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drsarahp's review
3.0
As an account of apartheid era South Africa , this is brutal and damning - small wonder it was banned in SA after its publication.
A shame then that the author is so focused on the female characters' boobs. Seriously. If you've ever seen the hashtag #breastedboobily you'll know exactly the kind of writing I mean. I feel like there was a description of the boobs of every single female character, alive or dead. I'm not joking about the dead boob description either. Pointless and off putting, and sadly probably the main thing I'm going to remember about this book as it annoyed me so much.
A shame then that the author is so focused on the female characters' boobs. Seriously. If you've ever seen the hashtag #breastedboobily you'll know exactly the kind of writing I mean. I feel like there was a description of the boobs of every single female character, alive or dead. I'm not joking about the dead boob description either. Pointless and off putting, and sadly probably the main thing I'm going to remember about this book as it annoyed me so much.
featherbooks's review
4.0
A compelling story of a man determined to do the right thing to his own detriment in apartheid Johannesburg where his coworker, a black man, has been found dead in his prison cell at the end of a trumped-up period of brutal interrogation. Du Toit investigates and slowly as he learns more about the cruel methods of the Secret Police, his own life disintegrates with intimidation and searches of his house and work. He too will learn the consequences of interfering with the Special Branch as the Stasi-like Afrikaner-run police division is known. It is a gripping story and a upsetting view of South Africa as it was run forty plus years ago, as well as an examination of racism and morality in its face. "If I act, I cannot but lose. But if I do not act, it is a different kind of defeat, equally decisive and maybe worse. Because then I will not even have a conscience left...[or] a possibility, however negligible or dubious, of something better, less sordid and more noble, for our children. They live on. We, the fathers, have lost."
What kind of optimism does one need to proceed as Du Toit does. A cynical individual would not attempt the legitimate queries he makes on behalf of his friend's widow, the risks he takes. I fear mine is the more cynical outlook and not the hopeful view of a world changer, a true revolutionary. I'm heartened by the films we saw in the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg of those who did change the country such as Mandela and Biko and Tambo. Just watching the movies and the young and eager faces fills one's heart with hope erasing for a moment the old cynicism.
What kind of optimism does one need to proceed as Du Toit does. A cynical individual would not attempt the legitimate queries he makes on behalf of his friend's widow, the risks he takes. I fear mine is the more cynical outlook and not the hopeful view of a world changer, a true revolutionary. I'm heartened by the films we saw in the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg of those who did change the country such as Mandela and Biko and Tambo. Just watching the movies and the young and eager faces fills one's heart with hope erasing for a moment the old cynicism.
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