Weeping Tomato by Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure

‘The women exhibit blank faces and keep schtum. I find a picture of Adam on my phone and show it to the woman. They look at each other first then shake their heads slowly. Although I'm glaringly out of place, the women, who look battered by life, seem unsurprised by my inquisition, or the fact that Adam’s picture is on my phone.’ (page 113)

Weeping Tomato is Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure’s second novel. This story centres on Zorodzai (Zoro) and Adam’s online love affair. I had a lot of false starts with this book. I am one to know when not to push it, so eventually, many months later, I found my way. I could not put down this book once I started. What an intriguing reading experience! Weeping Tomato is a reminder that things are not always what they seem when it comes to love, desire and relationships.

While there are various themes to unearth, Zoro is at the core of this story, a woman in an unhappy marriage where she and James have become strangers in their union. Vazhure explores the physical, cultural, social and modern complexities associated with Zoro’s life without burdening the reader with morality. One cannot help but share some sympathy with Zoro, but there is a level of irresolution in her character that can be irritating. This is, however, what we keep demanding: stories that are real and explore the layers of humanness. Against the comforts of their home in Herefordshire, where they have created a beautiful life, Zoro and James’ marriage becomes a juxtaposed site of distress. With James, she is visible but unseen, a forgotten relic of young love past.  It is the attention, softness, presence, and adventure that are rationed in her marriage that she hungrily desires from Adam, even when they are worlds apart. This challenge is quickly rectified by technology, one of the joys of modern dating that keeps their relationship fresh and exciting. Zoro finds respite in the love of a man she has yet to meet.  

Vazhure unapologetically tackles womanhood, sexuality and desire in Weeping Tomato. With care and effectiveness, she confronts taboos like a farmer taking out weeds threatening a bumper harvest. A woman’s body, from girlhood to death, is always under scrutiny, and Zoro is not spared. She does not spare herself (due to conditioning) and has a complicated relationship with her body. This is visible too, in how she has kept her body a specific size for James and how she prepares for her long-awaited match with Adam, dieting because she equates slimness to desirability. She only stops punishing herself because Adam prefers a big African woman. The real treat is her freedom with Adam, communicating and exploring her sexual fantasies. In a world where women are taught that sex happens to them, they must wait, and in some cultures, not initiate. Zoro and Adam enjoy the heat of a love yet to be consummated. With these taboos come shame and guilt that gnaw at Zoro, which makes her interrogate her sexual relations, seeking redemption. Surprisingly, she gets validation from her uncle Gweje, a voice she respects because of the hierarchical importance of uncles in her culture. ‘Who told you that our culture doesn’t allow women to cheat? That’s an Elizabethan notion muzukuru…’ (49). She is redeemed and continues with the affair.

With both the men in her life, Zoro is at fault and somehow falls short of the unrealistic yardstick set for her. For example, Adam (an equal and willing participant in the affair) calls Zoro a prostitute for cheating on her husband and questions who would want such a woman, despite him already being with her, and at one time, calls her a toxic feminist. Yet, they are doing the same thing, as the reader soon realises, and he weaponises Zoro’s pursuit for sexual liberation (which he once applauded). Even with James, who has always wanted a trophy wife, it is Zoro’s fault that their fire has died, for it is her marital obligation to keep it going, looking good, cooking well, etc. Both men blame Zoro as if they are without agency, a trait which Khaled Hosseini aptly captures in A Thousand Splendid Suns: ‘Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.’ The three main characters in this text are promiscuous, but Zoro bears the wrath of it all, in the fashion of the oppressive hypocrisy common in our society. Adam constantly shifts responsibility to Zoro; I’d like to call him Mr. Look-What-You-Made-Me-Do. Double standards much? James and Adam have no redeeming features in my eyes.

Vazhure exercises her creative freedom in form, refusing to be bound by the rules of ‘prose’, tapping into her poetic pen, reminiscent of Starfish Blossoms (by the same author). With this deviation, one senses the adventure and short-lived freedom that Zoro experiences in her online relationship with Adam. While there is tenderness to the affair, it suffers erratic and uncomfortable bouts of toxicity in the form of verbal abuse, silent treatment, love bombing, jealousy and eventually physical abandonment (her greatest fear). ‘At this point my life revolves around chasing Adam and waiting for his fawning responses when he feels like it. However, I'm intoxicated by his energy – something about him makes it impossible to let him go. He keeps giving like a well-potted orchid, with some periods of no bloom, but always giving pleasurable blossoms when the time is right.’ (92) Zoro frustratingly repeats the same cycle. There are speculative fiction elements to this book. Vazhure introduces Afrofuturism in the prologue, part two, and epilogue, further showing her creative freedom. Afrofuturism does what it does best: create a fantasy and hope. This is an intentional invocation by Vazhure that has the reader questioning if Zoro has always been delusional, what happened, and by the end of the book, one can't help but ask if she is still a reliable narrator. Weeping Tomato unassumingly embodies realistic vulnerability, which connects Zoro’s narrative to the reader.

I have read all of Vazhure’s published works, and Weeping Tomato is a formidable book that holds its own in her oeuvre. She continues to reinvent and deepen her style in telling the stories that capture her readers, each a literary offering different from the last. I have had the opportunity to discuss all things books with Vazhure on Ihwi, and you can listen to the conversation here or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Wondering what the title Weeping Tomato means? Read the book to find out!

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Book Details

Title: Weeping Tomato

Genre: Fiction

Author: Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure

Publisher: Carnelian Heart Publishing (2024)

Pages: 173