By ROB HOFMEYR & BRUCE DENNILL
The Sword and the Pen by Allister Sparks 8
Stories Gogo Told Me by Lisa Grainger 7
At The Edge of the Swamp by Tracy Chevallier 7
Tokoloshe Song by Andrew Salomon 7.5
One of South Africa’s foremost journalists and editors over many years tells the story of his personal and professional life through the turbulent years of apartheid and into democracy. Many exceptional figures have walked, marched or struggled across this terrain. Our shelves are redolent with biographies and autobiographies and commentaries. Most add a different perspective and understanding. Some are simply boring and self-serving. A future cadre of historians and analysts will have a huge range of material to sift through. The Sword and the Pen will be easy reading and a worthwhile source. It may be that Allister Sparks is of my own generation and background and therefore appeals to me. He began life in the Eastern Cape in a farming community. One of my own uncles, Donald Hofmeyr, was a teacher who inspired in him a love of history. He should have gone to university, obviously Rhodes, but instead seized the first opportunity, as a 17-year old, to become a cub reporter in East London. There began his lifelong passion for journalism. He created opportunities through his determination, hard work and talent. Moving to Johannesburg and soon recognised as a rising star, he became editor’s assistant at age 31 under the legendary editor of the Rand Daily Mail, Laurence Gandar. His story is told simply and factually, without too much self-aggrandisement. It is intertwined with his personal life, his first stay in London, a fellowship in the United States, and his growing prominence in political journalism, with all its challenges and hazards. His love for his first wife, the birth of their children and her extraordinary understanding of the demands of his career all make good reading. When she unexpectedly went into labour on a Sunday morning – not just any Sunday but the day on which he was scheduled to have a crucial interview with Helen Suzman at 12.30 – he fled the maternity hospital at 12, with her encouragement. Hours later he learned that the baby had been born at 12.15. Her death was a devastating blow. He was a fierce opponent of the government and its policies. He became feared and admired for investigative journalism and he recruited the young Helen Zille, who helped in uncovering the Steve Biko tragedy. The politics of the newspaper world, the concerns over readership and advertising revenues and the personal rivalries are carefully deciphered by someone who himself became editor of the Rand Daily Mail. His coverage of the “Information Scandal” under Vorster is revealing and fascinating. I found this a very good read. It is in fact the work of a great journalist. We learn from him, empathise with him and admire him. – RH
Delightfully illustrated by Celia von Poncet, Stories Gogo Told Me is a classic collection of children’s stories from southern Africa. Lisa Grainger has visited villages throughout Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa, seeking the stories of folk who were themselves not able to read or write but passed them on either personally or through their children and grandchildren. Obviously, they are part of the wonderful oral tradition of African village-folk. In writing this book, the author has helped to preserve something of the heritage of story-telling that must almost inevitably disappear before the tides of literacy and canned entertainment. What is wonderful is the rich variety of sources: a game-guide remembering what his grandmother told him; a primary schoolgirl; a judge drawing on his childhood memories; a number of gogos and other village people; a professional storyteller plying her trade in Johannesburg, and many others. The stories have been told to her in a variety of different languages, even Xai-Xai, and we are fortunate to have so gifted a linguist capturing these lovely legends and fables. I really enjoyed these stories of men and beasts, of mythical creatures and river spirits. It is a lovely book for children but as much so for adults with young families. Because they must be shared with children. I cannot begin to find themes or threads linking these stories and I believe that each is as close to the original as we can hope. The author has not superimposed any pattern on them. There is a freshness and simplicity in her re-telling of these many and varied tales. – RH
The date is 1838. Two second-generation colonists, James and Sadie Goodenough, move from their families in Vermont and settle in new territory, on the edge of the swamps, where they are given a tract of land, on condition they have 50 apple trees growing within five years. It is unforgiving territory. They must clear native bush and forests and plant seedlings and saplings in untried soil. The work is hard and unremitting. The August miasma from the swamps brings sickness to them all, and death to one child after another. James is obsessed with his task. Sadie finds the life unbearable and the ongoing pregnancies and deaths beyond her capacities. This is also the world of camp meetings and fiery evangelists. The almost mythical Johnny Appleseed is, for them, a real person, a visitor who brings new saplings and news and colour. Also applejack. One of the daughters, Martha, carries enormous responsibility for the housekeeping. One of the sons, Robert, is bright and alert. The others are ne’er-do-wells. Everything conspires to bring the unhappy parents to a tragic end. Thereafter this is the story of Martha and of Robert, Robert taking to the road, leading an extraordinary and precarious existence, escaping the past; and Martha adopted by neighbours Sadie had despised. The narrative takes us across the rough world of a white colonials, expanding and fighting and building and grabbing. Robert’s story changes when he meets up with an English botanist and plant collector. Their partnership is rich and colourful and changes the course of his life. Five women are richly drawn: Robert’s bitterly unhappy mother, the well-named Martha, his landlady, the caring wife of an hotelier, and Molly. Molly has lived through the Californian gold-rush and the vicissitudes of pioneer life, emerging generous and loving and coping with the demands of pregnancy and fostering a tiny infant. Robert is bewildered and skittish but knows that she is inextricably linked to his future. At The Edge of the Swamp is not a great work of literature, but it is a thoroughly readable novel. It is also remarkably true to its time. Some of the characters are taken from history. Others are constructed on the bases of imagination and good research. Highly recommended. – RH
In crime fiction terms, Cape Town has long been an epicentre for weirdos and gangsters; everyone with an axe to grind and plenty of different ways to do do it. In Tokoloshe Song, Andrew Salomon adds a new dimension by including as one of his protagonists a tokoloshe – the mythological South African bogeyman and traditional “monster under the bed”. This venturing into the realm of fantasy allows Salomon to construct his entire narrative along a line that straddles the real and the edgily altermative. This means that elements such as a likeable animal shelter volunteer, an itinerant hitman, a brutal mob boss and a strange sect of bodyguards can all coexist happily and sensibly. Salomon’s approach bubbles with humour even as darkness simmers around the edges of the story, but he has a pitiless streak that allows for some spooky, heart-in-mouth moments as the tale develops and intensifies and moves out of the city. Salomon’s success lies in the fact that he’s put together something that’s half pure fantasy and made it read like a title that uses mainstream mores to thrill its readers. – BD
