Reviews

The Promise by Damon Galgut

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kclreads's review against another edition

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reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

convoswithkara's review against another edition

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4.5

reading this as a south african makes me feel the same way i always do whenever i consume south african art: how the hell does someone who’s not south african even begin to understand what’s going on? with all the afrikaans words, references to loadshedding & day zero, the TRC, the strained conversations between races, i would be so incredibly lost. sure, i guess you could look those things up, but south africa as a country feels like the opposite of a neutral background on which a story plays out. it’s a very loaded atmosphere that you’re sitting with throughout the novel and that the characters are interacting with and that’s what made me keep turning the pages. galgut is so deserving of every inch of praise this book has received. i don’t know how a person can sit down and write this

thebobsphere's review against another edition

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5.0

The Promise is my third Galgut, following The Roald Dahlesque The Good Doctor and the very good The Imposter (you’ll have to excuse that review – the ones in my early blogging days are quite bad). Although Galgut has made the Booker longlists twice, I do find him an underrated author.

I like it when an author cannot be pigeonholed and The Promise is definitely different from what I’m used to. The prose is elegant, the plotting intelligent, the characters are nuanced and, although there was always a strong political thread in his books, here it’s an almighty clout.

The book itself, if one wants a general summary, is a family saga of sorts. There are four parts and each section is dedicated to a family member. However Galgut explains everything in the first few pages: The family are called The Swarts, they live in South Africa and there are five members: Rachel, the mother, Manie, the father, Astrid, the eldest daughter, Anton, the middle child and Amor, the youngest. Each part takes place in a certain time of South African history, from the mid 80’s when Apartheid was present to the mid ’10s. Although some historical moments are mentioned in the book, it seems that Galgut focuses more on attitudes; how white people view and treat black South Africans and the slow rise of black power , until by the end of the book the balance of power changes or in some cases people are now allowed to speak of the inequalities of the past (at least in the novel, I don’t know what the situation is really like).

Each section has a structure: A member of the Swart family dies, there is a funeral and then the family members discuss the legacy. The one thing that binds all this together is a house that Amor promises their helper Salome, something which gets put off in each part until the very end of the book when Salome finally receives it, only to be rejected by her family as they see it as an example of white saviour complex. In other words the role of the white person in post Apartheid South Africa has diminished.

Damon Galgut is known for his sparse plots but here he stuffs a lot. The promise deals with themes ranging from different religions to the modernisation of society, mobile phones, long distance travelling and the disintegration of extreme social classes. Stylistically it is different as there is a narrator, who likes to break what is being said in order to include themselves in the narrative. Sometimes there are other diversions, during the third part the narrative shifts to a homeless man called Bob and his antics, only to have him reappear and play an important role in that section. It’s these little touches which make The Promise such an interesting and rich reading experience.

One thing I have always maintained is that a personal history is always intricately entwined with the history of a country. In this case The Swart family story is turbulent one with many life altering changes. From the evidence in The Promise, South African history was equally rough. The fact that Galgut manages to integrate both histories in this rewarding and memorable novel is a sign of an excellent writer who is at the peak of his powers.