[Untitled]

Date

2014-01

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa

Abstract

When Liz, a successful freelance journalist, catches her fiancé in bed with Mwewa, a woman she considers inferior, she writes off Zambian men, a decision that riles her mom, a traditional marriage counselor, who sees Liz’s nonconformist outlook on marriage—that it should be monogamous—as the reason she fails to land a husband. Liz moves on and falls in love with Marvin, an American, in a whirlwind online romance. With Marvin, she glimpses her idea of an ideal relationship, and a trip to the altar seems inevitable; at last, Liz can silence the bitter debates with her mom. But Marvin vanishes. His e-mails bounce back, his profile disappears from the website Liz met him and apart from a photograph he e-mailed her, she has no way of tracing him. Liz refuses to accept losing Marvin. She walks out on her thriving career, defies her culture and sets off to find him. En route, she learns that Marvin had cheated on her— with Mwewa. Reeling from this devastation, Liz witnesses Ivor, a blast from her past, show Mwewa the affection Liz thought Zambian men incapable. When she gets to America and discovers that Marvin’s identity is a sham, Liz parallels his behavior to that of Zambian men. She reevaluates her convictions about deception as well as her mom’s teachings. Told in third person close point of view with events laid out in chronological order, the principle theme is that sometimes it takes leaving to appreciate one’s home and culture.

Description

Keywords

Marriage, Zambia, Deception, Culture

Citation

DOI

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