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A review by dozylocal
Proteus by Deon Meyer
3.0
3.5 stars
On the surface, this is an action packed story of conspiracies within conspiracies and jumps between the violence of the people on the ground and the manouvering of the people in the government intelligence agencies that control them. Into this mess steps a Xhosa man, presumably just a cleaner at a motorcycle agency, who as a favour agrees to transport a hard drive containing sensitive information to Lusaka for an old friend who is being held hostage. However, things are not as they seem, and the quest turns into a overland race that grips the country.
Under the surface, Deon Meyer touches on elements of South Africa's history, particularly during the years of the struggle, and through various characters explores the impact on the people involved. And this is where I start to get a little uncomfortable because, whereas we definitely need more heroes who are not of the traditional white and male variety, when does writing non-White characters as a white Afrikaans male cross the line to potentially become a type of cultural and/or historic "mansplaining"? However, perhaps I am overthinking things.
I read this in Afrikaans and, seeing as Afrikaans is my second language and I haven't read an Afrikaans book since about 1998, I decided to boost my rating by half a star to account for that fact.
On the surface, this is an action packed story of conspiracies within conspiracies and jumps between the violence of the people on the ground and the manouvering of the people in the government intelligence agencies that control them. Into this mess steps a Xhosa man, presumably just a cleaner at a motorcycle agency, who as a favour agrees to transport a hard drive containing sensitive information to Lusaka for an old friend who is being held hostage. However, things are not as they seem, and the quest turns into a overland race that grips the country.
Under the surface, Deon Meyer touches on elements of South Africa's history, particularly during the years of the struggle, and through various characters explores the impact on the people involved. And this is where I start to get a little uncomfortable because, whereas we definitely need more heroes who are not of the traditional white and male variety, when does writing non-White characters as a white Afrikaans male cross the line to potentially become a type of cultural and/or historic "mansplaining"? However, perhaps I am overthinking things.
I read this in Afrikaans and, seeing as Afrikaans is my second language and I haven't read an Afrikaans book since about 1998, I decided to boost my rating by half a star to account for that fact.