Despite endless obscenities, a good story about some of the many unpleasant aspects of South Africa in the past. (Review by Michael Green)This extraordinary book is the autobiography of a “Boer” who grew up in Cape Town, was a jazz musician, and became involved in drug-running because, he says, he was trying to raise money to leave South Africa and escape the army call-up, this because of his opposition to apartheid.
He wasn’t a successful drug dealer. He soon fell into the hands of the police, and this book is largely about his experiences in that unenviable situation.
He now lives respectably in Vancouver, Canada, aged about 55, with a wife and four children, having survived a lengthy spell in hospital with cancer, acute leukaemia.
An exciting and unusual life, certainly, and the picture that emerges is one of a tough survivor.
The publisher says that the book is written in an electric and hilarious style and adds that it is destined to become a cult classic. Maybe, but the language is so unremittingly rough that many readers, I suspect, will find it neither electric nor hilarious. If you can stomach the endless obscenities it’s a good story about some of the many unpleasant aspects of South Africa in the past.
The Unexploded Boer by Erich Rautenbach is published by Zebra Press and retails at R190. ISBN 978-1-77022-165-9 - Michael Green
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