The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam by Lauren Liebenberg

Rhodesia – a place of great beauty, but also of terrible, man-made, tragedy. The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam is, above all else, a magical evocation of childhood; at times laugh-out-loud funny, at others heartbreakingly sad. It tells the story of two young sisters, Nyree and Cia O’Callohan, who live on a remote farm in the East of what was Rhodesia in the late 1970s. Beneath the dripping vines of the Vumba rainforest, and under the tutelage of their heretical grandfather, Oupa, theirs is a seductive world laced with African paganism, bastardised Catholicism and the lore of the Brothers Grimm – until their idyll is shattered forever by their orphaned cousin, Ronin. His arrival at the farm sets in motion a chain of events that result in tragedy and the loss of innocence.
Little, brown Book Group Website

I’ve read some very positive reviews for this book, and I can understand why, but unfortunately it’s just not for me. I enjoyed the characters of Nyree and Cia, as the author manages to capture well their understanding of the world, and that childlike innocence and blind belief. They talk about fairies, fighting, and boils caused by insects, all in an open and innocent matter.

Unfortunately, I have no understanding of the war that was apparently going on at the time, and it’s not something that particularly interests me. Probably because of this, I feel lost whilst reading the book, and I can’t get involved enough to keep me reading. This is just my personal experience though.. I do believe the book to be well written, and if you have some knowledge, or an interest in the history/political aspect, it should make a highly enjoyable book.

Little, brown book group. March 2008 £12.99