Bregin is not afraid to tackle contentious
subjects and does so with a sure touch. Her writing is skilled and elegant and
while some of the 12 stories on offer may disturb, they show a writer of
considerable skill digging deeply into the questions that confront us all as we
try to make sense of why we are here. (Review by Margaret von Klemperer,
courtesy of The Witness)
Elana Bregin is a KwaZulu-Natal author, and in her case and particularly in this short story collection, this means more than merely describing her place of residence. Many of the stories have a distinctly KZN, and in particular, a Durban flavour. And as she says in her introduction, they represent her efforts, over time, to make sense of the puzzles of life and offer opinions that may or may not resonate with her readers.
The puzzles she engages with are sometimes peculiarly South African, such as in The Sandcarver where the narrator observes one of the many sandcarvers on the Durban beachfront and deals with post-apartheid white guilt and the feeling of dislocation from one’s country and home which it brings with it. It is a theme which emerges more than once in the collection, showing how a person can be immersed in their surroundings and yet feel apart from them.
In one story, The Shining Path, the author seems to offer a solution to this quandary by saying: “We are put here to be exactly who, what and as we are meant to be.” But all through the book there is a sense of someone seeking for answers, and for reassurance.
Not that the stories lack humour. An Inconvenient Cow, while showing up the divide between the old ways and the modern, is a delightful take on road rage. Others are deeply disturbing, looking at the plight of women at the hands of men, while the story entitled They considers vivisection and how it could be if the caged subjects of experimentation were human. This is a story that sticks in the mind, and is not alone in giving a dystopian view of the world.
Bregin is not afraid to tackle contentious subjects and does so with a sure touch. Her writing is skilled and elegant and while some of the 12 stories on offer may disturb, they show a writer of considerable skill digging deeply into the questions that confront us all as we try to make sense of why we are here. - Margaret von Klemperer
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