by Maggie Marx on 19 Jun 2013
Verdict: carrot
A Lutheran mission station deep in rural Venda is the setting for much of this engaging debut novel. It is narrated by Johannes, a missionary’s young son, growing up in this sheltered and idyllic environment and speaking fluent ÂTshivenda and German.
A parallel strand, told in the second person, describes Johannes as an old man, quietly deteriorating in a house on the outskirts of a dorp. By now he is a widower with a daughter he seldom sees, and with whom he has a history of estrangement.
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by Maggie Marx on 19 Jun 2013
Uitspraak: wortel
Ou bloed deur Peet Venter is die jongste toevoeging tot die misdaadroman-genre wat deesdae so gewild is onder Afrikaanse lesers.
Dit is ’n opvolg van Dieper as bloed, wat verlede jaar verskyn het, en vertel die verhaal van kapt. Thys Krige se meedoënlose soeke na die moordenaar van sy pa, Albert.
Boekbesonderhede
by Maggie Marx on 19 Jun 2013
Uitspraak: wortel
Op versoek van die webmeester, Marlise Joubert, skryf ek hierdie verslag oor Nuwe stemme 5.
Goed, willig ek in, maar verduidelik: dit kan nie ʼn gedistansieerde resensie wees nie. Ek is immers self besig met die begeleiding en ontdekking van jong talent. Hierom besluit ek dan op ʼn essay wat die prosesse sal verduidelik. ʼn Soort apologia pro domo. Maar sonder om kritiese afstand in te boet.
Boekbesonderhede
by Lindsay on 19 Jun 2013
Verdict: carrot
In Achmat Dangor’s stories the protagonists are, for the most part, diverse South African people of colour, some of mixed race, some not. Some of them lived in exile during the struggle, others are overseas in the post-1994 period of transition (which we are still in).
He looks at how people manage their relationships with wives, mothers, in-laws and lovers in these conditions, and, in all the stories, his protagonists investigate their past.
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by Maggie Marx on 18 Jun 2013
Verdict: carrots!
I have always loved the Karoo and have a particular fascination for the karretjiemense who spend their lives travelling through this barren landscape with their donkey carts.
THE Karretjiemense of the Karoo live precariously on the fringes of society; wandering the roads and the veld, finding occasional employment, often surviving off roadkill and roots.
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by Maggie Marx on 18 Jun 2013
By Andrew Donaldson for The Times
IF YOU READ ONE BOOK THIS WEEK
Someone to Watch Over Me, by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir (Hodder & Stoughton)
In the fifth in Sigurdardóttir’s Thora Gudmundsdóttir series the lawyer comes to the aid of a young man with Down’s syndrome who has been convicted of burning down his care home and killing five residents. Ignore the rubbish about “Iceland’s answer to Stieg Larsson”; this is way better – terrifying and compelling.
THE ISSUE
The great forgotten American novel has been in the news again, particularly Stoner, by John Williams (1965).
What of forgotten South African novels begging rediscovery? One that comes to mind is Sylvester Stein’s bitterly funny 1958 masterpiece, Second Class Taxi. Its protagonist, Staffnurse Phofolo, is “idle and undesirable”, and courts immediate arrest for having no pass. Not that he’s bothered; he has a warm greatcoat and a drain pipe he calls home. But real life comes calling in the form of various do-gooders – liberals, church people and, of course, the ANC (thinly disguised as the African Congress of Equality). Readers are urged to hunt down “Stuffness” (as he’s often called). He’s unforgettable.
CRASH COURSE
Self-proclaimed grandmaster of Hindi crime fiction Surender Mohan Pathak’s 300 or so novels have sold some 25 million copies. Which is not bad for an author only sold at platform stalls at India’s railway stations. Bookstores won’t stock his work – despite a near-fanatical following among third-class travellers.
“Educated people in India don’t want to read Hindi and they certainly won’t be seen dead with one of my books,” Pathak told The Times of London recently. With the recent English translations of three Pathak titles, The Last Goal, Daylight Robbery and The 65 Lakh Heist, he is, however, now attracting the attention of literati with a penchant for slumming.
For an idea of the style of Pathak and others, The Times published this pithy extract from Sudhandira Sangu’s 1933 guide, The Secret of Commercial Novel Writing: “(1) The title of the book should carry a woman’s name – and it should be a sexy one like Miss Leela Mohini. (2) Your story must absolutely include a minimum half-dozen lovers and prostitutes [and] preferably 10 or a dozen murders. (3) If you try to bring any social messages, forget it. Beware! You are not going to lure your women readers.”
THE BOTTOM LINE
“Despite all the powers of contemporary science, the seemingly straightforward anatomical question, is there a G spot? remains unanswered.” – What Do Women Want? Adventures in the Science of Female Desire, by Daniel Bergner (Ecco/HarperCollins)
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May
