Ending of Zenzele

The ending of Zenzele was a perfect ending for me. While we discussed it being similiar to Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" in the aspect of its demanding and forceful nature, I whole heartedly disagree with that comparison. For me, the novel and the ending it came to served as a mother's final words to her daughter. I took it in a more personal sense that perhaps Shiri would not be able to get the chance to say these things to her daughter in person, or even in another letter; we do not know how long she has left to live, all we know is that she came home to die. As the theme of home resounded throughout the entire novel, I found the ending to be a state of truth, a state of ultimate vulnerability for a mother to say the things she said to her daughter. And while the last few lines did bring tears to my eyes ("my little earthquake") I think it came down to the simplicity of the writing, the simplicity of her words to her daughter. I feel as though if we were all given the chance to tell our children the kinds of stories that Shiri was able to tell Zenzele, even from the profound distance between them (both physcial and now cultural being that Zenzele is abroad), if we were given the opportunity to teach our kids the most divine lessons of life on our own death bed then we would be able to consider ourselves a successful human being, even a blessed human being. The chance to say goodbye is a priceless moment that all too often does not grants us the closure we need. From a personal stance, if my father had written me a letter before he died 8 years ago, I think it would contain similar life lessons, lessons of the heart and lessons of learning.