join us. I'm not the best at commenting on my thoughts but I'll do my best to discuss.

I'll start today. It will be my book to read while waiting for my daughter at her karate lessons this week. I get about an hour and a half of reading time during the two lessons!

I completed it today and really enjoyed it. Makhaya is a complex character and the author is very astute in her observations of society and expectations.

I must admit that some of my enjoyment was professional. The setting involves subsistence/smallholder farmers and I have been involved in the financing of these farmers for the best part of two decades. I was quite impressed by Gilbert's business plan, much sounder than many I have assessed over time.

Carolien wrote: "I completed it today and really enjoyed it. Makhaya is a complex character and the author is very astute in her observations of society and expectations.

I must admit that some of my enjoyment wa..."

I love your observations and approval of the more technical aspects of this work, Carolien. It all sounded good to me when I read it, but it's definitely not my realm of experience.

Carolien wrote: "I completed it today and really enjoyed it. Makhaya is a complex character and the author is very astute in her observations of society and expectations.

I must admit that some of my enjoyment wa..."

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I should have finished by now but life got in the way this week and my reading took a backseat. I am almost halfway and it just got interesting. Gilbert finally told Maria's father he is going to marry her and the wedding plans have begun. I'll admit that much of the first 5 chapters was not all that interesting to me. The nitty gritty of farming is outside my area of interest and politics of almost any kind is a subject I hate. I appreciate Makhaya's opinion that Africa needs any kind of democracy rather than a short-term benevolent dictatorship that can get Botswana fed which Gilbert champions.

I am in banking as well and we deal with small farmers but I don't look at their business plans. Clearly the idea of crop rotation and planting crops that do well in one's area based on soil and rainfall is important. I am eager to see where this story goes now.

I finished a couple of days ago, but I haven't had time to comment here until now. I liked parts of the book and thought the ideas about the ways to lift Botswana out of poverty seemed pretty sound. The cultural impediments to adopting the new ways of growing crops were explained well. The insights into the ways of life were just what I look for in books by cultures very different to my own.

I felt the book was too short to develop the characters as much as I wanted. Makhaya kept people, women especially, at arms length and I felt removed from him as a reader. He was too enigmatic for me to feel much empathy for him. Gilbert interested me and I wanted to read a bit more of his relationship with Maria. She was the biggest mystery and got short shrift in the story.

I just finished - later than most in the buddy read and I really enjoyed the story. Makaya was a great foil for displaying the interactions of the pragmatic characters. The pacing of the story unfolded like the slower life in a rural village. I live in the desert and although I’m in an urban area, I could imagine the dryness of the drought. I definitely look forward to reading more of Bessie Head’s writing.