André Brink

Tweesprong

Over André Brink wordt vaak gezegd dat de apartheid de aanleiding was voor zijn schrijverschap. In de jaren zestig streed hij samen met Breyten Breytenbach tegen de apartheid en zijn boeken werden door de overheid verboden of gecensureerd. Maar ook de taal, de ontdekking van de taal, bracht hem tot schrijven. Zijn hele jeugd leefde hij tussen de boeken. Bibliotheken waren zijn paleizen en hij droomde ervan schrijver te worden: het schrijven werd een manier om wereldse zaken te doorgronden.

In Tweesprong vertelt Brink over het kleine, overwegend blanke plaatsje waar hij opgroeide en waar de dagelijkse spanning tussen zwart en blank een normaal deel van het leven was, over zijn heftige relatie met dichteres Ingrid Jonker, over de vormende jaren in Parijs, over zijn huwelijk en kinderen. Zijn leven speelt zich af tegen de achtergrond van racisme en apartheid. Wanneer hij in de jaren zestig in Parijs is, en treurt om de dood van Albert Camus, de schrijver die hij vereert, is er in Sharpville een bloedbad gaande. Als hij ervan hoort denkt hij: Ja, dit viel te verwachten. Dit moest gebeuren. Zijn schrijverschap zal daarna niet meer hetzelfde zijn.

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A Fork in the Road has been longlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2009.

The UK’s most Prestigious non-fiction award

The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is the richest non fiction prize in the UK, worth £20,000 to the winner.

Sponsored by the BBC, the prize aims to reward the best of non-fiction and is open to authors of all non-fiction books in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.

The BBC televise the awards ceremony and feature complementary programming – forming a key part of their commitment to diverse, intelligent and culturally enriching programmes.

The UK’s most prestigious non fiction prize has been renamed the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. Formerly The BBC FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize, the change in name reflects the BBC’s commitment to broadcasting coverage of the Prize on BBC TWO’s The Culture Show. The prize is worth £20,000 to the winning author.

The panel for the 2009 Prize is chaired by Jacob Weisberg, one of America’s leading political journalists and commentators.

He is joined by Dr Mark Lythgoe, neuroscientist and Director of the Cheltenham Science Festival; Tim Marlow, writer, broadcaster and art historian and director of exhibitions at White Cube; Munira Mirza, Director of Policy, Arts, Culture and the Creative Industries at the Mayor of London’s office; and Sarah Sands, an experienced journalist and currently editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest magazine.

Clicke here to view the 2009 longlist and previous winners.

Brink on fictional deaths, tutoring and that memoir

SA icon will make his maiden appearance at the Franschhoek festival, writes BEVERLEY BROMMERT

IT CAME as a relief to author André Brink to learn that this interview does NOT deal specifically with his latest publication, the memoir titled ‘n Vurk in die Pad (A Fork in the Road).

He complained that he has been “bombarded” with interviews about the new work for the past two months, since the English version appeared in February.

He was due to have yet another interview immediately after this one, which is on the subject of Brink’s participation in the forthcoming literary festival in Franschhoek in May.

Not surprisingly, one of his three appearances in the festival’s programme of events celebrating books and writers concerns ‘n Vurk in die Pad, about which he will chat to Susan Mann, to whom he refers as one of his “star students” among those aspiring authors whom he mentored for some years at UCT.

His second intervention is on the topic of teaching creative writing, and the third Brink participation will be in a discussion with Shaun Johnson and two fellow writers about the demise of characters in fiction, titled Sending Them off Gracefully and held, appropriately, in the Hospice Hall in Franschhoek.

On the now hoary subject of his memoir, Brink admits to feeling gratified at the intensity of interest it has generated: “None of my previous books has attracted so much attention, and I’ve no idea why this one should have, although it’s very pleasing… Perhaps it has to do with its publication just ahead of a crucial election.”

As he has had a long and rewarding friendship with Mann, he regards his interview with her during the festival as “a treat in store”, with the added benefit that no preparation will be necessary. “I expect it will take the form of a question-and-answer session.”

Continue reading: Brink on fictional deaths, tutoring and that memoir

(Cape Argus, 27 April 2009)

Read Rob Gaylard’s review of A Fork in the Road in the same issue.

Memoir offers a textured narrative of a life less ordinary lived to the full

Review by Rob Gaylard

THE COVER photo of Brink’s autobiography shows a young, innocent-looking Brink, aged 13, bursting with pride at his first kill.

He holds a springbok between his legs; his hands grasp the fork of its horns. This is the author’s initiation into the casual violence of the hunt, part of what was expected of him as a boy, part of the price to be paid for acceptance by family, by friends, by volk.

The opening chapters evoke the world of Brink’s childhood, the various dorps in which his father served as magistrate, and the sharpness and clarity of the writing make these among the most memorable parts of the narrative.

