Identity and Belonging
The theme of identity and belonging is a recurring theme that Higginson explores with his characters in the novel. Looksmart has always been caught in between two worlds: the world of wealth and privilege afforded to him by Patricia and his experiences at private school, and the world of rural poverty in which his mother and so many previous generations lived before him. This causes Looksmart much conflict in his life and is one of the driving forces that makes him return to Dwaleni. Patricia accepts her personal identity; however, with Looksmart's return to the farm, she is faced with upheaval. Looksmart was her surrogate child in so many ways, and her identity as his "mother," such a vital part of her happiness in the years following Looksmart's birth, is challenged by his rage and his revelations. Bheki is the opposite of these characters: at ease with who and what he is, content with his place in society and life, and able to more or less easily make decisions that are right for himself and his son. His "go with the flow" nature is one that Higginson uses to contrast Looksmart's conflict.
Love and Hate
The theme of love and hate is repeatedly explored through Looksmart and Patricia's conversation and memories of their past relationship. Looksmart arrives at Dwaleni with ingrained hate for Patricia, planning to allow his years of rage and grief at the loss of Grace to be brought down on top of Patricia in order to achieve a sort of reckoning and revenge. However, when he arrives at Dwaleni, the nostalgia and feelings of love and happiness that he experienced in his relationship with Patricia revive, leaving Looksmart feeling far more conflicted than he was when he first arrived at Dwaleni.
Truth and Memory
Higginson's novel expertly shows us the duality and unreliability of memory. Key examples are that of the fishing incident and the incident regarding Grace's death. Patricia and Looksmart both remember Looksmart's childhood vastly differently: Patricia believing that Looksmart loved her and had a happy and fulfilling childhood with her influence, and Looksmart remembering Patricia as an agent of disruption and resentment in his life. The truth is somewhere between those views, but it takes a keen interrogation of memory, as well as an understanding that memory might ultimately fail, in order to arrive at that "truth."
The Past
Most of the characters are trapped in the past: Patricia remembers her father, Durban, and the early days of Looksmart; Richard is tortured by Rachel and memories of the farm and the animals; Looksmart is consumed by the loss of Grace and his rage at Patricia and Richard. They find the present troubling and destabilizing, finding more comfort in what they perceive to be the "truth" of the past—at least as seen through their own very subjective lens. It takes a major disruption, Looksmart's surprise visit to Patricia on the eve of her departure, to jolt them both out of the past and into the present and their (hopefully more honest) future.
Apartheid and Race in South Africa
The world of the play is one in which apartheid has ended and white and black South Africans are dealing with—sometimes uncomfortably, bitterly, and confusedly—their new reality. There are many allusions to this, such as Looksmart's frankness in feeling out of place and trying to compensate, Richard's attempts to hold on to paternalistic power, Bheki's choice to turn to black people rather than work for white people again, and Patricia's memories of all the things she didn't understand about apartheid's fall. Patricia and Looksmart's entire relationship rests on apartheid; it is embedded in the dynamic between them, how they see each other, and how they see themselves.
Motherhood
Patricia loses her only child, Rachel, right after birth and thus feels an immense, gaping hole in her heart. Looksmart helps fill that gap, which is why his surprise, disruptive presence the night before she leaves Dwaleni is so surprising and uncomfortable. This relationship is what complicates everything, making the novel a nuanced account of the post-apartheid period.
Houses and Home
All of the characters are, in some way, searching for a real home—for their "dream house." Even if they have a roof over their heads, it is difficult sometimes for them to feel as if they were really at home. Beauty longs for a home of her own, but she spends her days haunting the farmhouse and the reproductions of the farmhouse. Looksmart has his own house now, but he continues to obsess over the home that he had with Patricia, even if it was fraught. Richard is completely unmoored from home, trapped in the fog of what once was. And Patricia has always lived uncomfortably in the Dwaleni house, hoping that Durban will be a real home. Higginson suggests that it takes a reckoning with truth and memory to get close to making a house a home.
