About book Mafeking Road: And Other Stories (2008)
what do i have to do to sell this book? i put it on table, and nothing. i make a lovely endcap just for archipelego books, and nothing. why wont you believe me? isnt it pretty, with its van gogh cover and rich purple textured cover? and read the back: blurbs!! from people i have never heard of, but they are blurbs!! well, there is publishers weekly, but they compare these stories to robert frost or bob dylan, so i dont know if they can be trusted. but i know i can be. these are more like o henry or thomas hardy on a gentle day. they are mostly very short - under 10 pages, but they all have those snappy endings that cause laughter or empathy or both. they are cleverly written and also have shades of mark twain in them (does it help if i name-drop?) c'mon, is it the afrikaner thing? theres a little racial inequality here, but if i can gloss over it, so can you! is it cuz he killed his stepbrother? because - glass houses, guys. weve all had those days. just read the book. i want someone else to have read it. i said please.
So where to start. I first read this book at school. Growing up in Apartheid era white schools I guess this was as subversive as our English teacher could get.The stories are tragic and hilarious. Oom Schalk is our narrator, a poor Afrikaans farmer living in the Groot Meriko, a place where Herman Charles Bosman spent time as a teacher.Through Oom Schalk, Bosman was able to make social commentary on South African race issues, on Afrikaners and on South Africa's curious history. The stories are funny or heart wrenching. Some just give you a complete chill in the last line.You eventually love every single one of these short stories. I'd say if you are visiting the country for the first time this would be one book you should read.
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