Saga! Saga! Saga! And Such Enthralling Fiction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         Girls, I want to tell you, especially since we are so close to the year's halfway point,  this could earn a place on my Ten Best List.

                                          Sagas have changed, since the days of Susan Howatch and James A. Michener, whom I devoured in my teens.  Today. they are less sprawling, more literary in narrative style, and less concerned with the aristocracy than in years past.

                                            "The Old Drift" traces the history of Zambia, in Africa, from 1939, to yes, 2023!  That is right, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Three generations of families, in generational sections--The Grandmothers, The Mothers, and The Children-- tell their stories, which cover revolution, class difference and indifference, the spread of AIDS, and the potential destruction society's overt obsession with technology could bring to civilization.

                                           There is even a character named Lovenelle, which amounts to Loveless, because, darlings, she is the prime bitch of this novel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                             I was enthralled, and read this at a fever pitch!  I actually wanted to go on.  But Ms. Serpell, on her debut effort, stops at the right place, not extending into overreach, as in years past.

                                               The days of "....And Ladies Of The Club" will be fondly recalled, but are long past.  The kind of saga Serpell writes has grit, aggression, and a prose style that will sweep you on its way to the most explosive climax, since the mud slide in Vikram Seth's "A Suitable Boy."

                                                 Forget that "Other Boleyn Girl" chick nonsense.  If you want an historical saga, dolls, this is the REAL thing!

                                                   Read it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!