Despite
its flaws, “She Down There” is still very readable (Review by Margaret von
Klemperer. Courtesy of The Witness)
Lynton Burger is a marine biologist, and
his passion for the sea and the creatures that live in it is at the heart of She Down There, his first novel. When
writing about the sea, his prose has a lyrical quality that is very attractive.
The human part of the story concerns two
people, and begins in the 1980s and 90s. First we meet Claire, whose father was
a French Canadian, and her mother a member of the indigenous Haida people,
whose myths include that of the Half-Away Woman who lives in the depths of the
ocean and absorbs its triumphs and disasters. After a tragedy in her life,
Claire heads to Mozambique to a research station monitoring the coral reefs.
The other strand deals with Klaas
Afrikaner, who grows up on a farm in the Karoo, where his father is a labourer.
The farmer’s family is liberal, and Klaas is allowed to associate with their
daughter, Gwen, despite this being in the apartheid days. The two are very
close, and when she goes off to university – and becomes involved in the
clandestine ANC – her father manages to get Klaas accepted into the navy where
he becomes an elite diver, despite being a so-called Coloured.
Sent on a covert mission to Maputo, Klaas
decides enough is enough. Eventually, he becomes a dive master shepherding
wealthy tourists around. It takes a long time for Klaas and Claire to meet, but
the reader is in no doubt that they will. And it is in their relationship – and
indeed, in most of the human relationships – that Burger’s writing falters.
There is something a bit Mills and Boonish about it all, and everything is
signalled with a heavy hand. When Gwen reappears on the idyllic Mozambican
coast, her bracelets jangle, her breath smells of cigarettes and she leaves
lipstick marks on whatever she is drinking out of. All too obviously, she is no
longer a Good Thing.
It’s a pity, because when he is writing
about the sea, or the horrors of the Chinese greed for its bounty, Burger shows
real talent. And despite its flaws, She
Down There is still very readable. Margaret von Klemperer
She
Down There by Lynton Francois Burger is published
by Penguin Books. ISBN 9781485904458 Recommended Price R275.
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