Vicissitudes of Life

Vicissitudes of Life, first published in 2016, is a book of twelve first-person reflections about the swings of fortune and the mind that rides them. Its premise is that the swings themselves are not ours to control: “Consider a person truly fortunate when he can ride the highs and lows of life.” The ground is particular rather than general — the collapse years of Zimbabwe's hyperinflation, when work and money and family order gave way at once, four years without the opportunity to work, insults from people who did not understand the path, and the decision made at rock bottom to become an author.

Innocent Mwatsikesimbe writes plainly and dates his own vantage point, reading each misfortune back as an advantage: hitting bottom kills the fear of failure, and what felt like everything turns out to have been replaceable, while time, knowledge and skill were the real property. The chapters stand alone and can be read in any order, and the book states its conclusion outright — the worst to befall a person can turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to them.