Googling blessed girls and South Africa will throw up news stories about sugar daddies and their sugar babes, that is, young girls and women seeking to improve their circumstances or lifestyle. Elsewhere in the world too, young women desperate to pay off crushing student loans are taking this route to earning an income. The point being that there’s nothing new about women bartering sexual favours for payment in cash and/ or kind. But while this sort of arrangement is not news in itself, what is disturbing is that the ‘blessed’ route to material security has had unforeseen consequences for an entire society and country.
The Blessed Girl reads like one long social media update. Bontle Tau, the girl in question, talks to you, the reader, directly and frankly. The chatty, conspiratorial tone of a compulsive updater grates, but you know that there’s more to it than meets the eye. After all, what’s social media without exaggeration and projection. The irony is all too obvious, the subtlety missing.
Bontle is juggling three men — four, counting her almost-ex — and three businesses. She’s all about shoes, clothing labels, fast cars and international holidays. She’s almost a bimbo, except for her “PhD in MENcology”. She’s not above lying, two-timing or cheating, and will do whatever it takes to climb the ladder that leads to the pot of gold. An influx of money into her bank account makes her orgasm and an empty wallet causes her to throw up. It’s so easy to dislike her that you, her confidant, wonder what the point of it all is.
Bontle does have friends and family — and a back story that you can spot from outer space — and that’s where the story’s emotional weight comes from. Her strong bond with her mother and brother, and her fondness for her best friend and almost-ex are about the only reasons you keep turning the pages. Some readers might find Bontle’s propensity for attracting disaster funny, but others may just find it tedious.
In the end, the sledgehammer tactics defeat the purpose of the book.
The writer is the author of Jobless Clueless Reckless, a novel about teenagers.
