MORE GREAT READS FOR OCTOBER, 2015
The First Rule of Survival, by Paul Mendelson
Colonel of the South
African Police Service Vaughn de Vries is a typical protagonist of classic
crime fiction. Suffering Burn-out? Of course.
Marriage down the tubes? Naturally. Finding solace in Alcohol? Goes without saying. Appearance less than inviting? Women ‘avert their eyes when they see him
sitting at the bar’.
In short, Colonel de Vries’s life is rather less than
satisfactory – except when he is working: his job is ‘what gets him up in the morning’,
and his passion for justice is legendary;
it is what elevates him above the norm, especially in respect of his
colleagues, new examples of the integrated police force of Mandela’s Rainbow
Nation, all vying for power and prestige in a department formerly run by white
men like de Vries, whose time must surely soon be up. They hope.
Yes, give him a bit more time and he will be the author of his own
misfortune …… until the naked bodies of two malnourished teenaged boys are
found in a skip at the back of a farm café miles from Capetown, de Vries’s
base. They have been murdered, and
Vaughn, the token white officer is sent to investigate – and finds to his
horror that they are the victims of a terrible abduction seven years before,
when three young white boys, one the son of a serving police officer, were
kidnapped on three consecutive days, never to be seen again.
It is a case that has haunted Vaughn’s dreams, turned
them into nightmares and destroyed his peace of mind forever, especially when
the case becomes cold after months of searching fruitlessly for clues – any
clue – as to their fate. Now, two of the
three kidnap victims have been found, obviously transported to the skip after
death – from where? And where is the
third boy? de Vries and his immediate
superior Hendrik du Toit faced unprecedented contempt from the media and
eminent child psychologists alike for their inability to provide answers seven
years ago: now, their new bosses are
demanding bold actions and quick solutions to the murders; any delay will reflect badly on the new
Rainbow police hierarchy. Those dinosaur
Boers Messrs du Toit and de Vries better shape up or ship out.
British writer Paul Mendelson has constructed an
impressive debut thriller for his first foray into crime writing. He has created credible, excellent characters
– especially Vaughn’s black second-in-command Warrant Officer Don February, so
called because his real name would be impossible for most people to pronounce –
and his descriptions of the wild and splendid coastline and croplands around
Capetown make one feel that they are riding shotgun with Vaughn de Vries and
Don February, hanging over their shoulders, exhorting them to find the killers
before more children are abused and killed.
This is a page-turner par excellence, made the more
readable by its magnificent setting. FIVE STARS!!
The
Antipodeans, by Greg McGee.
Bruce Spence, an elderly, terminally ill New Zealand
lawyer makes a final sentimental visit to Italy accompanied by his only child
Clare: he wishes to see Venice one last
time; to meet with old friends of his
youth from the surrounding towns, particularly a little inland village called
San Pietro, where he used to (of all things) coach and play rugby back in the
70’s. Clare is happy to go with
him; apart from her worry about his
frailty, she also needs the distraction:
life back in Auckland has dealt her some harsh blows of late, starting
with the classic husband-sleeping-with-best-friend-right punch, then the left
uppercut of hubby and besty defrauding her business, something her father
discovered by accident.
To say that Clare feels bitter and betrayed is a massive
understatement. Her wanderings through
Venice, that magical place of gorgeous light and stunning architecture, fail to
move her: she is impatient with her
father’s clumsy and shuffling attempts to find his way to obscure little
piazzi; cafes that used to be in a
certain place but aren’t any longer; his
searching scans of any elderly female that crosses his path, and his insistence
in lugging around his old briefcase containing several musty folders, all of
which he tells her she must read when he dies.
His reunion with the friends of his youth produces much
laughter but many tears, for it is clear to his old companions that he will die
soon, but to Clare, there seems to be an undercurrent, a trove of secrets from
the past that everyone knows something of – everyone except herself. And their common knowledge seems to centre on
events of the Second World War, when Italy became the meat in the sandwich,
occupied by the Germans until they were driven back and defeated (not without
huge casualties) by the Allied troops.
The more light Clare tries to shed on the mystery, the
more impenetrable it seems, until the inevitable occurs: Bruce finally succumbs to his illness; his strength has run out, and to occupy
herself as she grieves by her beloved Dad’s hospital bed, Clare finally begins
to read the contents of those yellowing folders.
