Book Review: This Book Betrays My Brother by Kagiso Lesego Molope (2/5)

I’m in the thick of a slew of books that were part of a free audiobook download summer program with my library. So a lot of these are ones I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise and I think it’s showing in some lower ratings these past few months. This one is right in that vein.

Cover image via Amazon

This Book Betrays My Brother by Kagiso Lesego Molope

Summary from Amazon:

What does a teenage girl do when she sees her beloved older brother commit a horrific crime? Should she report to her parents, or should she keep quiet? Should she confront him? All her life, Naledi has been in awe of Basi, her charming and outgoing older brother. They’ve shared their childhood, with its jokes and secrets, the alliances and stories about the community. Having reached thirteen, she is preparing to go to the school dance. Then she sees Basi commit an act that violates everything she believes about him. How will she live her life now?

I had two major problems with this book. The first came out of the format primarily. The first few minutes of the audiobook were a glossery of foreign words and their English equivalent. The characters in this book speak a few languages and slide between them often so there were many phrases that were not in English throughout the book. As a print book, this is a minor inconvenience to flip back and forth. As an audiobook, it’s impossible. I’m driving down the freeway, I can’t go back to the beginning of the audiobook, find the translation, and then return to my spot. I would just forgoe understanding what the character was saying. I think the author could have found ways to interject the translations in the prose with some more description, but the fault is more with this being an audiobook.

My second major gripe is the pacing. I’m glad I didn’t read the summary before reading this book. The big event described in the description took place about 80-85% of the way through the book. The build up to it was most of the novel. I was really frustrated because I cared about Naledi and her boyfriend and friends and relationship with her parents. And then the event described happened and none of that was resolved, we immediately switch our attention to Basi’s actions and wrap them up as quickly as possible. It made me feel like my emotional investment was all for nothing because it wasn’t important any more and was unresolved. While this might be more like real life, it’s an unsatisfactory book.

I thought the characters Molope built were really good and vibrant. I liked the distinct personalities of Naledi’s family members and friends. I cared what they were doing and thought. I wanted good things for Naledi. I think how well developed the characters were is part of why the pacing and end was such a disappointment.

Ole was my favorite character. I liked her as a foil to Neledi’s femininity and the comparison between her and Kgosi as the friends from their old neighborhood. She stood out to me as one character who had a level head on her shoulders when many others seemed to act before speaking or judge before listening.

Neledi’s excitement about the dance and her first boyfriend was very relatable. I remember those feelings in high school, figuring out what relationships looked and felt like and how I might fit into it. I think that plot line was really fun and interesting, but it ended abruptly with very little resolution which was a disappointment.

Kagiso Lesego Molope Image via Wikipedia

I wish more of the book would have been reflections like the last bits of the book were. I thought it was interesting to explore how Neledi and her family reacted to what Basi did. It was interesting to hear how it altered their lives and the community they lived in and I think that should have been more a focus of the book. Instead, it gave the feeling that Neledi’s feelings and Basi’s guilt didn’t matter because they were given so little consideration.

Because of how brief this part wasy, even though I found it the most interesting, it was also infuriating and I disliked it. This is weird, I know. I wanted this part of the book to be more of a focus because I found it so interesting and relevant. It’s brevity  was really upsetting to me and it left me with a very sour taste in my mouth.

The audiobook was narrated by Jacqui Du Toit. Despite my issue with the audiobook format, I have no issues with Du Toit’s narration. I think she did a great job handling names that I would have struggled with and incorporating several languages into the story. I liked the voice she gave to each character, especially Neledi’s mother.

The truth can be a dangerous thing. Neledi knows the truth as do Moipone and Basi but no one else is privvy to what happened. The dangerous  thing is those who think they know the truth. A story can get so twisted that it’s hard to remember what happened and what truth is. It was ugly to see how Basi talked about things years later and how he seemed to push it under the rug when Moipone and Neledi were unable to. There was a lot of male privlidge in Basi’s favor. I understand that a lot of the book was building up why Basi had that privlidge, but I’ll continue to argue that the pacing could have been different and focused on him having a halo affect in the aftermath instead of talking about why that existed.

Writer’s Takeaway: It’s great to hear a story that I never could have written. Molope’s knowledge of the culture in the area she was raised made for a unique story. It makes me think about what in my life is unique and could be shared. What experiences or background do I have that would help me write a compeling story that would make people think and understand my background? In what space does my voice matter?

Overall, I was left with a very sour taste in my mouth after this book. Two out of Five Stars.

Until next time, write on.

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