Highly
readable novel on how not to run one’s life! (Review by Caroline Smart)
A
strange title but it says it all - this is pretty much a training manual on how not to run one’s life tied up in a highly readable novel.
Kate is a lost soul. She’s over 40, lives
on her own and her work as an editor at a publishing house is highly demanding.
Her first “how not to do” is her decision to go online to a dating website to
look for partners. Very few of them are even remotely suitable. However, she
links up with one who seems more suitable than the rest. Or is he?
Kate has one problem which intrudes on any
relationship she tries to pursue. She takes on an emaciated and abandoned young
dog (an Africanis) which turns out to have major health issues. The heartbreak
she endures over the animal’s condition – and its eventual death – drains her
resources even further.
The anaesthetic of a glass of wine – or two
or three – beckons and things spiral to a level where Kate realises she is out
of control and the spectre of her alcoholic father and his abusive behaviour
looms.
Life is not easy but often the problems are
of Kate’s own making. While the reader sways between irritation at Kate’s
irresponsible behaviour and bad choices, Bregin charts the process so you
eventually grant the heroine a growing respect. Her journey reflects the many
issues South Africa is still working through - social, racial sexual. Also there’s
the reminder that responsibility for one’s own actions is an unavoidable fact
of life. As ye sow so shall ye reap.
Bregin is a skilled writer when it comes to
describing Kate’s home environment and surrounding landscape. Her work as an
editor at UKZN Press stands her in good stead with this novel. She also lives
with a number of dogs herself so any animal lover will relate to Kate’s
anguish.
Survival Training For Lonely Hearts is published in paperback by
MacMillan EAN:9781770102347
and eBook EAN: 9781770102354 – Caroline Smart
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