Greg McGee has given us a story of astonishing depth and
power. He covers three generations,
starting with the friendship between two young men from Oamaru in the South
Island of New Zealand, recounting their experiences as enlisted men during
World War Two, and their eventual capture and internment in an Italian Prison
camp. Harry Spence is the leader of the
two, a lightning-quick thinker and planner, and absolutely ruthless in
achieving any objectives he sets himself, be it getting extra food, or escaping
from the camp. Joe Lamont is a
follower; he has been badly wounded and
is troubled by nightmares; he has also
been brought up Catholic by a fearsome bully of a father, has a huge work ethic
and a conscience to match. He is an intelligent
young man, appalled at Harry’s amorality, but smart enough to know that if they
stick together they will survive. The
phrase ‘turn a blind eye’ has never been more apt.
Survive they do, but at a cost that Joe is horrified to
pay: good Italian families who helped
them are punished fatally for their generosity and Harry, who has earned a well-deserved reputation as a fearless
partisan, killing Germans and blowing up bridges and railway lines (with Joe’s
expert assistance) reveals shameful feet of clay.
The acts of both men have consequences that echo through
the generations, and Mr McGee never lets the pace falter for a second; he switches timelines with such skill that
the reader always regrets leaving one set of protagonists whilst welcoming
another. I was sorry to leave these
wonderful characters. This is great New
Zealand fiction. SIX STARS!!
Nora
Webster, by Colm Tóibin.
1969: Man has travelled to the moon and the world
is rejoicing – but the everyday tragedies of life still occur. In Ireland, the Webster family have just lost their beloved father Maurice too soon to
a long illness which has had a lasting and terrible effect on the younger
children Donal and Conor. Their mother Nora is at a loss as to how to manage her
own grief, let alone find sufficient comfort for her two boys. Her teenage girls are more self-sufficient,
less dependent on her which she feels is a good thing; her childhood and youth have made Nora very
self-contained, teaching her to keep her many disappointments to herself, like
having to leave school early because her mother needed the money that she would
bring home as an office worker at Gibney’s, the major employer in the area. When she and Maurice married, she saw their
union as her release from bondage to a job she hated. Marriage stood for freedom for Nora: now she finds she will have to return to work
(back to Gibney’s!!) just to make ends meet.
Her freedom is over.
In spare and beautiful prose, Mr Tóibin tells Nora’s
story; her attempts to make sense of her
new circumstances, and how she must find the means to change them, for no-one
else can live her life, and no-one else (she thinks) should be ‘poking their
nose’ into how the family is managing – but they do: from the unsolicited advice provided by her
sisters, to the officious help given to the boys, particularly by Maurice’s
brother and sister (‘we can afford it – we’ve a bit put by!), down to her bossy
Aunt Josie, who induces her to have a fortnight in Spain because it will do her
good. Unfortunately, Josie snores like a
bull elephant and Nora is forced to occupy a cubby-hole in the hotel basement
in an attempt to get any sleep at all.
No – her family will just have to realise that she and
her children will manage, and should just scale down their interference. Until Nora realises that her boys – and
indeed, the girls when they are home, get along with her family a whole lot
better than she does. Donal, her eldest
son, he of the recent terrible stutter, goes to sister-in-law Margaret’s house
daily, for she has converted a space into a little darkroom for him to develop
his photos; they share easy conversation
and a camaraderie that Nora has never experienced with him. Major decisions concerning her family are
being taken by other people, including sending Donal to boarding school,
something he swears he wants, not that he had ever told her.
Nora’s unwanted new life seems to be lurching out of her
control – until she finds unexpected comfort in music, particularly singing,
for she had ‘a voice’ when she was young:
can she find that voice again?
She meets new friends without even trying when she joins the Gramophone
Society (without possessing such a thing) and listens to members talking about
their favourite composers. Very
gradually, Nora returns to life again, a different life without her beloved
Maurice, but one with new passions, and a new confidence born of having the
courage to make decisions she would never have thought of if he were still
there.
And her pesky family – that family who won’t leave her
and the children alone for more than five minutes: far from being a hindrance to her bold new
existence, they prove time and again that they are the mesh, the safety-net
that keeps her upright, stops her from falling – every time. This is a lovely story, beautifully
written. FIVE
STARS.
