Let's Bust a Recap : If You Want To Make God Laugh

Hello there! Today is the last day of July and I have managed to finish exactly zero books from my 2023 book list this month. I'm in the middle of five different ones, but last week I fell into a Robin Jones Gunn shaped hole and now I'm in the middle of my own personal Christy Miller marathon. 

But really, that's neither here nor there. Today I'll be talking about Bianca Marais' sophomore novel If You Want To Make God Laugh which I read last month. After reading Marais' 2017 debut Hum If You Don't Know the Words last year and thoroughly loving it, I immediately decided her 2019 follow-up would go on my 2023 book list. While Marais' second novel was just as compelling as her first, I ultimately found the content of If You Want To Make God Laugh much less palatable and wouldn't necessarily recommend it.

If You Want To Make God Laugh is set in the early 90s in the immediate wake of apartheid and during the rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. We are introduced to three different women—Delilah, a 58 year old white, nun-turned-aid-worker; Delilah's sister Ruth, an alcoholic, potentially suicidal former exotic dancer; and Zodwa, a young black high school student dealing with an unwanted pregnancy resulting from rape—and the novel shifts between these three unique perspectives. 

Before you read any further, I'm about to delve into—what I would consider—spoilery territory so if that's a problem for you: beware. 

After getting news that the son she never got a chance to know has been shot and is in critical condition in Johannesburg, Delilah rushes to be at his side and ends up at her family's old farm. Her sister Ruth has also come up from Cape Town in an attempt to sell the farm because her personal resources are dwindling and she doesn't want to take anything from her third husband in the midst of their divorce. When Zodwa's newborn son is taken by her mother to the sisters and Ruth is determined to adopt him, Zodwa finds herself on a year-long journey to locate him after her mother dies before revealing to Zodwa where she took the baby. Zodwa then finds herself in the strange position of being hired as a maid in Delilah and Ruth's home, neither of the sisters aware that Zodwa is the child's mother. 

It's a lot. And while I think Marais did an excellent job of writing another compelling story that kept me turning the pages, this one had too many drawbacks for me to recommend it without any reservations or warnings. For one, the strong language in this novel was pervasive and off-putting. I'm not one to reject a book wholesale just because it has some salty language, but there is a tipping point for me and If You Want To Make God Laugh went past my tipping point. For another thing, the sexuality and sexual trauma of all three women was a lot for me to stomach. Delilah and Zodwa are both victims of rape, and Ruth is just a whole bag of problems (although she was probably my favorite of the three). Then, of course, there are all the implications surrounding HIV, child abandonment in South Africa, and adoption which are personally fraught topics for me. So yeah. Not a book I would just hand out to my friends, but one I am still glad I read. 

All in all, I would say Marais' writing is solid but after reading If You Want To Make God Laugh, I'm not committed to following her work. Her newest release is about a coven of modern-day witches which I have no desire to pick up. If she writes anything else set in a historical context in her homeland of South Africa, I'd consider reading it, but I won't be rushing to the nearest bookstore on the day it releases. 

TL;DR version: definitely read Hum If You Don't Know the Words, but maybe skip If You Want To Make God Laugh.