A leitmotif running through the memoir is the gratuitous “’surplus of violence” that seems foundational to our society. The young André grows up being proud of his father, the magistrate who dispenses justice,”second only to God” – but this is the same man who, one unforgettable Saturday morning, ignores the plea of a desperate, badly beaten black man who arrives at his house, and sends him back to the police – the very people who had beaten him in the first place.

It’s the author’s first, shocking intimation of “the long, long history of excess”. For the young boy, it is perhaps the end of innocence.

The early chapters trace the conflicts that were eventually to lead Brink into open rebellion against the norms of his people.

At the time, and just as importantly, we see the incipient writer discovering the potential of words to shape and express experience. After his first exposure to English, language is no longer something to be taken for granted.

Continue reading: Memoir offers a textured narrative of a life less ordinary lived to the full

(Cape Argus, 27 April 2009)

7 April, Die Neelsie, Langenhoven-sentrum, Jan van Riebeeckweg 217, Oudtshoorn, 7.30pm

8 April, Die Neelsie Teater, Langenhoven-sentrum, Jan van Riebeeckweg 217, Oudtshoorn, 7.30pm

“Brink se ‘memoir’ geen gewone outobiografie”

deur Fanie Olivier

Nadat hy onlangs vir ons die Afrikaanse poësie in ’n blik saamgebring het, vat André P. Brink homself saam in ’n ander soort blik: ’n blik op homself onder die titel ’n Vurk in die Pad.

Die keuse van die ongewone vorm “’n memoir” (wat eerder Engels is) om dit te tipeer (in plaas van die gebruiklike “memoires”) wil reeds die leser waarsku: die gebruiklike omvattende outobiografiese herinneringe gaan tweede viool speel. Hier is daar dalk eerder ’n historiese verslag of ’n biografie geskryf vanuit persoonlike kennis.

So ’n poging tot relativering van die “ware” storie tot die vlak van net nog ’n relaas is natuurlik tipies van ’n postmodernistiese beskouing van ’n skrywer oor en rondom homself. Elke vurk in die pad, waarsku Brink die leser ook uitdruklik in sy “Inleiding”, beteken dat daar keuses is. Maar: “Niks word ooit regtig uitgeskakel nie . . . wat nié gekies word nie bly skemer agter dié wat wel gekies is.”

Continue reading: “Brink se ‘memoir’ geen gewone outobiografie”

(Die Burger, 16 February 2009)

“Om kaal te loop”

In Brittanje word André P. Brink se ’n Vurk in die Pad: ’n Memoir reeds deur groot name besing, en in Suid-Afrika het dit pas die rakke getref – in Afrikaans en Engels. WILLEMIEN BRÜMMER het met dié skrywer gepraat oor weerloosheid, sy familie en Ingrid Jonker.

Want al het hy nog altyd vasberade geweier om toe te gee aan uitgewers, vriende en vreemdelinge se versoeke om ’n outobiografie te skryf, het die oomblik van waarheid tóg nou, op 73, vir hom aangebreek. Ná 23 romans, “omtrent sewe dramas, sowat 70 vertalings en nege niefiksie-boeke” het hy uiteindelik sy memoires ’n Vurk in die Pad geskryf. En soos hy (as fiksieskrywer) beken: “Gooi ’n riviervis in die see, en hy súkkel.”

Die keerpunt het gekom op daardie veelbesonge treinrit in Desember 2004 tussen Wene en Salzburg toe ’n “halsoorkop gesprek” begin het “wat nou, vier jaar later, nog nie bedaar of asem geskep het nie”. Dié rit was sy eerste ontmoeting met die pragtige Poolse Karina (32), sedert 2006 die vyfde Miesies Brink, wat hom vergesel het na ’n konferensie wat sy help reël het.

Soos altyd wanneer hy oor haar praat, kry hy ’n geluksalige gesigsuitdrukking. “Ons het twee lewens gehad wat uit sulke verskillende dele van die wêreld kom en ’n mens eenvoudig aan die praat gesit het – net om in te haal met jou verlede, dat die ander een iets meer van jou verstaan. Dit was ’n werklike ontdekkingstog sáám met die ander deur mens se herinneringe, en uiteindelik het dit my laat besluit waarom nie maar begin skryf en kyk waar ek uitkom nie?”

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Listen to André speak about his memoir, A Fork in the Road, on the BBC African Perspective.

In this week’s programme we talk to one of the most influential Afrikaans writers, André Brink.

Brink was brought up in a world of white power, superiority and brutality. But he rebelled against the beliefs and practices of his people, the Afrikaners, to become ‘a heretic’ or one who chooses.

The life he chose threatened his closest family relationships and saw his writings banned by the apartheid government in South Africa.

His journey from being complacent about the cruelties of racial oppression to becoming a sharp critic of the apartheid regime is described in his memoirs “A Fork in the Road“, which will be published this week in the UK, by Harvill Secker.