Archive for the ‘Fiction’ Category
by Amanda on Feb 21st, 2012
This March, Umuzi will publish The Miracle of Crocodile Flats, the brand new novel by Jenny Hobbs:
Godforsaken Crocodile Flats is the last place on earth where you’d expect any marvel, so when Sweetness Moloi believes she saw the Virgin Mary there – all nice and brown like real people – who’s going to believe her?
But lo, the good news spreads like wildfire, and soon all hell breaks loose. Every sect and faction want in on the action, there is fierce competition for the elusive glory, and hordes of journalists, pilgrims, and the just plain curious flock to the troublesome village. In this small corner of the Rainbow Nation, so desperately in need of a miracle, jealousy tumbles over hypocrisy to end up – miraculously – in a state of grace.
About the author
Jenny Hobbs was born in Durban. She is the author of five novels, Thoughts in a Makeshift Mortuary, The Sweet-Smelling Jasmine, The Telling of Angus Quain, Video Dreams and Kitchen Boy, and four works of non-fiction. She lives in Franschhoek.
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by Amanda on Feb 16th, 2012
Dit gebeur nie dikwels dat ‘n skryfdebuut ‘n uitgewer laat regop sit nie, maar dít was die geval met SJ (Fanie) Naudé se kortverhaalbundel, Alfabet van die voëls.
Só het Frederik de Jager, uitgewer van Umuzi, gisteraand die bekendstelling van Alfabet van die voëls by The Book Lounge in Kaapstad geopen. Die feit dat heelparty gerekende skrywers, soos André Brink, Marlene van Niekerk en Michiel Heyns na die debutant kom luister het, het verdere krag aan De Jager se woorde gegee.
Naudé se bundel, wat in Oktober verlede jaar verskyn het, het reeds in die media oorvloedige lof van skrywers, resensente en kritici soos Eben Venter, Ronel Scheffer, Cilliers van den Berg en Louise Viljoen ontvang. Viljoen het met Naudé by die bekendstelling in gesprek getree.
Op haar vraag oor sy skryfproses het Naude geantwoord dat ‘n byna “koorsagtige outomatisme” tot sy skryfwerk lei. Hy stem saam met JM Coetzee se siening dat die kreatiewe proses byna soos ‘n epileptiese aanval is wat van die skrywer beheer neem.
‘n Verhandeling oor Coetzee se uitsprake rakende kreatiwiteit het die een helfde van sy Meestersgraad in Kreatiewe Skryfwerk onder leiding van Marlene van Niekerk en Willem Anker by die Universiteit Stellenbosch uitgemaak. Die ander helfde was die manuskrip vir Alfabet van die voëls.
Naudé het sy jare lange werk as internasionale regspraktisyn in Londen verlaat en na Suid-Afrika teruggekeer spesifiek om hierdie kursus te volg. “Volgens my is daar min kreatiewe skryfkursusse wêreldwyd wat by dié een kan kers vashou,” het Naudé gesê.
Sy verblyf in Brittanje, waar hy bitter min met Afrikaans en kreatiewe skryfwerk te doen gekry het, het dalk, volgens hom, tot sy byna maniese skryfproses aanleiding gegee. Daar was ‘n “dringendheid” by Naudé om die verhale neer te skryf, om vele aspekte in ‘n enkele verhaal te verpak en ook om by die einde van elke verhaal uit te kom.
“Die verhale wat ek skryf, is byna soos ‘n kompakte roman,” sê Naudé. Sy kortverhale is baie langer as die moderne weergawes in hierdie genre en herinner eerder aan die pre-moderne verhale van byvoorbeeld DH Lawrence.
In die verhale kom daar ook dikwels gedrewe of selfs obsessiewe karakters voor, wat volgens Naudé dui op die idee dat ‘n byna “monomaniese fokus” velang word om iets blywend of betekenisvol in hierdie wêreld teweeg te bring.
“Maar miskien sal my skryfwerk in die toekoms meer besadig wees,” het Naudé gesê. Manies of besadig – hoe Naudé se skryfproses ook al in die toekoms sal lyk, met Alfabet van die voëls het hy reeds iets blywend en betekenisvol geskep.
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Carolyn Meads het regstreeks vanaf die bekendstelling met #livebooks getwiet:
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by Amanda on Feb 1st, 2012
Umuzi en The Book Lounge nooi jou hartlik uit na die bekendstelling van Alfabet van die voëls deur Fanie Naudé.
Die skrywer sal op Woensdag, 15 Februarie 2012, met Louise Viljoen by The Book Lounge in gesprek tree.
Sien jou daar!
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by Amanda on Jan 25th, 2012
Crime blog Murder by Type has released their list of 10 Best Books reviewed in 2011. The only two local authors to make it onto the list are Umuzi authors Jassy Mackenzie, for Stolen Lives, and Wessel Ebersohn, for The October Killings. Murder by Type recommends them as “books that went in a different direction or addressed a societal problem”.
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by Amanda on Jan 6th, 2012
SJ Naudé het reeds heelwat lof ontvang vir sy kortverhaalbundel, Alfabet van die voëls, waarmee hy verlede jaar gedebuteer het. Lees ‘n uittreksel uit die verhaal “Oorlog, bloeisels”, wat in die bundel verskyn, om te sien waarom resensente gaande is oor hierdie nuwe stem in die Afrikaanse literatuur:
’n Brose respyt, ’n wapenstilstand. Hy maak sy ma se bed met haar beste linne op. ’n Handgeweefde kombers, spierwit. Goed wat sy sedert haar troudag nog nooit gebruik het nie. Tot dusver slaap sy nog op die lakens waarop sy pa ’n paar jaar vantevore gesterf het.
