S2 Episode 3: Review of If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais
I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a Wednesday more! The podcast has been a refuge for both Ashley and I. We’re so grateful to have each other to lean on as well as all our listeners. This weekend’s recording session was so so so needed and we hope the joy we felt talking to each other about this book brings you some joy today as well.
I knew I was going to love If You Want to Make God Laugh, but I wasn’t prepared for how much I’d fall in love with the writing and the author. This book is compulsively readable and I’m so happy Ashley pushed me to read it!
We had the opportunity to speak with Bianca a little more candidly and want to share the full interview so you could get to know her better as well!
Which character was the hardest to write? Which was the easiest?
The hardest character for me to write was probably Delilah. I’m not a religious person myself but I was very intrigued by Delilah’s faith and that was something I wanted to explore. So writing a character you can’t really relate to can be tough. But I recall Terry McMillan saying that she writes a book to get to know her characters and to get to like them. And while I struggled with Delilah in the beginning, I felt like I really knew her by the end.
Ruth was the easiest to write because she’s so much fun despite being such a narcissist. In a very heavy book, Ruth allowed levity and laughter; for that, I’m incredibly grateful.
Why is Zodwa written in the 3rd person? I personally think this was a genius choice, and have my guesses as to why you write her this way, but I’d love to hear the actual reason and see how close I am!
With regards to Zodwa being written in the third person: I write all of my characters in every different point of view (and tense!) in early drafts as I try to find my way into their voice. Ruth and Delilah are essentially unreliable narrators and so the first person worked well for them. Ruth is a classic narcissist who doesn’t see herself very clearly so she makes an excellent unreliable narrator. She lends herself to the first person. Delilah is emotionally closed off and guards secrets - again, this lends itself to the first person. For Zodwa, I wanted the reader to have access to information that Zodwa herself wouldn’t be privy to, which meant that the third person worked better so much better for her story.
An example of this is already on the second page of the novel when Zodwa sees the healer:
“The powerful root must be consumed on an empty stomach so that it can induce the lucid and prophetic dreams that will help her hear the ancestors’ voices”. Zodwa wouldn’t know this information but I wanted the reader to know it. You can’t do that kind of sleight of hand in first person.
It was unfortunately misunderstood by the NYT Book Review who saw it as a race issue - that I didn’t see Zodwa as important as the two white characters. This couldn’t be further from the truth!
What was the hardest part of this book to write?
There were a lot of tough parts in writing this book: the sexual violence was incredibly tough to tackle, as was reliving so much of the AIDS pandemic in South Africa. I never meant to include so many heavy issues – it’s not like I have a checklist of all the themes I want to address. I just listen to each character telling me their story and see where it goes. These three women have faced many challenges in their lives but what fascinates me is their amazing resilience and strength.
If you could pick this story back up right now, and talk about where Delilah, Zodwa, and Mandla are right now—how would their lives be?
I purposefully leave my novels on a note where the reader gets to decide how the story will ultimately end. I like seeing my characters in that brief, shiny, happy moment because even if things don’t go well after that, at least they had that moment. In my first novel, Hum If You Don’t Know the Words, the one character says: There are no happy endings. A story that has ended happily is just a story that hasn’t ended yet. I know that sounds a bit bleak, but even the happiest lives will end, and the end is always devastating. For me, Dee, Zodwa and Mandla are living all the different endings that my readers imagine for them and that makes me very happy.
How did the experience of writing this book differ from HUM IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE WORDS?
With a debut novel, you have all the time in the world to write the book. The only deadlines are self-imposed ones. So, HUM took me about three years in total to write and then rewrite many, many times. With LAUGH, I sold the book to my publisher based on three chapters and a synopsis. And then I effectively had six months in which to write the first draft of the book! So it was a much more intense writing experience. Also writing three protagonists instead of two was much harder than I’d anticipated.
Are you working on another book right now? If so, what can you tell us about it?
I’ve recently finished a psychological thriller/domestic suspence which I’m hoping to find a good home for. Besides that, I’m actually working on two other books at the same time which is a bit crazy! I’ve decided to write the HUM sequel because so many die-hard fans have asked for it and I want to thank them for their love and incredible support. I initially didn’t think I’d do the sequel because I didn’t want to write from a person of colour’s perspective again, since I believe the Own Voices movement is so important and that black women should get to tell their own stories. And so I’m focusing on empowering young black women writers in South Africa through the Eunice Ngogodo Own Voices Initiative that I set up. But I’m planning to self publish the novel which means that I won’t be taking away an opportunity from a person of colour to publish. And I feel way more comfortable with that choice. I’m also starting another thriller.
What was your hope for the reader while they read this book?
My hope for the reader was for them to be entertained first and foremost, and for them to learn and grow in the process. There’s so much about South Africa, the AIDS pandemic, canned lion hunting, etc, that people don’t know. If I’m able to broaden my reader’s horizons while having them fall in love with my characters, then I feel I’ve achieved exactly what I set out to do. We are all so different in terms of culture/language/race/gender, etc, etc but we’re all ultimately human. It’s our shared humanity that brings us together.
Bianca, THANK YOU for taking the time to share your words with us. We are forever grateful. Tune into today’s episode to hear our spoiler free and separate spoiler filled episodes!