Sunday Times Combined Metros 40 - 06/11/2019 05:24:36 PM - Plate:
DEON PLAYING WITH
MEYER A FAMOUS
FORMULA
When a book is written about
places and people readers can
recognise, it allows for a sense of
N
inclusion, writes Tiah Beautement
edine Moonsamy’s The
Unfamous Five brings us into
the world of Janine, Neha,
Kumari, Devon and Shejal, who
witness a violent crime as
teenagers in their local suburb
of Lenasia.
Moonsamy explains: “The
Famous Five is about these
British children who have a series of
adventures where they encounter
injustice and crime, and they’re able
to match it with heroism. Yet you can
‘The undisputed already see how harbouring an
expectation of this kind will fall flat in
crime-infested South Africa.”
champion of Thus there are no amateur sleuths
emerging from the traumatic event.
Instead, the crime is a catalyst which
South African impacts the Five well into their
adulthoods, in both comic and
uncomfortable ways. “I wanted to engage
crime. Meyer with and unravel the formula of the
adventure series in a manner that is both
political and playful,” says Moonsamy.
grabs you by The story spans from 1993 to 2003, as
the characters, each with their own
equally important narrative, grapple with
the throat and relationships, faith, careers, unwanted
40/41
pregnancy, sexuality and ageing parents.
Through it all, the novel’s setting, Lenasia,
never lets go.’ acts as the unspoken sixth member. The
characters find the landscape and their
WILBUR SMITH
community both supportive and
suppressive, a relationship that echoes the
ones the Five have with each other.
But the setting is more than that, says
#BeCaptured Moonsamy. “People always equate the act
of reading with travelling and the pleasure
of immersing yourself in foreign countries
and cultures. But for marginalised people
the opposite applies: reading a novel that
uses your world as a centre involves the
LifeStyle
Book Club
Five fascinating life stories
Tafadzwa Z Taruvinga was a Rhodes
University student, often going to bed
hungry, working the jobs that no-one else
would do to pay his fees. It’s not a tale we
read about often and The Educated
Waiter (MF Books Joburg) brings to life
what it means to be an African immigrant
in SA. Madiba’s eldest grandchild Ndileka
Mandela writes about how being part of
the Mandela family is not easy, in her
memoir, I am Ndileka: More than My
Surname (Jacana Media). Queer Eye’s
Jonathan van Hess becomes even more of
a precious heartstealer in Over The Top
CAPE TOWN
BOOK LAUNCH
TUESDAY, 12 NOVEMBER
TIME: 18:00 for 18:30
VENUE: Book Lounge
RSVP: (021) 462 2425 or at
booklounge@gmail.com
40 LifeStyle 10•11•2019
Author Nedine Moonsamy. Picture: Supplied
The Unfamous Five ★★★★
Nedine Moonsamy, Modjaji, R280
rare pleasure of finally coming home to
yourself in a world where you have always
been excluded.”
The Five’s story is far from exclusive.
While readers, from adults to mature
teens, might find themselves envying the
strength of the Five’s friendship, which
extends into their adult lives, they will find
commonality in the Five’s adventures and
misadventures.
The story illustrates the challenges of
the everyday while exploring the human
condition. This is underlined in a powerful
moment when Shejal declares: “We all
think we’re special or breaking with
tradition to do things for ourselves, but it’s
all just part of a pattern. A system of
sameness that makes us think we’re all
doing it differently.”
Yet, while this book may focus on the
everyday, it remains a unique and
enjoyable read. Tiah Beautement @ms_tiahmarie
(Simon & Schuster), where he uncovers
the difficulty of “growing up feminine in a
rural midwestern town”. Megan Phelps-
Roper was part of the Westboro Baptist
Church in Kansas, a cult made up mostly
of her family. She was the frontperson,
tweeting her church’s hateful beliefs.
Through this engagement with others, she
started questioning her indoctrination. In
JOHANNESBURG
BOOK LAUNCH
THURSDAY, 14 NOVEMBER
TIME: 18:00 for 18:30
VENUE: Exclusive Books Hyde Park
RSVP: (011) 798 0180 or at
events@exclusivebooks.co.za
Sunday Times
Swan Song
of Loneliness
C
ygnet lives on Swan Island, a separatist
community for the elderly who have
scorned society and its decay. But the
island is also withering, crumbling into
the ocean as each wave bites away at
their hard-won haven.
Cygnet is not her real name —
readers only know her as the Kid, or
“Small Fry” as one wrinkly (her nickname for
the Swans) affectionately calls her. The teen is a
sore thumb to the Swans — most of them don’t
want her there because she reminds them of
“The Bad Place”. But the Kid has nowhere else
to go. Her parents are junkies who dropped her
off at her grandmother’s house on the island.
But her grandmother dies and leaves the Kid
waiting for her parents to return for her.
In the meantime, she must eat. She gets a
job working for a rich, lonely old woman,
editing her family photos and slides until they
all look much happier, skinnier and more
accomplished than they’d ever been in real life.
She also starts reading to an old woman who is
in a coma as the days pass and the island gets
smaller and smaller.
It’s hard to put Cygnet in any genre or form
and the narrator would surely tell other
coming-of-age tales to get lost. Let’s call it then
Cygnet
★★★★★
Season Butler,
Little, Brown,
R305
a portrait of a woman — young, black, alone,
forgotten — set in a world that will soon cease
to exist. There are subtle hints at something
more fantastical at play; the world is ending, or
perhaps the wrinklies’ way of life is coming to
an end. Amid all this, the Kid finds her voice: it’s
authentic, funny, original, entertaining and, at
times, haunting.
Cygnet is a creative, weird debut like no
other. No wonder China Miéville raved about it:
“Terribly moving. A clear-sighted, poignant
rumination on loneliness, love, the melancholy
of age and youth.” Anna Stroud @annawriter_
Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving
the Westboro Baptist Church (Quercus),
Megan opens up about how she left “The
Most Hated Family in America”. The A-list
celebrity memoir to read this year is Demi
Moore’s Inside Out (HarperCollins), where
she dishes the dirt about Ashton Kutcher,
her near-death experience with drugs, and
her self-destructive insecurities.
@JonathanBallPublishers
@JonathanBallPub
@jonathanballpublishers
www.jonathanball.co.za