With the memorable Harold Fry character in mind, and the gorgeous cover and catchy title, I had great expectations for Miss Benson’s Beetle. However, the book never soared for me, and none of the characters were as memorable as Harold Fry. I finished it, even if I glossed over several paragraphs.
I was looking forward to re-visiting the fantastical South Pacific; Miss Benson’s destination is New Caledonia, a Melanesian island ‘discovered’ and named by Captain Cook in 1774. But I felt that Rachel Joyce missed an opportunity to get to the heart of the place and the people – she describes the watery heat and chaos, bitchy expats and some cheeky but sweet local urchins – but this could be any old jungle. At first Miss Benson and her companion are horrified when they get to their remote, insect-infested destination, but ‘In time, Margery would love this place, just as she would love the view as she sat on the veranda with Enid after another week of hard toil.’ All predictably bittersweet and tragicomic. With Robinson Crusoe, The Coral Island, Treasure Island, The Moon and Sixpence and Lord of the Flies very much in mind (my 'go to' South Pacific literature), I was probably expecting a post-colonial take on the remote island subject, which Miss Benson’s Beetle is not. It’s a light novel about relationships, not place. The island was just background. Maybe I just missed the magic.
Score 3
Another book I read this month was Poacher: Confessions from the abalone underworld by Kimon de Greef and Shuhood Abader (the latter a pseudonym). It was an interesting book – marred by a few typos and shoddy editing (one example was the description of ‘humming birds’ in South Africa – grrrrr). But, in a Johnny Steinberg way, the book examines the poaching way of life of ‘Shuhood Abader’ who looks back on his life as a poacher with some regret for the drastically depleted perlemoen stocks on the southern African coastline but a certain amount of nostalgia for a lucrative, exciting and physically exacting way of life. The book is a collaborative work, based on an original manuscript by ‘Shuhood’ so it is quite personal in parts – he becomes a sort of ‘lovable rogue’. A ‘tragedy of the commons’ theme winds through it too – part of you understands why the poachers risk their lives and freedom for the profitable black market in perlemoen, even though one knows full well that it is environmentally disastrous. But you blame the Eastern markets – and having seen first hand the terrible over-exploitation of the oceans in a Korean fish market in Busan – one feels a bit hopeless about it all.
I also liked the poacher’s description of his prey – as I really don’t know much about a perlemoen apart from its shiny ‘ash-tray’ shell. Well, they are rather cute, with little faces and frilly skirts. Have a look at this site from Cape Town’s Aquarium.
Score 3½
In 1993, a year before South Africa’s first democratic election, four young black men were implicated in the brutal mob killing of Amy Biehl in Gugulethu. They were tried, jailed and then released after testifying at the TRC. Biehl’s parents forgave the men, even befriending two of them and employing them in the Amy Biehl Foundation. We had the book We are not such things by Justine van der Leun (published in June 2016) in the bookclub – a well written and elucidating book contextualising the four men at the time of the murder. I remember visiting the site of Biehl’s murder shortly after reading the book, (part of a Red Bus township tour) and finding it a terribly sad experience.
Sindiwe Magona’s novel, Mother to Mother was written in 1998, but I had never read it before, only recently “discovering” Sindiwe Magona so I was pleased to find it in the lockdown bookclub – thanks Sue K! It is a moving, simply written novel in the form of an explanation to Amy Beihl’s mother from the mother of any one of the killers as to how such a horrible act of violence could have happened. One catches a glimpse of what is was like to be black under Apartheid – a world of cruel brutality and harsh traditions that was light years away from my privileged white world. The killers of Amy Biehl were only marginally older than my two boys, their mothers much the same age as me – all of us lived physically close to each other, yet what a chasm divided us. It is a powerful simple story about how violence happens.
Score; 4
If anyone has Showmax, you can watch a film made about the book.
Post from Caroline
