Much of this novel explores the protagonist's experience with mental illness so it's not a particularly enjoyable read. But it seems ahead of its time for its unvarnished description of the experience. And similar to [b:When Rain Clouds Gather|28278|When Rain Clouds Gather|Bessie Head|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387749241l/28278._SY75_.jpg|2261015] there are vivid descriptions of life in Botswana and efforts to improve agricultural methods/life that are compelling. ( )

If ever I should muster the ability to relate to this madness - please put me out of my misery. It seems to me that Goodreads reviews are often like RottenTomato reviews - the more terrible the movie, the more stars it is given by "great minds." It's almost as if the great minds can't stand the thought of something being beyond them. No great mind here- and no danger in admitting that you couldn't PAY me to read this again. While there are moments of brilliance - it's not worth navigating the riptide of chaos that is the rest of the novel. ( )

Not a book that is easy to read, but it addresses the isolation of mental illness with depth and sincerity. Bessie Head draws out the universal from racial and cultural lines that we draw for ourselves. ( )

A fascinating, moving and at times visceral exploration of mental illness, placelessness and the awful effects of racism and apartheid. The contrast between the protagonists inner life off gods and devils and the serenity of her work and the joy of her little boy is stark and painful. ( )

Bessie Head (1937-1986) was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the product of a relationship between a wealthy white woman and an unknown black man, who was believed to be a farm hand on the family ranch where her mother, Bessie Amelia ("Toby") Emery, lived. Toby was committed to a local mental hospital after her parents learned of her pregnancy, which was taboo in that segregated country. She gave birth to Bessie in this hospital, and as she was deemed to be too mentally ill to raise the child Bessie was sent to live with a white family, who subsequently disowned her after they discovered that she was a "Coloured" (mixed race) girl. Her mother committed suicide after Bessie was taken away from her, so she was placed in a foster care with a black family until she was 13, and then sent to live in a mission orphanage in Durban.

After she earned a teaching certificate she left the orphanage and taught briefly in Durban before she moved to Johannesburg to become a journalist. Her career was marred by racism and sexism, as she was the only female journalist for the publication she worked for. However, her career allowed her to meet members of the Pan Africanist Congress in the early 1960s, who sought the removal of the apartheid system in South Africa and a return to self government by black Africans. She was introduced to her future husband, Harold Head, an anti-apartheid activist, who she married in 1961 and subsequently divorced three years later. She joined the Pan Africanist Congress, and her activities led to her arrest and imprisonment. She sought asylum and left South Africa for neighboring Botswana with her son in 1964. She was accepted as an alien refugee there, on the condition that she would never attempt to return to her home country.

Bessie Head taught and became an agricultural worker in Botswana, but was very lonely and was ostracized in her new surroundings, which led to a nervous breakdown and hospitalization in a mental health facility. She began to write after her release from hospital and slowly gained recognition for her short stories and novels, which allowed her to escape crushing poverty that resulted from her loss of work. Just as she was becoming an acclaimed writer she contracted hepatitis, which led to her premature death at the age of 48.

A Question of Power, which was published in 1973, is a semi-autobiographical novel whose protagonist, Elizabeth, is a mixed race South African who fled to the Botswanan village of Motabeng, where she became a schoolteacher. Elizabeth, like her creator, struggled to fit into Botswanan society, and slowly descended into madness. The narrative features her unusual relationship with two mysterious men, who may or may not be real, and her hallucinatory fantasies are interspersed with her brief lucid periods. The novel can also be viewed as a metaphor for the disturbed state of apartheid South Africa, as well as the effects that this system had on its Black and Coloured residents.

A Question of Power was a disturbing and difficult book to read, as I had a hard time following Elizabeth's schizophrenic thoughts. It is a powerful and inspired work of literature, though, and I do intend to read more of Bessie Head's books, particularly her autobiography A Woman Alone, in the near future. ( )