«Customary Shambles» by Lilian Masitera

Customary Shambles is an exploration of the motives behind parenting. It is a tale of the cries of children caught in the jaws of a broken family, of overworked parents, single parents, authoritative parents and about unwanted children. The message is, pause before parenting.

Author interview

What makes your novel Customary Shambles so special?Customary Shambles is different in that what was taken as the norm fails to fit into the usual pattern. The hunted animal turns around to face and dare the hunter! Children, unhappy with their lot, speak out or quietly live out their miserable lives thereby forcing the reader to rethink about haphazard parenting.

Customary Shambles is special. It addresses issues that are either whispered about or shelved altogether, issues such as parenting outside marriage. In such a case, the child might even be told to call its mum ‘sister’ so as not to reveal the single parentage. Issues such as preference for the boy child are also broached. Until a boy is born, the girls can pile up whether or not the couple can cope with the growing needs. No thought seem to go into the damage such cases can do to the ‘victim’ children.

Tell us more about your genre, way of writing and what led you to write Customary shambles?The genre adopted in this book is prose in short story-telling. This kind of writing appeals to a great many young people whose concentration seems limited because of present day reliance on whatsapp and short message formats. The bulk of the stories are written in the first person as this facilitates identification with narrator, who in most cases is the protagonist.

Why should readers give your work a try?I was compelled to write Customary Shambles when I witnessed a mum sending away her 14 year old daughter to marry the boy she walked with after school, home. That urged me to speak out, especially since this girl’s mum was a divorcee supporting 5 children. Generally, I know too many cases of traumatized kids who have no voice. This book is suitable reading for students of psychology, sociology and literature and it offers entertainment for just about anybody.