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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Conditional love: Wolf, Wolf by Eben Venter

22/12/2015

8 Comments

 
Thirty-something Mattheus Duiker exists in an extended adolescence, his four years overseas having been financed by his father, he’s hoping for a comparable gesture to realise his dream of opening a takeaway serving healthy food to the ordinary workers of Cape Town. As he nurses his father through his final months of cancer, Mattie looks forward to the day when the four-bedroom luxury house, in an area patrolled by security guards round the clock, will be his and, perhaps, his boyfriend Jack’s.
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The epitome of Afrikaner masculinity, Bennie Duiker has been a great success in the traditional role of provider, progressing steadily from farmboy to owning a top-of-the-range car showroom. Mattie is a disappointment to him on two accounts: his lack of interest in taking over the business and his sexuality, which the old man, while accepting on one level, perceives as sinful and a barrier to the production of an heir. While rejecting Bennie’s values, Matt cannot fully separate from a father he’s tried so hard to please (p213):

how long it took him to love his father, how long, a lifetime he worked at it … and how long hasn’t it taken him to process it all and to see eventually that this is a man acting in good faith

Neither can he separate from a man from whose principles, however much despised, he has benefited (p230):

the old-worldliness of his father, a value system he was handfed with, and which he later, on becoming fully human, began to despise so passionately. And yet it’s the constancy of that world that in an odd, almost repulsive way provided him with security

which Jack’s situation, from a yet more dysfunctional family, throws into sharp relief.
Despite their differences, father and son seem to find a new respect for each other in those final weeks. Matt realises (p86-87):

the aversion that he’s retained for the antagonist, the harm that man has done him, increasingly becomes a projection existing in his own head and nowhere else. He’s unable to associate it with the pale man in his sickbed

whereas Bennie writes the cheque that will make his son’s fantasised business a reality. Love seems to blossoming, Matt seems to be maturing and ready to forgive. But, of course, that is not where the story ends.

Wolf, Wolf is an unflinching account of an enmeshed father-son relationship defined by mutual yearning, envy and disgust. The slow pace (for example, there are several pages of Matt debating with himself as to whether he can ask his father for money) never drags, but
shines a beam on the discomfort. It’s extremely visceral in the descriptions of a body withering away through illness and chemotherapy (including a rather nauseating toilet scene), as well as the porn addiction that threatens Mattie’s love life.

The parallels with a culture in decline are evident in a cameo appearance of the King of Swaziland, as well as in Matt’s relationship with his employee, a Congolese
immigrant more knowing than he first appears. Especially vulnerable via their sexuality in a country in which gay women are raped in order to “cure” them, Matt and Jack seem ill-equipped to forge an updated Afrikaner identity.

Wolf, Wolf
is translated by Michiel Heyens. Thanks to Scribe for my review copy of this mesmerising novel.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
8 Comments
Charli Mills
23/12/2015 01:05:16 am

That sounds like an intense read, but one that is well-written. I'm intrigued by such books, but right now I've shifted to the fun of good old-fashioned story-telling for the holidays.

Reply
Annecdotist
23/12/2015 11:06:29 am

I'm similarly having some down time, Charli. Although I have a few more reviews scheduled, for the rest of this year I'm reading those are not committed to reviewing, although if this one had turned up, I probably wouldn't have been able to resist telling everyone about it.

Reply
Kimmie link
23/12/2015 11:18:40 am

This sounds an intriguing read, Anne. Your review (excellent) has me wanting more of the story. Thank you for sharing.

Wishing you and yours a happy Christmas, Kimmie x

Reply
Annecdotist
23/12/2015 11:22:31 am

Thank you, Kimmie. It's very poignant story as both father and son are wanting the same (impossible) thing in a way.
Wishing you all the best too.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
26/12/2015 06:27:04 am

This one appeals to me, Anne. I like stories that explore relationships. This one exploring the father/son relationship sounds particularly interesting. I think what convinced me was the son's realisation that what he had despised in his father was more to do with what was in his own mind than anywhere else. I think what we project onto others is often more a reflection of ourselves. Another issue with which I am quite familiar is the stated distaste of a child for a parent's values while reaping enormous reward from those same values. Both these issues appear almost universal and it would be interesting to see how they are explored in this novel.
The "cure" you mention in this book joins the list of many other inhumane treatment of "illnesses".
Thanks for sharing.

Reply
Annecdotist
26/12/2015 05:13:30 pm

I’d certainly recommend this one, Norah, for its unflinching look at a troubled relationship.
Glad you liked the quote – however, things move on from this point which cause Matt to change his mind. One of the things I liked about the book is that it doesn’t provide easy answers. And while I agree that we project our own issues unto others much more often than we realise, I don’t think it’s either/or. In this novel we have two characters doing their best, but neither of them doing particularly well.
Regarding your other point, I think the fact that Bennie has bankrolled his son without really respecting his lifestyle choices, has impeded his development. There’s a strong element of infantilising, when adult children expect to benefit from their parents’ wills.
As to the “cure”, in the novel it is mentioned only in passing, but to me an important part of the context in which Matt is trying to develop as a person.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
27/12/2015 05:20:21 am

I think I identify with the assessment of doing one's best but not doing particularly well! :)

Annecdotist
27/12/2015 11:33:49 am

Ach, Norah, you are way too modest!


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