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3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting snapshot of comtemporary SA attitudes, 17 Aug 2005
By A Customer
Most of the stories in this book are by South Africans - or other Africans from further North. The book is divided into sections based on theme, an interesting approach for an anthology, but one that will probably leave you skipping backwards and forward to get more variety.The stories vary in length from barely two pages to a more standard four to five that you'd expect from a short story. There are fifty-five stories in all and, as you'd expect, the quality varies. They mostly have quite a strongly South African flavour, with some giving an impression of local argot. The book is laid out fairly clearly, but, unfortunately the text on the back and front covers is close to the colour of the covers themselves and so is difficult to read. The short biographies and photographs of some of the authors are collected at the end of the book, the photographs are not very well reproduced - a rather shabby treatment, I think, for which those featured had to pay the publisher! The stories are collected finalists, and winners of a South African short story competition. Unfortunately the judges of the competition are secret, so we can't know the background, quality, number or criteria used for judgement. Some stories have a more universal setting - "Three Blind Mice" offers an amusing saloon-bar explanation for the Iraq war, "Illusions" presents a scenario similar to the sort you'd expect from Somerset Maugham. "Metamorphosis" taps into the current daemonisation of paedophiles - offering the standard sociological 'explanation' - but with a pleasantly light touch. "Damascus Road" might almost be the desiderata for the content of the book, reflecting on how writing has a responsibility for the effect it has on those written about. "Never More" is a well told and sad tale of exile. Many South Africans will recognise the tone and the emotion from the time of the great exodus during Apartheid when so many South Africans were forced to live abroad. I think that it is my favourite - strangely it is listed with the supernatural stories. I must declare my interest, not only am I South African, one who has lived abroad for a long time, but I am also author of the story 'Toxin' to be found in this collection.
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