mating

Mating is a novel by Norman Rush from 1991, set in Botswana in the early 1980s. This one won the National Book Award for 1991. Rush tells this story first person, from the POV of a graduate student from Stanford University, struggling with her doctoral thesis in nutritional anthropology. I guess that's a thing

Mating is an interesting look at the native lifestyles of southern Africa, how foreigner's perceive and interact with it, and how the local's feel about foreigners in their country. But more importantly, Mating is about love, how it feels, and how it changes people.

The text in this book is dense, and Rush assumes a huge general knowledge of the world, literature, academe, and foreign phrases! Dude, French AND Latin, and if I remember correctly a smattering of other languages, including Italian. Oh and don't forget Setswana and Afrikaans.* All dropped into casual conversation. Umberto Eco, I'm looking at you.

I really enjoyed this one, but man, it was dense, and it took a while to read, but in the end I'm glad I did. Rush spent some time in Africa, and drew on his experiences there I'm sure, and you can feel that knowledge of local culture, custom, and foods in every paragraph.





* Pro Tip: There is a glossary of Setswana and Afrikaans words, phrases and acronyms at the back of the book. I found it after I finished reading and thought: This would have been handy.