Dreaming in Color - GlaucaWyrm

English language

Published March 23, 2023 by Interlink Publishing Group, Incorporated.

ISBN:: 9781623717964

(1 review)

Written with fierce beauty, this coming-of-age/coming-of-queer story looks at navigating the confusion that is intimacy, sex, and identity.

In her debut novel, Dreaming in Color, Uvile Ximba explores with subtlety, humor, and probing insight the connections between the joyful reclaiming of pleasure and the healing of buried traumas.

As students at university in Makhanda, South Africa during the #RUReferenceList campaign, Langa and her lover Khwezi have a passionate and complex relationship. Puzzling gaps in her memory haunt Langa, yet her dreams are vivid with colors and symbols that hint at a nightmare of forgotten violations and losses. So many secrets—and Langa has had enough of secrets and silences. Who can she turn to? Her mother? Her grandmother? Khwezi? Or herself?

Dreaming in Color is Langa's story of coming out to herself, of discerning the history behind the closed door of conscious memory.

1 edition

Stephanie Jane reviewed Dreaming in Color by Uvile Ximba

A thought-provoking novel exploring layered discrimination

4 stars

I found it difficult to believe that Dreaming In Color is a debut novel as Uvile Ximba's prose is so captivating. I loved reading Langa's story uncovering the layers of discrimination she is subjected to as a black lesbian in South Africa. The novel is set at the time in her life when Langa is discovering her true self so it is very much a coming of age tale in which, through Langa's eyes, we see how the society around her is constructed to suppress her on all three counts of her gender, race and sexual orientation.

In a way, reading Dreaming In Color did feel like following a dream in itself. Separate episodes sometimes link to each other, or might diverge abruptly, and a couple of times I did go back to reread chapters, unsure if I was understanding Ximba's meaning correctly. I felt that the book could be …

I found it difficult to believe that Dreaming In Color is a debut novel as Uvile Ximba's prose is so captivating. I loved reading Langa's story uncovering the layers of discrimination she is subjected to as a black lesbian in South Africa. The novel is set at the time in her life when Langa is discovering her true self so it is very much a coming of age tale in which, through Langa's eyes, we see how the society around her is constructed to suppress her on all three counts of her gender, race and sexual orientation.

In a way, reading Dreaming In Color did feel like following a dream in itself. Separate episodes sometimes link to each other, or might diverge abruptly, and a couple of times I did go back to reread chapters, unsure if I was understanding Ximba's meaning correctly. I felt that the book could be enjoyed either simply by allowing myself to be carried along by the prose, trusting that everything would become apparent in time (it does!), or I could pause frequently to ponder and deeply understand each moment. Both approaches made for a satisfying read and I found myself considering aspects of Langa's experience that it had not occurred to me to question before. Even something as apparently simple as wearing a school uniform can be shaming and problematic when that uniform was not designed with all body shapes in mind.

After reading Dreaming In color, I did look up the #RUReferenceList campaign to find out more about it although the gist comes through clearly in the novel. This novel could be triggering for sexual assault although there are no graphic scenes. This was such a thought-provoking novel for me to read and I loved how Ximba addresses so many important issues within her storytelling.