Thoughts on Wendy Kann's memoir "Casting with a Fragile Thread"

Kann's book is an interesting personal story. I couldn't put down the first 100 pages or so.

I mainly picked the book up because I love Alexandra Fuller's books so much, and I thought this would be similar. Kann does not provide all the context Fuller does, and her Salisbury (Harare) suburban upbringing is different from Fuller's rural experience. And it doesn't really have a clear moral perspective on the experience of Rhodesians / Zimbabweans before, during, or after the civil war. Although she takes a light touch to reflect on these issues, she constantly talks about how lonely white people are in rural Zambia, when they are certainly surrounded by the black community. Of course, they may actually feel lonely, but there is no reflection on why this is right, wrong, absurd, etc.

She does touch on the complexity of the experience of white Africans. In one story, her sister has "squatters" on her farm, who claim that the land is their cultural heritage. For local political reasons, they are ultimately kicked off the land in a brutal and sad manner ("Barefoot mothers scooped up wailing children; police ignited huts and corn; the little village burst into flame."). Kann notes that:

"Lauren and Richard had their land back. A strange combination of fear and guilt remained lodged in their throats, but those are not unusual emotions in Africa, and after a week or two the feelings started to dissipate."

Of course, if Kann didn't have to share this sad and complex story with her readers, so I appreciate that she treated this delicate issue in her writing.

The story is compelling because it's seems unusual to most Westerners, but otherwise it's a personal story of family struggles and hardships (and yet, relative privilege).