'The Woman Next Door' Subtle but Effective

“The Woman Next Door,” Yewande Omotoso’s first novel published in the United States, features a fair dose of catty old women. Two widowed next-door neighbors in a South African suburb face their past while firing insults at one another. Though it initially reads more like a beach book than a serious piece of literature, the novel’s discussion of difficult topics such as racism, apartheid, grief, and the past add a depth that a lesser novel would lack.

The two protagonists—a white woman and black woman, both well into their eighties—offer a refreshing change of pace. While many novels make the mistake of rarely including elderly characters, Omotoso brings dimension to her characters. It is easy to feel conflicted: both women are problematic in their own ways, but only because they have endured hardships in their life. Marion, the white woman, both ignores the injustices of the world and in many ways contributes to them, in order to cope with the horrors in South Africa’s history that she never stood up against. Hortensia, the black woman, is purposefully vindictive and enjoys the pain of others. Initially, both women seem to fit the mold for the grumpy old woman, but Omotoso paints backstories for both women that make them more complex.

It is this complexity that makes “The Woman Next Door” so interesting. Throughout the novel the reader does not know whether to love or hate Marion and Hortensia. Both Marion and Hortensia alternately narrate the story to provide a glimpse into the pasts of the two protagonists. Some moments shine with sentiments of friendship, while others seep with hatred. At one point Hortensia snaps at Marion and declares, “At no point in anything are you and I on the same side. I don’t side with hypocrites.” Arguments between the two women and the dual narration also reveal that both Marion and Hortensia seem to truly wish each other harm. However, flashbacks give powerful insight as to what exactly made these women who they are in their old age. Even on the final page of the novel, an uncertainty about the characters’ decency remains. Omotoso uses this as a strategy to force her readers to think about who people are at the ends of their lives and whether or not their past can excuse their present actions.

Omotoso does an excellent job incorporating humor into her novel even in the darkest of times. A short quip from one of the women interrupts moments of tension, giving a laugh in the most stressful situations. This allows the book to maintain the levity its synopsis misleadingly promises while still dealing with the difficult subjects that plague the characters.

Paradoxically, the book is both fundamentally about race and barely touches on the issue. Omotoso rarely has her characters openly address racism, yet the characters’ actions still manage to create racist undertones. Marion struggles with her own racist thoughts, while Hortensia calls out those around her for being racist as a means to make them uncomfortable. While a few moments in the novel directly deal with Marion’s racism, many relationships are used to subtly highlight race relations. The treatment of Agnes, Marion’s housekeeper, and the interracial marriage between Hortensia and her white husband allow the reader to understand the social climate of South Africa. This book is only lightly peppered with direct mentions of the racial injustice of apartheid and the present-day effects of the historical tragedy, yet this is the very essence of the novel as it shows how invisibly pervasive racism is.

The ending of this novel, while satisfying, leaves much to the reader. It is unclear how Omotoso intends for her main characters to come across: should their behavior be excused, or is there no forgiving it? As the two women look back on their lives and decide whether or not they have lived correctly, the reader will be left wondering the same. Through the bittersweet tales of two old women, Yewande Omotoso manages to deliver a thought-provoking novel about apartheid and race relations in South Africa—and an enjoyable read as well.