Welcome to Litsy!

Thank you @shawnmooney for the book ❤️My review can't cover the complexity of its 600 pages. The main character here is Tshepo but the narrative is made up of alternating points of view of his friends and people he meets along the way at the psychiatric institution, his home, and work. There is sadly only one female character. The language is plain, like direct speech, and reads like multiple diaries because each chapter is first person POV. 👇

The word I think of for this book is intersectional, a sprawling look at post-apartheid society in Cape Town. The main character has found a way to discover & delight in his sexuality, his desire for men, through sex work. Practically all of his clients are white. He feels a kinship with white gay men in the bedroom. Outside of it,when he goes to a posh gay bar & is treated badly by white staff, he is reminded of the ugly predictability of racism.

I have never seen my name in books and was so excited, even though this is with a different spelling! Haha. #ExcitingMomentsInReading "She had too many issues" I think that's the only similarity ?

I'm liking the simplicity of the prose in this book & its stark, fractured quality. It sometimes reminds me of Plath's The Bell Jar, except it's a polyphonic version featuring a gay South African black man as the central character & the people in his life. This quote above is from his female friend's POV. It probes mental illness, race, class, sex & gender relations through short, vignette-like chapters. I'm finding it compelling. #duikerbuddyread

I had been looking forward to reading this novel by a gay black South African writer literally for years, so it's with rather a heavy heart that I am abandoning it at the 15% mark: I just really don't care for the writing. I'm glad so many others have had a more positive experience.

#DuikerBuddyRead

I'm struggling with this novel, but I'm not ready to give up on it on page 39. But this is writing that is deeply focused on emotions and it is no more articulate than my journal was when I was the protagonist's age, maybe 20 or 21 years old. I expect more from fiction. I do. I expect writing that conveys the feelings without using the emotion names. I'm struggling.

#DuikerBuddyRead

#DuikerBuddyRead

This article is fascinating, although I didn't read it all once I realized it talked about parts of the novel I haven't yet read.

#DuikerBuddyRead

https://mg.co.za/article/2016-08-15-00-the-quiet-violence-of-dreams-a-double-exh...

#DuikerBuddyRead

These chunksters are two of my three buddy reads this month (the third one is both tiny and an ebook) so, given my predilection for reading in cafes whenever possible, I guess I'll get some free weight training (if not a dislocated shoulder) too!

#CoK #DuikerBuddyRead

And these are a few of the African novels I most want to read. Hope to get to most of them before the end of the year!
#lyricalapril #africa

K. Sello Duiker was a gay black South African novelist who, sadly, took his own life in 2005. He wrote a handful of novels, and this one is supposed to be his masterpiece. At 600 pages, it's a door stopper. I can't wait to dive in!

Hey @shawnmooney look what turned up on my doorstep today. It's huge!