Hilarious, original, educative, entertaining, and relatable, that is how I can easily describe Qarnita Loxton’s latest instalment of the Being series.
Qarnita has indeed saved the best for the last with this cracking novel, and this will without a doubt go down as a hot favourite in the Being series for many readers.
In Being Dianne– which is the last of the Being series, Qarnita introduces the story of Dianne, one of the four women who completes the four offerings of her Being series.
Dianne is a divorcee who lives next door with his divorced husband and their two teenage girls, where they share a garden together. And it was that ‘unique living arrangement’ that for me was where the storyline just hooked me, and put me in suspense to expect more twists and turns. I mean who lives with close to their ex husband and their new fiancée.
Now, I have never been as disappointed with myself for having not read some the previous books of Qarnita, because even though one need not to have read the previous Being series offerings to understand Dianne’s story, however, I kept asking myself what truly inspired this interesting and unique story of Dianne. I have to admit that I admire Qarnita’s brilliant storytelling prowess. This is an amazing story, one that in a way shows the personal experience of the scribe.
Perusing through the pages of this book, I was stunned with how the scribe managed to bring themes such as sexuality, identity, racism, and friendship in one magical way to drive the storyline throughout.
Being Dianne is just not an intriguing and complex family story, but one that many of us will see ourselves and relate to. Whether it be how one ought to handle their children’s sexuality and identity issues, deal with homophobic and racist partners, or protecting one’s peace after divorce- we will all relate.
The characters are as memorable as the storyline.
And while this is a story about and for women written by a woman, I found myself relating to the challenge that Andile (Dianne’s black boyfriend/friend) faced as a black man living in the Western Cape. I appreciate Qarnita’s authentic portrayal of Andile’s story in that she painted a real picture of how irrespective of whether you are successful or not as a black man, you will always be looked in the same lenses in the Western Cape.
With this being the last of the Being series, one hopes- due to the introduction of Shireen in this book, that Qarnita might change her mind and wrap the series with Shireen’s story.
I think the only bummer for me was that fact that I felt like Dianne’s story is a bit incomplete in sense that I had so many questions than answers at the end. Whether Dianne had successfully left that crazy living arrangement with the bastard and racist Alan, and whether she finally decided to give Andile a chance to love her, the scribe has just left us assuming on that front.
And it is that incompleteness of Dianne’s story that make so many of us plead with Qarnita to not end the Being series.
Besides that, this is an amazing read that explores a complex family story.