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sweetmisty's review
3.0
This isn’t a bad book. The writing is beautiful. The imagery is beautiful. The whole thing makes you think. But I don’t know what to make of it. What does the ending mean? What was the point? I don’t get it... This book is a little under 200 pages long and read like a 500 page book. I almost didn’t want to finish it. But I have no regrets. But i’m still confused. Why is it even called portrait of keys?? I have no idea.
rebeccazh's review against another edition
read for school. I really enjoyed the lyrical writing. also really enjoyed the idea of "keys", to the narrative and the city of Johannesburg itself (the keys in the form of itineraries at the end)
sett's review against another edition
4.0
A collection of vignettes from the author's life in South Africa, particularly in Joburg, mostly through the past 3 decades until early 2000s. And though it is impossible to speak of life in SA without qualifying it through the lens of social class, it is not the focus of the book. Nor is it a memoir or anything like that. It's a compelling, honest "portrait" of middle class South African life, garnished with some damn good prose from a talented writer.
Cliché as it might seem, there is no place quite like South Africa which is equal parts unforgiving, funny and bizarre - and full of contradictions. Although this is something you only realise fully when you've lived somewhere else. Joburg is complex, and Vladislavic animates it through vivid anecdotes and observations through a writer's eye. But most importantly, it is never saccharine nor gritty like you've come to expect.
Like the author, I grew up in Pretoria and moved to Joburg in my adult life. I found myself chuckling at the familiar, the good and bad. It gives a sense of catharsis, through shared experience and I am compelled share it with strangers, foreigners. But I don't know whether any of it will be understandable, except by fellow South Africans.
I read this book over the course of a year upon recommendation from a friend. It is a good book to read whilst travelling, because of its format.
"The urban poacher is a romantic figure. In unequal cities, where those who have little must survive somehow by preying on those who have more, the poacher scavenging a meal from under the nose of the gamekeeper may be admired for his ingenuity and daring."
"Pretoria children were hard and brown and bristly; Joburg children had floppy fringes and soft freckled hands and looked as if they never went outside. Yet all the fun we had riding bicycles and kicking soccer balls counted for nothing because they were in here working, wearing paper hats and striped aprons as if they were in an Archie comic. They were already kids and we were still children."
"[Sean says:] 'It was fucked when I was a kid, in an Afrikaans sort of way. It was fucked when I was a teenager, in a more Portuguese sort of way. And now here I am, fully grown, surrounded by Angolans and Nigerians - and guess what, it's still fucked. It's just a different shade of fucked.'"
Cliché as it might seem, there is no place quite like South Africa which is equal parts unforgiving, funny and bizarre - and full of contradictions. Although this is something you only realise fully when you've lived somewhere else. Joburg is complex, and Vladislavic animates it through vivid anecdotes and observations through a writer's eye. But most importantly, it is never saccharine nor gritty like you've come to expect.
Like the author, I grew up in Pretoria and moved to Joburg in my adult life. I found myself chuckling at the familiar, the good and bad. It gives a sense of catharsis, through shared experience and I am compelled share it with strangers, foreigners. But I don't know whether any of it will be understandable, except by fellow South Africans.
I read this book over the course of a year upon recommendation from a friend. It is a good book to read whilst travelling, because of its format.
"The urban poacher is a romantic figure. In unequal cities, where those who have little must survive somehow by preying on those who have more, the poacher scavenging a meal from under the nose of the gamekeeper may be admired for his ingenuity and daring."
"Pretoria children were hard and brown and bristly; Joburg children had floppy fringes and soft freckled hands and looked as if they never went outside. Yet all the fun we had riding bicycles and kicking soccer balls counted for nothing because they were in here working, wearing paper hats and striped aprons as if they were in an Archie comic. They were already kids and we were still children."
"[Sean says:] 'It was fucked when I was a kid, in an Afrikaans sort of way. It was fucked when I was a teenager, in a more Portuguese sort of way. And now here I am, fully grown, surrounded by Angolans and Nigerians - and guess what, it's still fucked. It's just a different shade of fucked.'"
sarahhead's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism
val_halla's review against another edition
5.0
I know this is an excellent book, because every other page I was inspired to pick up my camera and go document my own city! The descriptions of Johannesburg were so vivid that I feel as though I've visited the city myself, even though I've never been to South Africa. As Vladislavic included dialogue and his own feelings, I was able to learn how the effects of apartheid have damaged the country to this day. Through my rose-colored American-made glasses, I only saw the rainbows and national pride, but of course a nation can't recover from apartheid so quickly. The cities are still divided by barbed wire fences, and it's obvious that the author feels very paranoid whenever he is surrounded by black people. It's not a legal separation, but people who were treated like dogs for their entire lives cannot possibly turn around and form a harmonious democracy right away.