ZOË WICOMB’S HOME TRUTHS

Abstract

Zoë Wicomb’s 2000 novel David’s Story appeared at the same time as a number of South African novels in which genealogy and location play an important part. Wicomb’s representation of some of the troubling aspects of the liberation struggle and of Griqua identity was written in Glasgow, a location which might have played a part in her ability to achieve a certain distance from events in South Africa, and which, for readers who are aware of it, affects the reading of the novel. The most powerful element of the novel, however, is the treatment of Dulcie, the truth of whose story remains unreachable.