Synopsis: In Johannesburg in the late 1960s, the Iris family take in house guests from time to time to diffuse the tension in their large but unhappy home. 11-year-old Emily looks forward to these guests as she knows her parents will set their quarrels aside, and, if only for a short time, be like a real family. One spring a family of wanderers - an Australian couple and their two boys, Streak and Otis, who is brain damaged - comes to stay. Emily and Streak form a close friendship and Emily's beloved, gentle older sister Sarah takes Otis in hand. But then tragedy strikes and their lives are changed forever. Enclosing all this is the incredibly close and warm relationship Emily has with the old Zulu gatekeeper, Buza, who tells her Zulu folktales to help her through and make sense of her problems.

Review: Although set in Johannesburg in the 1960s, racial tension seems not to be the biggest issue in this disturbing novel but instead the role of the parents: the mother of Emily and Sarah and the father of Otis and Streak. Both fail in their role as carer for their very individual offspring, and it is this failure that causes the resultant tragedy.

This is a very powerful novel about love and loyalty recommended as an independent read for mature, sophisticated students or for a small book group but it does require great sensitivity and openminds. Emily is desperate to be loved by her mother as revealed very early on when she says: ‘[I wanted to] tell her that I would dance to any beat she wanted if only she would tell me which exact beat it was.’ Her mother, however, is too interested in pampering herself, shopping and tennis – or more precisely her tennis partner. She ignores both of her daughters until it is far too late and she reaches out to Emily, to no avail: ‘But it is me who steps away. Me who untangles myself from her embrace, leaving her with outstretched empty arms.’

Emily spends most of her time with the family’s black servants, Lettie and Buza, who tell her ancient traditional tales and give her more affection and attention than her parents. She also adores her older sister, Sarah, and learns much about life from her. At one point she plaintively exclaims: ‘Sarah, let’s not grow up…it doesn’t seem like it’s so much fun.’ This turns out to be prophetic.

More companionship arrives for Emily in the shape of a nomadic Australian family who initially sooth the ever present tensions between Emily’s parents. However, they bring with them their own peculiarities. Indeed, Emily views the contrast between the two sets of children as ‘tame and wild’.

The younger boy, Streak, quickly becomes best friends with Emily and he too learns of ancient Zulu traditions from Buza. When a litter of kittens is born he is desperate to have one but he refuses to name it as in his short miserable experience, ‘things that have names always go away.’ Something else that proves disturbingly accurate.

 The older boy, Otis, is often beaten by his father for his strangeness and is unsurprisingly drawn to the gentle placidity of Sarah whom he persuades to teach him to read. The sweet-natured Sarah, however one evening, is overpowered by Otis and raped. When Emily, having heard the screams, discovers what has happened she is forbidden to mention it to anyone. Otis’ parents, however, learn of it and Otis is beaten with the ‘knobkerrie’ so badly by his father that Streak claims ‘his face don’t even look like a face no more.’

Emily tries to hold Sarah together feeling she ‘needs the glue from my hands so she won’t crack.’ But, sadly, Sarah does crack and turns to alcohol and late-night walking until she is one day discovered, Ophelia-like, in the water. A distraught Emily blames her mother and ultimately the family moves away. Emily dramatically declares she would rather live with Buza but as this is not possible, she demands that he is paid a substantial pension allowing him to return to his homeland. He movingly tells Emily what Zulu means when he is about to leave her: ‘It mean heaven’s people. And it is you, Miss Emily, you who has made it possible for me to return to my heaven. My Zululand!’

2006-10-27