Hy was haar hare. Elke halfminuut moet sy eers rus. Hy hou haar handspieël voor haar terwyl sy hare borsel en grimeer, vir die eerste keer in ’n week. Sy rus tussen elke beweging. Hy vee liggies met sy voorvinger oor haar bowang om die onderlaag in te skakeer. Sy dom vingers word slimmer.
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by Amanda on Jan 6th, 2012
Kathryn White has written a guest post for David Chislett’s blog, offering a glimpse into her writing process. During the effort that brought us her new novel, Things I Thought I Knew, White says she found her characters doing unpredictable things, but learned to “let them do what they want”.
White finds interest in the way that tweaking the imaginary world can lead to the a disruption of the “natural order”, creating drama out of a simple detail – “like the lions that roam the streets after Caeser is murdered”:
This morning I dreamt that a friend and I lived in a marble palace in Paris. To get there you had to walk under a canopy of buildings that crowded into a cobbled passage. The marble was smooth to the touch and warm, like only white marble can be. The surfaces were soft and shined. We lived there, but it was open day and so we joined the people who walked around, moving from one magnificent room to the next. In one room I stopped and looked out and saw acres of green lawn and fountains, a pale blue sky above.
I think this might be where my ideas come from. Not a white, marble palace in particular, but a world that is entirely created, without my input. I am serious about the acquisition of thoughts and ideas – I make sure that my brain is constantly fed and stimulated – but once the acquisition has taken place I trust the ideas will melt into my subconscious and un-conscience. Once there, I have no control over the amalgamation process.
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by Amanda on Jan 3rd, 2012
In Francois Loots se derde roman, Die jakkalsdans, het elke karakter sy of haar eie hoofstuk, waarin hulle hul eie storie vanuit hul eie perspektief vertel. Loots het in ‘n onderhoud op RSG aan Christelle Webb-Joubert gesê dat die karakters se stemme en die storie van Die jakkalsdans op hierdie manier “na hom gekom” het. “Vir my, as ek skryf, dan doen ek wat van nature kom, wat natuurlik gebeur,” sê hy. Luister na die potgooi:
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by Amanda on Dec 13th, 2011
Leon de Kock, skrywer van Bad Sex, het aan Boeke24 vertel dat hy graag skrywers soos Philip Roth, Marlene van Niekerk, Barney Simon, John Eppel, Koos Kombuis en Herman Charles Bosman se werk lees:
Vir my gaan dit alles oor die skrywerstem.
Die soort skrywerstem waarvan ek die meeste hou, is dit wat dalk beskryf kan word met die woorde “uitbundig” of “baldadig”.
Exuberant.
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by Amanda on Dec 5th, 2011
Kathryn White‘s new novel, Things I Thought I Knew, was launched at 70 Juta, Braamfontein on a gentle Highveld evening. Several enlarged pages from the novel were displayed on the walls of the gallery alongside contemporary prints and artwork. “I didn’t want to read from the novel, so I thought guests could read random pages themselves,” White said.
Michael Titlestad, professor of English at the University of the Witwatersrand, introduced White. “I was introduced to Kathryn’s love story and from my narrow reading tastes I was somewhat dubious, but as I started working with Things I Thought I Knew I found it compelling and unique. Writers need to engage the world afresh and lift the veil of familiarity,” he said.
“When I started the novel I had the title and the last line written on a Post-it and stuck on my TV. It remained there for four years,” White said. In terms of the structure of the novel, White remarked that she writes the chapters in a fixed way – scene, setting and dialogue. Titlestad responded to this, saying it was evident in the printed manuscript and added a progression of rhythm to the novel. “I struggle with plot. The description is there in my head, I prefer the structure of words. Plot changes over the writing of the novel,” White said.
Although White admitted that it is the daily discipline of writing that finally resulted in the completed novel, it was also a personal journey. “I was asking questions all the time. How do people overcome grief, how do people get over relationships that haven’t worked? Why do people react in the way they do to people who have illnesses? This questioning took me through stages of absurdism, nihilism and Zen Buddhism.” This interior journey paralleled the themes of the book, for example absurdity in the character who is psychic.
“I wanted to write a traditional story, I was interested in placing one person in a triangle – one person with two options. I had a character who had the skill to change her future (she is psychic), but ultimately that’s not what happens.”
White admitted that she experienced a good deal of anxiety writing about issues she really didn’t have a lot of knowledge about – the diaspora, epilepsy, the psychic realm, children from mixed parentage, writing from a male perspective. However Titlestad applauded her foray into these topics saying, “In South Africa we are so precious about identity politics, writers who don’t stretch out of character and shrug off these restraints become stultified. White has found a new way of looking at the world. It is a memorable novel, original in a way that is not clever.”
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Fiona Snyckers tweeted from the launch using #livebooks:
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by Amanda on Nov 29th, 2011
The November issue of Elle features an exclusive short story by Henrietta Rose-Innes, who released her third novel, Nineveh, earlier this year. We first spotted this story while rifling through the very magazine but the nimble Rose-Innes beat us to a blog post with this one.
I’m curious about people in cars. In traffic, I watch them through back windscreens or in my rear-view mirror, doing what people do when they think they’re unobserved: singing, picking noses, gaping at the world. I like to see a driver and passenger, laughing across the space between them. It’s an intimate view, a conversation framed. The travellers are focused on each other or on the road ahead: they don’t feel my eyes sneaking up from behind to touch the backs of their necks.
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