Zoë Wicomb
The One that Got Away by Zoë Wicomb is a collection of twelve short stories set in South Africa and Glasgow. The stories depict characters at crossroads either because of a change in circumstances or because they have a choice to make while straddling two cultures.
Confronting questions of identity, the characters explore where they came from and their contentious relationship with the past. They delve into the nature of their connections with spouses, friends, and family, as well as their social and cultural environment. The stories include a man who feels at a loose end; a woman who abandons her responsibilities as wife and mother by refusing to leave her bed; a pair of former high school friends discovering they now have little in common; a young girl navigating her life in Glasgow; a cleaning lady who steals a scarf; and a man returning a library book. A character in one story may turn up as related to or connected with a character in another story.
Several of the stories rely on the stream of consciousness technique, so it can be confusing to distinguish between a person’s thoughts and what is actually happening. The stories are uneven, some being stronger than others. All explore questions of identity and cultural belonging. Wicomb shows identity as a fluid construct. How and where we locate ourselves is in constant flux in an ever-changing world. Her stories capture a moment in time in which her characters discover something new about themselves, about their relationships, and about the world around them. They seem to be in a liminal or in-between phase in which the old ways of thinking and doing have lost relevance, but new ways have yet to materialize. The conclusions to her stories are open-ended, and, just as in real life, resolution remain elusive.
A thought-provoking collection of short stories.