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. 

Let's Bust a Recap : Hum If You Don't Know the Words

We're chipping away at the To Be Blogged stack and today's feature is Bianca Marais' 2017 debut Hum If You Don't Know the Words. This book first hit my radar in 2019 when I was trying out the Instagram and Marais' second book If You Want to Make God Laugh was coming out as a new release. I was immediately intrigued by both titles, and when I realized that Marais is a native South African and both books are historical fiction set in South Africa during the apartheid era, I immediately added them to my Must-Read list. My sister-in-law got them for me for Christmas that year (thanks, Dakota!), and I promptly put Hum If You Don't Know the Words on my 2020 book list, but didn't manage to get to it that year. It went back on my list again this year, and in September my friend Amanda chose it for our book club to read. It ended up being the most unputdownable standalone I read this year.

In Hum If You Don't Know the Words, we're introduced to Robin Conrad, a ten year old white girl living in Johannesburg with her parents in the 1970s, and Beauty Mbali, a widowed Xhosa woman raising her children in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei. During the Soweto uprising, Robin's parents are brutally murdered and Beauty's daughter goes missing. Through a series of events, Beauty is hired to care for Robin and this unlikely pair forge an unexpected and complicated bond. The book alternates between their perspectives, and even though there were absolutely devastating elements to this story, the overall tone held hope high. I didn't want to stop reading about these characters, and If You Want to Make God Laugh instantly earned a spot on next year's book list. While it's not a sequel to Hum If You Don't Know the Words, I hear that Beauty and/or Robin may make a cameo in its pages. (I really try to go into the books I read as blind as possible, so I don't know all that much about Marais' follow up novel and please no spoilers in the comments if you've read it!)

I can't say enough good things about Hum If You Don't Know the Words. I enjoyed the South African setting and language (having lived in Joburg for a short time myself in 2009 and 2010), I appreciated the historical context (which was a vital aspect of the novel and written well), and I especially loved the characters' stories (Robin's abrupt coming-of-age and attempts to understand the scary, ever-changing world around her; and Beauty's struggles to find her daughter in a world that's entirely against her because of her black skin color juxtaposed with her mothering of a frightened little girl who can't even understand the benefits she's been given simply because of her white skin color). I wasn't ready for the book to end when it did, and I seriously considered starting Marais' next book immediately. 

All in all, this is a novel I'd recommend to just about anyone. While there are very difficult—potentially triggering—situations and some strong language sprinkled throughout, Hum If You Don't Know the Words will ultimately make you consider the sanctity of human life and—I would hope—cause you to recognize that every person deserves to be treated with dignity. 

Ten out of ten; would recommend.

What's the most unputdownable book you've read this year?