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Sunday Times
'Vladislavic is a rare, brilliant writer'
Metro UK (5*)
'Vladislavic's acute intelligence and unfussy style make this
quite a find'
quite a find'
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Man-Made Venice Of The South
1 Nov 2009
Format:Paperback
I selected PORTRAIT WITH KEYS: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked by Ivan Vladislavic to read because I have an interest in other countries, cities and cultures. PORTRAIT WITH KEYS: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked is not the typical tourist book, rather it is an account of a white Johannesburg citizen and his view on the city and its current status with historical references.
Vladislavic is painstakingly honest with his portrayal of Jo'burg, often consider the Venice of the South. He highlights most scenery to be man-made; planted forests which are mine dumps covered with grass and plastic ducks within the stream at Montecasino. Jo'burg is a landlocked city with forced, man-made lakes.
The author further illustrates a myriad of social ills amongst the residents such as unemployment and under-employment, poverty, racism, rampant crime and disrespect. As he navigates through the streets of Jo'burg, he paints them, its landmarks and its inhabitants as ugly.
Written in detail, but often labored, a large amount of time is spent exhibiting the measures taken for protection and how crime and racism are intertwined with the infamous Gorilla lock. He also emphasizes the historical reference of the black man and the gorilla and the ever-present fear of its citizens.
PORTRAIT WITH KEYS: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked does not paint a neat and pretty picture of Johannesburg rather a contrasting account of one man's version of his native homeland.
Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers
Vladislavic is painstakingly honest with his portrayal of Jo'burg, often consider the Venice of the South. He highlights most scenery to be man-made; planted forests which are mine dumps covered with grass and plastic ducks within the stream at Montecasino. Jo'burg is a landlocked city with forced, man-made lakes.
The author further illustrates a myriad of social ills amongst the residents such as unemployment and under-employment, poverty, racism, rampant crime and disrespect. As he navigates through the streets of Jo'burg, he paints them, its landmarks and its inhabitants as ugly.
Written in detail, but often labored, a large amount of time is spent exhibiting the measures taken for protection and how crime and racism are intertwined with the infamous Gorilla lock. He also emphasizes the historical reference of the black man and the gorilla and the ever-present fear of its citizens.
PORTRAIT WITH KEYS: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked does not paint a neat and pretty picture of Johannesburg rather a contrasting account of one man's version of his native homeland.
Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers
Exquisitely Drawn Images
7 May 2012
Format:Paperback
Those of us who live in a city (or in my case cities), experience the location as a series of repeating and unique experiences. One block over is a once noble house, neglected and slowly disintegrating. This is the repeated image that forms a small but integral part of the bigger picture that is one's portrait of that city. And then one day as you pass the house you notice that a small plastic figure has been placed in an inset of wall surrounding that house. This small addition to the known makes it unique, adding reverberations that intersect with other images of that block, of that city.
This short book consists of 127 portraits, or snapshots, of the author's Johannesburg. There is no pretense that this is an objective set of portraits, some definitive travel book of the city. No, these are personal, intimate portraits, places and things that together make the Johannesburg of this particular white resident.
What makes the book so successful is a keen eye for detail and a facility for language that allows him to convey images with the exactly right words, the perfect objects taken to represent various facets of his city. One reoccurring image (I'm tempted to call it the key image of this book) is keys. Never discussed but clearly lurking behind these images is the reality of his city as increasingly violent and dangerous. A place where people are constantly taking steps to separate themselves from perceived danger. There are multiple locks on exterior house doors, and additional locks on the gates next to the sidewalk. Add more locks for car door and steering wheel locks, and the result is a large set of keys. While most writers would describe the danger, the author provides instead portraits of the keys, an image vivid and open to various interpretations. In one portrait a friend of the author realizes that a key has somehow found its way onto her key chain, and she has no idea where it came from, or what it unlocks.
He goes to a hardware store and is told that every day people come in to replace their metal house numbers with plastic because the metal ones are pried off to sell as scrap. Increasingly people devise ways to avoid going out on the street. The "well-healed, well-wheeled" have even discovered a hidden door in the public library allowing those in the know to go directly from the parking garage to the library, a path not intended by the library's builders. Things are always changing, and the author refuses to read these changes as a failure of his city. It is instead a constant transformation that he carefully examines. "I am stripping the bedroom door down to the wood...I wish I could read these strata [like]...the rings of a felled tree, deciphering the lean seasons...instead I see nothing but fashion...nineties ochre, eighties ivory..."
This short book consists of 127 portraits, or snapshots, of the author's Johannesburg. There is no pretense that this is an objective set of portraits, some definitive travel book of the city. No, these are personal, intimate portraits, places and things that together make the Johannesburg of this particular white resident.
What makes the book so successful is a keen eye for detail and a facility for language that allows him to convey images with the exactly right words, the perfect objects taken to represent various facets of his city. One reoccurring image (I'm tempted to call it the key image of this book) is keys. Never discussed but clearly lurking behind these images is the reality of his city as increasingly violent and dangerous. A place where people are constantly taking steps to separate themselves from perceived danger. There are multiple locks on exterior house doors, and additional locks on the gates next to the sidewalk. Add more locks for car door and steering wheel locks, and the result is a large set of keys. While most writers would describe the danger, the author provides instead portraits of the keys, an image vivid and open to various interpretations. In one portrait a friend of the author realizes that a key has somehow found its way onto her key chain, and she has no idea where it came from, or what it unlocks.
He goes to a hardware store and is told that every day people come in to replace their metal house numbers with plastic because the metal ones are pried off to sell as scrap. Increasingly people devise ways to avoid going out on the street. The "well-healed, well-wheeled" have even discovered a hidden door in the public library allowing those in the know to go directly from the parking garage to the library, a path not intended by the library's builders. Things are always changing, and the author refuses to read these changes as a failure of his city. It is instead a constant transformation that he carefully examines. "I am stripping the bedroom door down to the wood...I wish I could read these strata [like]...the rings of a felled tree, deciphering the lean seasons...instead I see nothing but fashion...nineties ochre, eighties ivory..."
A Haunting Work
12 Jun 2011
Format:Paperback
This is a strange book. However, what I appreciated most about it was its ability to explore themes such decay and growth, loss and gain in a mature and almost haunting way. This is a book that has as much to do with Johannesburg as it has to do with Baltimore, Newark, or Hartford.
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