Hymns flow into one another in unplanned but pleasant segues. - Zakes Mda

For instance, when the Whale Caller wants to consummate relationship with his wife, images of whale interfere at the moment of ex- citement and he goes limp

You see, they say they are fighting for freedom, yet they are no different from the tribal chief and his followers. They commit atrocities as well.

Yet there is nothing that rises, phoenix-like, out of the ashes. All the Whale Caller can do at the scene of the explosion is sit "silent and still as blubber rains on him. Until he is completely larded with it"