This is how you lose her Junot Diaz Faber & Faber REVIEW BY: Kavish Chetty Diaz’s lispy rhythms shark off the page with a poetic energy. His language is electric: a carnal mesh of low-slung Spanish slang and erotic lyricism;
REVIEW: Aftermath
Aftermath – On Marriage and Separation Rachel Cusk Faber & Faber REVIEW BY: Karin Schimke Aftermath is the second book Cusk has written that seems to have united disparate groups in an almost rabid hatred of her. As with A
TOP TEN 2012
For the past three years I’ve been asked by The Star newspaper to compile a list of the top ten South African books of the year. Here is this year’s: The Big Stick Richard de Nooy Jacana A mother travels
A story for Christmas
By KARIN SCHIMKE In spite of the extra time I’m banking on over Christmas, I am unlikely to get through the piles of books I have. For the first time in my life I will not have a book title
REVIEW: Below Luck Level
Below Luck Level Barbara Erasmus Penguin REVIEW BY: Aly Verbaan “She was dead when I woke up beside her the next morning.” Writing courses always say “hooking” the reader within the first page is crucial, and Erasmus has certainly delivered
QUICK REVIEW: Mudwoman
Mudwoman Joyce Carol Oates Fourth Estate REVIEW BY: Karin Schimke Being inducted to the worlds of Oates’ stories is always a visceral experience of losing oneself. Meredith Neukirchen, president of an Ivy League university, finds her ethics and energy begin
QUICK REVIEW: N-W
N-W Zadie Smith Hamish Hamilton REVIEW BY: Andries Samuel Four characters thread their way through time and north-west London, each embodied on the page via a different technique – sometimes feeling like nothing so much as the author’s own stream
REVIEW: Kgalema Motlanthe – A Political Biography
Kgalema Motlanthe: A political biography Ebrahim Harvey Jacana REVIEW BY: Donald Paul Not many biographers would open their work with a volley across the bow of a fellow writer, but Ebrahim Harvey states upfront that, unlike Mark Gevisser, he will
Sharp as a Smarteez*
Smarteez: “a fashion collective based in Soweto”. Ed Suter is one of those guys who seems to be good at anything and everything. I know because in the years I’ve been friends with him, I’ve marvelled at his general enthusiasm,
QUICK REVIEW: Luminous Airplanes
Luminous Airplanes Paul la Farge Fourth Estate REVIEW BY: Karin Schimke Rendered rootless and restless as much by the time in which he becomes an adult, as by his fatherless upbringing, an unnamed young man living in San Francisco travels