The Woman Next Door was
a seminal novel by black, South Africa-based, Barbadian author Yewande Omotoso about two older
womenone black and one whiteliving next door to each other at a time when the South African
apartheid state was still raging in full force.
The setting is an upscale
suburban neighborhood in the mid-twentieth century. The two main characters, Hortensia James and
Marion Agostino, interestingly, are often as similar as they are different. Hortensia (dubbed
"Hortensia the Horrible" by Marion) is black, childless, and a fighter who manages
beat back racism and start a popular fabric design firm. Marion (called "Marion the
Vulture" by Hortensia) is white, is widowed, and was a successful architect prior to
birthing her four children. While the women have lived next to each other for two agonizing
decades, hating each other, they both are mirrors of each othertough, proud, and professional,
the latter of which was particularly unusual for the time.
Things take an
interesting turn when the two are forced to live together in the same house after Marion finds
herself homeless and Hortensia becomes bedridden. This creates a perfect powder keg as the two
spar and spat over everything from money to marriage, kids to career, race to reasoning. But
eventually, hostility gives way to compassion as the two get to know one another and learn from
one another to see the world through the other's eyes.
Arguing eventually
becomes conversation and understanding becomes friendship in this story of forgiveness and unity
as each woman's sadness over lost opportunities becomes the cement that brings them
together.
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