COMMUNITY
THE REMARKABLE
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hat has been the reaction to The Hairdresser of Harare? It’s been really positive. The book has had good reviews from Zimbabwe, South Africa, the USA and the UK, all four countries in which it’s available. But more important has been the positive feedback via email from readers right across the world.
Why the salon setting? The salon acts as a focal point that brings people from different classes and backgrounds together organically. If you’ve been to salons in Zimbabwe you’ll be surprised by just how vibrant and full of life they are. What is your
favourite section of the book? Chapter 22 is explosive. It’s the scene in which Minister M. arrives unannounced and finds Trina, the white farmer’s wife, getting her hair done at the salon. This chapter brings all the central characters together into one scene (a trick Dostoevsky loved to pull in his books) and reveals a lot about the characters and their motivations. What is your ideal writing environment? Big warm house on the outskirts of Edinburgh, rent paid, all the bills paid, food in the fridge, top of the range Apple Mac, room with a view, plenty of money in the bank, fan-mail pouring through my mailbox. Alas, I write in bed from my dingy one bedroom flat on a laptop that’s on its last legs and the only mail I get is brown envelopes from different debt collection agencies, oh and the landlord bless his soul. What books did you enjoy as a young person? I didn’t read as much as I should have, I was too busy enjoying my life and being carefree. The few books I did read
were prescribed reading material at school, Animal Farm, Tunzi and The Faithful Shadow, Julius Caesar - the mandatory Shakespeare, oh and I have vague memories of A Kiss For Little Bear – what a classic. What book do you wish you had written? Tough one because there are so many. Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, I’d give up a kidney, an ear and one testicle if it meant I could have a sliver of that man’s talent. Did you study writing? I didn’t study a creative writing course or anything like that. I learnt through reading writers who I admired and did a lot of trial and error. I wrote awful pieces but that’s just part of the learning process. You don’t just wake up one day and find yourself a virtuoso you need to get your 10 000 hours in there. Sweat, tears and cider. What would you say to encourage new writers? READ, YOU FOOLS! Do you have a book that changed your life? Crime and Punishment, it was my introduction to Russian Literature. After I read it I knew the possibilities of the human mind are limitless. I can safely say had I not read it I probably would never have put pen to paper.
MEN What three men have had a remarkable impact on your life and why? 36 LIME MAGAZINE 2011
Tendai Huchu’s first book The Hairdresser of Harare, was published last autumn, it a story of ambition, love and friendship and gives a sense of what life in Zimbabwe is really like. WORDS: Tricia Wombell
1) Mr. Chauke – my history teacher at Churchill High School, he caned me a lot with a rubber hose pilfered from the science labs but somewhere in between punishment, taught me to think critically and appreciate there are many different dimensions to any story. 2) Robert Mugabe continues to teach me to this day that mankind is such a remarkable creation both capable of reaching the loftiest heights of morality and the basest recesses of depravity. 3) Martin Gotora (aka DJ Smoothspinner) – high school and university friend, taught me it is possible to get to your lectures with a massive hangover. He also supported me immensely as I was getting started on my writing and receiving rejection letters. Without his optimistic friendship to balance my melancholic disposition I probably would have quit ages ago. Oh, and groupies may not like writers but they also seem to like the DJ’s best mate – saved me from many a cold night. Tendai Huchu’s first book The Hairdresser of Hairdresser is out now Tricia Wombell blogs at Black Book News: www. tricia-blackbooknews.com.