The Promise

"Apartheid has fallen, see, we die right next to each other now, in intimate proximity. It's just the living part we still have to work out." In a farm outside Pretoria, a promise is made to a dying woman. It is a promise that, over three decades, is never fulfilled. This skilfully written book is told from multiple POVs and seamlessly flits between the first and the third person. No quotation marks are used for direct speech and the whole novel almost feels like an extended stream of consciousness. It's portrayal of a family that is rapidly disintegrating is flawlessly executed. But, for all it's eloquence, it left me strangely unmoved. I can't quite pin down my dissatisfaction, but it has a lot to do with the lack of a plot. I also felt that keeping Salome, the recipient of the promise, so much in the background made her feel like an insubstantial being instead of a real person. The author probably did this with the intention of emphasising how apartheid affected black South Africans but it held me at arm's length. I also got the feeling that although the story progresses rapidly, sometimes a whole decade at a time, it felt like it was going round in circles. The lack of a single likeable character also contributed to my overall lack of engagement with this book. "No love left, only kindness."