Sunday Times Combined Metros 44 - 13/03/2019 05:48:25 PM - Plate:

Review
OPINION
Sunday Times MOVIES
Page 44 March 17, 2019 BOOKS
LAST WORD

A LETTER
FROM MOSES
Generations of hurt, injustice and
humiliation demand a new light be
thrown on painful stories, writes
Anna Stroud

’T
he world is sad, hey?” says
Nthikeng Mohlele when
talking about Illumination,
his sixth novel. He shakes his
head as he reflects on the
emotionally taxing process of
bringing a multitude of stories
to life. “It was so intense to
create ... Everything’s so real.”
Real and intense it is.
Illumination tells the story of Bantubonke,
a famous jazz musician who loses his ability
to play the trumpet after a tragic accident.
He tries to make a comeback, but his is a
story of decline, loss, lust, art, racism,
heartbreak and obsession set in a country
still reeling from trauma.
One of the most harrowing parts of the
book is the story of Bra Alfred,
Bantubonke’s taxi driver and close friend,
whose son Moses commits a farm murder.
“That was a heartbreaking letter,”
Mohlele says, talking about the letter in
which Moses explains to his father why he
murdered his employers. “That letter
bothers me a lot; that was the most difficult
part of the book. I finished writing
Illumination a long time ago and that letter
bothers me still.”
The letter contains generations of hurt, Music is the driving force behind the protagonist’s life, says Nthikeng Mohlele. Picture: Nicolise Harding
injustice and humiliation and offers an
alternative perspective on farm murders.
With this letter, the reader has direct access only as a musician but as a celebrity; a very
to the mind of a person who commits a famous person who’s got all these personal
terrible crime — an unsettling feeling that hang-ups and who is in decline.”
propels the reader to a place of empathy and The story unfolds across multiple
understanding. settings — Johannesburg, Cape Town,
“It’s just sad, the life that we live. And Amsterdam, France, Cuba, Spain — but two
you can’t write any proper literature places stand out: The Listening Room
without engaging with your subject matter,” (Bantubonke’s private sanctuary tucked
he says. “I know the people in the book and away in the basement of his spacious
when I write it’s as real as it can be. It was a Houghton home) and Joburg. The narrator
very demanding book for me to write; it evokes the essence of the city: “The beauty
took a lot out of me.” of Johannesburg is not immediate. Neither
No wonder. It’s an all-encompassing is it only visual. It is an aesthetic that resists
book. There’s no linear plot or narrative Illumination being the beauty only of place, of the
lines to hold on to; like the music that ★★★★★ physical, buildings and bridges and
permeates every page you just have to let Nthikeng Mohlele, skylines, tree-lined streets and crimson
the words wash you along to the inevitable Picador Africa, R290 cloud-dotted horizons; it is a beauty that is
end, which comes too soon. heard as much as it is felt.”
Music is the driving force behind the ponder, write and edit his book about With The Listening Room, the author
protagonist’s entire life; Bantubonke music, because he wanted to do it justice. created a well-crafted sanctuary that
compares music to “the gushing force of “It was my most taxing book creatively, contains all the things Bantubonke loves —
powerful waterfalls, the hesitance and because I’m not a musician. To tune into the music, art, love, intimate memories of his
sudden charge of ocean waves, the slight wavelength of a musician and to do justice wife — but also becomes the place where he
whistle of garden sprinklers on a breezeless to him, you have to assume total immersion descends into madness.
morning”. Mohlele says he “cannot imagine of that role because the narrative voice that Vivid, beautiful and emotional,
life without music”. comes out can’t be me. It has to be Illumination is testament of a book with a
It took the author more than 12 years to Bantubonke. He has to see the world … not great soul. ● LS . @annawriter_

44 LifeStyle 17•03•2019 Sunday Times