It must be said that
Kevin van Wyk’s writing is somewhat pedestrian compared with that of his
father, but despite that, this book is an eminently readable and touching
portrait of one of South Africa’s finest literary figures. (Review by Margaret
von Klemperer, courtesy of The Witness)
Kevin van Wyk is the elder son of Chris van Wyk, who is probably best remembered for his wonderful memoir, Shirley, Goodness & Mercy.
But he was also a poet, a writer of
short stories and children’s books, a political activist and a major literary
figure in South Africa, and here his son pays a warm, affectionate tribute to
him – and to his wife, Kathy.
There is not a huge amount about van Wyk’s early years –
they are covered in his own memoir, and Kevin wisely leaves that to his
father’s voice. But he traces van Wyk’s rise as a writer, from his earliest
poetry, written when he was a schoolboy, to his being mentored by Stephen Gray
and winning the Olive Schreiner Prize for Poetry at the age of 22. His later
writing mainly moved away from poetry, but to this day some of his work is on
the school curriculum.
Kevin van Wyk mixes his father’s story with his own – the book is his memoir: a personal tale of his own upbringing in Riverlea in a close and lively family of mother, father and two sons. The telling is not entirely chronological but moves around various incidents which illustrate aspects of Chris van Wyk’s character. He was a warm, enthusiastic, often funny man, and his son dwells on the various kinds of genius he remembers his father being.
One aspect that stands out is that Chris van Wyk was first and foremost a man of principle. Although he was a political activist through the troubled years of the 1970s and 1980s, according to the author, he never voted for the ANC once democracy was established. This is something that will surprise many readers, but van Wyk was always perturbed by the greed and corruption that the party exhibited right from 1994. And it was van Wyk’s principled stand on many subjects that led his son to refer to him as the “irascible genius”. Once he was fired up, he was unstoppable.
Chris Van Wyk – Irascible Genius: A Son’s Memoir is published by Macmillan - ISBN 978-1-77010-930-8
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