Book Review: “This Thing Called the Future”

By J.L. Powers
Cinco Puntos Press, 2011

Reviewed by Catalina Bonati, 15
Chile

Life is not easy for Khosi Zulu, a South African teenager who is living in poverty and the aftermath of a conflict. She and her immobilized family barely manage to cope with what little they have, and it gets worse when supernatural Zulu traditions add strain to their day-to-day life. Although Khosi is frequently reminded of the cruelty of the South African past and of the opportunities bestowed on her in the relatively free present day, she continually questions this logic. Khosi dares to poke at the flaws of her present time, and in doing so, hopes for a better future. With this hope, she learns to take chances and overcome the effects of poverty, AIDS, alcoholism and more.

This book is an interesting display of the contradictions and similarities between ancient Zulu culture and modern globalization. In This Thing Called the Future, ancient gods and science clash head-to-head in an intriguing narrative.

It takes a lot of effort to write a book such as this, because it is so deep and requires so much research. But the effort definitely paid off—the research J.L. Powers did is evident in every detail. This book offers a daunting, sincere, and profoundly human view of what’s happening on the other side of the globe.