The author died recently, and I heard about this on a Radio 4 obituary programme. I believe he was a white Afrikaan who became increasingly disillusioned with S African apartheid. If so his hero Ben du Toit is similar; an unassuming school teacher whose black gardener is caught up (via his son) in the struggle.
Du Toit is simply a man who won’t let things go, and as the book progresses he becomes more and more disillusioned with and a reluctant but active (as a liberal) opponent of the regime, which slowly crushes and eventually disposes of him.
It is quite good but a little mono-thematic, as crusading books have a tendency to be.
The most interesting character is Stanley, the big Soweto taxi driver, who has a rather cynical view of the whole process. The girlfriend’s father who pontificates philosophically and most of whose utterances are underlined for ‘importance’ in my kindle (where did they get this stupid idea from?) is less interesting.
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