Author NoViolet Bulawayo's novel 'Glory' draws inspiration from the Orwellian

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2022

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

Author NoViolet Bulawayo's new novel Glory is quite openly based on Orwell's Animal Farm and the 2017 coup in Zimbabwe that ousted then president Robert Mugabe. Horses rule the country, dogs are the military, cows, goats, sheep, and pigs are the everyday people. The government that has been in control of the country Jidada for 40 years has fallen to rebellion. But, as these things go, it quickly turns sour. Bulawayo told NPR's Scott Simon that "it is simply an issue of the leadership kind of forgetting [...] why the people they – that fought to serve – made the sacrifice that they did."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. People love calling things they don't like Orwellian.
0:10.0	It's such an overused term that I'm not even sure what it's supposed to mean anymore. I mean,
0:15.1	picture any keyboard warrior throwing the word around, and it's hard to pinpoint where they are on the political
0:21.1	spectrum. Unless that's the point, right? So-called Orwellian abuses of power can take many
0:27.0	political shapes, which brings us to today's book. I think it's fair to say that No Violet Bulawayo's
0:32.5	book, Glory, is Orwellian in more ways than one. First off, it's definitely inspired by animal farm, but it's also interested in interrogating power and how easily well-meaning radicals looking to overthrow colonialism can end up becoming what they have.
0:49.3	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:53.3	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:58.5	On our new show, Sources and Methods, NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people
1:03.9	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:08.2	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:13.1	Pate.
1:14.6	Glory is a novel openly inspired by Orwell's Animal Farm about the wafflery tumult in
1:20.3	disenchantment that follows the fall of Old Horse.
1:23.8	It's led the country of Jedada for 40 years, out of colonialism, but into an iron horse rule all his own.
1:31.1	He governs a nation of horses, goats, donkeys, dogs, cats, and sheep in an age of Twitter and Siri.
1:38.5	Noviolet Bulawayo, winner of the Penn Hemingway Award and the finalist for the Booker Prize joins us now from Zimbabwe.
1:45.7	Thank you so much for being with us.
1:47.4	Thank you for having me.
1:48.6	And inspired not only by Orwell's Animal Farm, but is it fair to say Robert Mugabe's
1:53.6	long rule in Zimbabwe too?
1:55.9	Absolutely.
	...

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