{"id":268804,"date":"2025-07-14T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/?p=268804"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:47:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T09:47:32","slug":"book-review-the-village-indian-tells-of-quirky-small-town-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/book-review-the-village-indian-tells-of-quirky-small-town-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Village Indian tells of quirky small town life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-book-review-the-village-indian\">Book review: <em>The Village Indian<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-author-vanessa-govender\">Author: Vanessa Govender<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-publisher-jacana\">Publisher: Jacana<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>The Village Indian<\/em>, Vanessa Govender catches readers up with all the quirkiness that\u2019s been happening in her life after her controversial first book <em>Beaten Not Broken<\/em> was published in 2018. <em>Beaten Not Broken<\/em>, which I have googled but not read, chronicled Govender\u2019s difficulties in an abusive relationship with a well-known media personality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, Govender, who many will remember as the television reporter who broke boundaries in South Africa\u2019s fledgling democracy, has remarried and moved to a small Western Cape town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Village life, Govender finds, is anything but dull and she chronicles the oddities of her small-town existence in this hilarious book. Peppered with Indianisms, bits of Afrikaans and the occasional breaking of the fourth wall, this biographical narrative had me cackling. Govender is a witty writer and can craft a good story. She had me on the edge of my seat waiting for the climax of some of the &#8220;skinder&#8221; stories she recounted about people I could never have known and would ordinarily not have cared about, had it not been for her colourful characterisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not all of the <a href=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/goodwood-author-shameez-patel-takes-readers-on-magical-adventures\/\">book<\/a> is about Govender\u2019s move to the unnamed village. She gives depth to the narrative by also telling about her childhood and youth in Chatsworth before touching briefly on what was most likely described in deeper detail in her first <a href=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/goodwood-author-shameez-patel-takes-readers-on-magical-adventures\/\">book<\/a>. The reader is then taken along for a ride on the mind shift that needed to happen for the \u201cbolshie\u201d city girl to gradually gravitate towards the idea of a quieter country life. When the story eventually reaches the village, the reader, like Govender, finds that country life is anything but quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"677\" height=\"1024\" data-attachment-id=\"268807\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/book-review-the-village-indian-tells-of-quirky-small-town-life\/village-indian-hr\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/VILLAGE-INDIAN-HR.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1835,2774\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"VILLAGE INDIAN HR\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/VILLAGE-INDIAN-HR-677x1024.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/VILLAGE-INDIAN-HR-677x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Quirky characters and village life make for one hilarious read when a &quot;bolshie&quot; city slicker discovers that small town life is anything but dull.\" class=\"wp-image-268807\" srcset=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/VILLAGE-INDIAN-HR-677x1024.jpg 677w, https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/VILLAGE-INDIAN-HR-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/VILLAGE-INDIAN-HR-768x1161.jpg 768w, https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/tygerburger\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/VILLAGE-INDIAN-HR.jpg 1835w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 677px) 100vw, 677px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for a good dose of South African story-telling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quirky characters and village life make for one hilarious read when a &#8220;bolshie&#8221; city slicker discovers that small town life is anything but dull.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":268805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_linkdex":"","_yoast_wpseo_content_score":"90","_yoast_wpseo_inclusive_language_score":"90","_yoast_wpseo_is_cornerstone":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image-id":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image-id":"","newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_EventAllDay":"","_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":"","_EventShowMapLink":"","_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":"","_EventVenueID":"","_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":"","_VenueShowMapLink":"","_application":"","_batch_id":"","_company_name":"","_company_tagline":"","_company_twitter":"","_company_video":"","_company_website":"","_custom_id":"","_EventDuration":"","_EventOrigin":"","_EventTimezoneAbbr":"","_featured":"","_filled":"","_job_expires":"","_job_location":"","_media_credit":"","_media_credit_url":"","_menu_item_menu_item_parent":"","_menu_item_object":"","_menu_item_object_id":"","_menu_item_target":"","_menu_item_type":"","_menu_item_url":"","_menu_item_xfn":"","_navis_media_can_distribute":"","_navis_media_credit_org":"","_OrganizerOrigin":"","_provider":"","_pum_built_in":"","_pum_default_theme":"","_pum_form_conversion_count":"","_remote_id":"","_remote_name":"","_remote_position":"","_report_frequency":"","_report_reference_dates":"","_send_attempts":"","_site_id":"","_sitemap_exclude":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_sitemap_priority":"","_source_url":"","_subscription_period":"","_subscription_period_interval":"","_subscription_price":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":"","_template_type":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_tribe_aggregator_allow_multiple_organizers":"","_tribe_aggregator_content_type":"","_tribe_aggregator_file":"","_tribe_aggregator_finalized":"","_tribe_aggregator_hash":"","_tribe_aggregator_import_id":"","_tribe_aggregator_import_name":"","_tribe_aggregator_interactive":"","_tribe_aggregator_origin":"","_tribe_aggregator_post_status":"","_tribe_aggregator_preview":"","_tribe_aggregator_source_name":"","_tribe_aggregator_type":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_hide_attendees_list":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":"","_tribe_ticket_version":"","_type":"","_VenueOrigin":"","_wp_attachment_context":"","_wp_attachment_image_alt":"","_wp_font_face_file":"","_wp_old_date":"","_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":"1","_yoast_wpseo_focuskeywords":"[{\"keyword\":\"Learn how Vanessa Govender captures the essence of small town life in her book The Village Indian. 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