André Brink

“Poiesis means ‘making’, and we make pies as well as poems…”

Martin Versfeld was professor of philosophy at the University of Cape Town and one of Africa’s eminent writers and thinkers. He wrote widely, with wisdom and lucidity, on philosophy, theology and ecology.

In Pots and Poetry and Other Essays we find a distillation of his thoughts on man’s place in the world and the world’s place in man, synthesising Eastern and Western world views. In essays ranging from investigations into the quality of life and the similarities between Plato and Confucius to a defence of the bawdy, Versfeld found nothing too insignificant for his interest – in this original mind rocks and pots held an interest equal to that of the great questions of life.

“His work functions, like Beatrice and Virgil, as a companion on our way through Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, to help us understand, in many respects for the first time, at least something of the mysteries we encounter along our way.”
- André Brink

Recently published by Protea Book House, this collection was introduced by André’s essay “In praise of all that is fleeting and eternal: Footnotes to the essays of Martin Versfeld.”

ISBN: 9781869193195

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)

South Africa’s Brave New World by RW Johnson and A Legacy of Liberation by Mark Gevisser: a review

André Brink compares two writers’ accounts of Thabo Mbeki’s disastrous presidency

Among the numerous books published in recent years on the developing political situation in post-apartheid South Africa, two new titles present a special focus on Thabo Mbeki. Mark Gevisser’s A Legacy of Liberation, originally published in South Africa in 2007 under the title The Dream Deferred, is a towering biography of the recently “recalled” president. It has now been abridged but simultaneously expanded with a substantial epilogue that broadens into an illuminating assessment of the current situation. In its original form it was, with good reason, widely acclaimed and distinguished with several prizes, notably the Alan Paton Award; in its new format it is a brilliant analysis of past equivocations and present blundering, opening into a view of future challenges.

RW Johnson’s South Africa’s Brave New World is a massive volume which in its attempt not to leave any political stone unturned confronts the reader with an avalanche of information. Unlike Gevisser, Johnson is more concerned with data than interpretation. Consequently, in spite of its great length, it is rather a survey of the already-known, gleaned mainly from newspapers, than a treasury of new insights and diagnoses.

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Vertoiingde onderrok wat na regs uithang, maak tweedehandse indruk

R.W. Johnson: South Africa’s Brave New World – The ­Beloved Country Since the End of Apartheid

Resensie deur André P. Brink

R.W. Johnson se reputasie as skrywer oor geskiedenis en politiek is ver­al in regse kringe gevestig deur werke soos How Long Will South ­Africa Survive? en South Africa – The First Man, the Last Nation. Dis pas aangevul deur die lywige South Africa’s Brave New World – The ­Beloved Country After Apartheid.

Vir Johnson gaan dit eerder om in­ligting wat byna uitsluitlik versamel is uit koerante en selfs populêre tydskrifte soos You as om intelligente en openbarende interpretasie, met die gevolg dat die werk mak­lik verslik in opeenstapeling, en in oppervlakkige skinderstories eerder as in­dringende navorsing.

Talle ver­wysings in die notas ­volstaan dan ook met ’n maklike wegkruipertjiespelery soos “Private source”, of vaaghede en veralgemenings soos: “It was generally assumed . . . There was suspicion . . . It was thought entirely possible . . . Causing some to believe . . . A Zimbabwean refugee told me . . . ” juis waar iets aanvegbaars gesê word.

Gesien die groot verskeidenheid bril­jante publikasies wat die afgelope paar jaar op dié terrein gepubliseer is – van John Pilger, Alis­tair Sparks, Max du Preez en Mam­phela Ramphele tot Mark Gevisser se manjifieke biografie oor Thabo Mbeki wat pas sowel verkort as aan­gevul is om dit tot by Zuma op datum te bring – verwag mens vandag darem meer as die hardlywige sukkelpas van Brave New World.

Continue reading: Vertoiingde onderrok wat na regs uithang, maak tweedehandse indruk

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Van heerlike stuitigheid tot donker ondertone

Riana Scheepers en Suzette Kotzé-Myburgh (reds.): Nuwe Kinderverseboek

Resensie deur André P. Brink

Toe Dirk Opperman in 1959 met sy Groot Verseboek (GV) begin het, het hy ook aan jong lesers gedink met Senior Verseboek en Junior Ver­se­boek, en later Kleuterverseboek (1957) en Klein Ver­se­boek (1959).

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Binnewerkinge van SA sensuurmasjien bekyk
deur André P Brink

Tydens al die jare waarin ons in Suid-Afrika gestriem is deur sensuur, is daar voortdurend oor dié kulturele plaag geskryf – meestal in artikels en briewe in die pers, soms ook gebundel, soos in JM Coetzee se Giving Offense. Maar so ’n uitvoerige ontleding soos Peter M. McDonald se The Literature ­Police het tot dusver ontbreek. In sy indringende ondersoek van sowel die geskiedenis van ­sensuur in die praktyk as die ­filosofiese en ideologiese grondslae daarvan, vul McDonald op briljante en dikwels verbluffende wyse daardie ont­stellende leemte onder die opgaaf Apartheid Censorship and its ­Cultural Consequences.

Verbluffend, omdat ons gereeld, danksy volgehoue protes en analise deur swart én wit, Afrikaans- én En­gelssprekende skrywers, in­ge­lig is oor die verrottende en ­ver­nie­tigende uitwerking van sensuur op ons kultuurlewe. Maar die binnewerkinge van die sensuurmasjinerie is nog altyd vir ons ­geheim gehou. Danksy McDonald se openbaring van die versweë ­argiewe van dié masjinerie is dit nou uiteindelik bloot­gelê – en dit laat die lesende publiek met ’n gevoel wat aan Luke Watson nie onbekend sal wees nie.

Continue reading: Binnewerkinge van SA sensuurmasjien bekyk

(Published in Die Burger, 23 February 2009)

See also: Michael Titlestad’s review of the same book.

This work draws on a wide range of theoretical ideas and approaches to illuminate Coetzee’s texts including: deconstruction and the ’school of singularity’, ethics and power, gender studies, queer theory, issues surrounding the body and animal rights.Nobel Laureate and the first author to win the Booker Prize twice, J.M. Coetzee is perhaps the world’s leading living novelist writing in English. Including an international roster of world leading critics and novelists, and drawing on new research, this innovative book analyses the whole range of Coetzee’s work, from his most recent novels through his memoirs and critical writing. It offers a range of perspectives on his relationship with the historical, political, cultural and social context of South Africa. It also contextualises Coetzee’s work in relation to his literary influences, colonial and post-colonial history, the Holocaust and colonial genocides, the ‘politics’ and meaning of the Nobel prize in South Africa and Coetzee’s very public move from South Africa to Australia. Including a major unpublished essay by leading South African novelist André Brink, this book offers the most up-to-date study of Coetzee’s work currently available.

Editors: Elleke Boehmer, Katy Iddols and Robert Eaglestone.

Published by Continuum Books, March 2009.

Beauty and the Beast

Rugby. Humanity at its most barbarous and poetic. André Brink on his addiction to the game, and the woman who understood it

The Spanish corrida can be one of the most exhilarating, graceful and poetic experiences in the world to watch. But if it is done badly, if the matador takes a wrong step – or even worse, if his courage fails him – it can be appalling to watch. I remember Ingrid Jonker once described her perception by borrowing the words of D. H. Lawrence: ‘You’d better be good. If you’re not good, your love is a mess and your courage a slaughter.’ And sometimes there is a mere hairline between the love and the mess, the courage and the slaughter. This certainly goes for rugby too. Sometimes it takes scores of matches before one turns up that is so good that it compensates for all the others. Certainly, when the Super 14 (or its predecessor, the Super 12) is in progress, one good match can compensate for all the bleary-eyed disappointments accumulated during a dismal season.

If rugby is played well, few other experiences in the world can compare with its fluid beauty; there are intimations of the sublime in a really good match – whether it was the second Test of the Springboks against the French at the Stade de France in 1997, or the French against the All Blacks in their semifinal of the 1999 World Cup, or some of Argentina’s matches in the most recent World Cup; whether it was David Campese let loose like a ball of quicksilver on a wet Newlands field, or Jonah Lomu flattening the whole of the English defence as he charged across almost the full length of the field to score a try, or Brian Habana weaving his magic against a horde of opponents, or Jannie de Beer kicking five drop goals in a single match, or Joost van der Westhuizen diving for the line below the radar of an entire opposing side, or Tom van Vollenhoven at full sprint, or Sean Fitzpatrick or Colin Meads shaking off three, four, five tacklers in a surge forward, or Martin Johnson leading a stampede, or Joel Stransky landing that last drop in the final match of the ’95 World Cup, or the All Black backline in full charge, or Jaap Bekker bringing down a scrum, or Jannie Engelbrecht eluding an opponent more elegantly than Nureyev executing a pirouette, or Daniel Carter landing a penalty from a totally impossible position and in totally impossible circumstances. This, surely, must go into any definition of beauty.

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From The Book Lounge’s February Newsletter:

Not an autobiography of the and then I did this and then I did that variety, this memoir takes the form of a collection of beautifully written snapshot of important and interesting times in the life of one of our most celebrated writers. An alternative title may have been, A Life Lived, and we are privileged to share Brink’s reflections on the times he has lived through and the people whose paths have crossed his. Highly recommended.