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The Invisible Ghetto: Lesbian & Gay Writing from South Africa
The first anthology of gay and [lesbian] writers from South [africa] contains a rich selection of [fiction], personal histories, poems and [essays], shattering the silence imposed by apartheid. [gay men][literature]
- GenresLGBTNonfiction
Paperback
First published September 1, 1995
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May 26, 2025
It is hard to know how to rate or review this anthology. If it was 1993 when it was published I am sure I would have regarded it as a five star read but, even then, I might have noted that it was less a portrait of South Africa and apartheid as it existed in 1993 but a portrait of a country and system that was fast vanishing. Not that this wasn't reflected in some of the contributions to the anthology but there was nothing to suggest that a year later apartheid would be gone and black majority rule not so much on the horizon but a sone deal.
Books published during the immediate prelude to great change always date fastest. Monolithic regimes such as apartheid South Africa; the Soviet Union and its satellites appeared as immovable mases until, like Bourbon France, Romanov Russia or Salazar's Portugal, they disappear in a puff of wind and everyone is left astounded at how easily they crumbled.
Of course in the case of South Africa, rather like the Soviet Union, the system had been crumbling from within from the challenges of its own contradictions. Neither South Africa nor the Soviet Union was what it had been in its glory days of unrepentant power. The laws and ideology remained but the heart had gone out of them. Those who had most to lose were making the adjustments to ensure they lost little while those with little to lose would lose most of it.
This anthology is fascinating as a historical document. The voices are priceless, but they are only the beginning of a story. In his memoir of Richard Rive the author Stephen Gray ties himself in knots trying not say that Rive was murdered in his home by a poorly chosen pick-up. He is even more convoluted in the way he tries to avoid saying that Rive was queer without actually making it odd that a memoir of Rive should be so prominent in a 'gay' anthology. If you look online now (2025) you will find many memoirs celebrating and remembering Rive as a gay man (though not his Wikipedia entry - a good example of why you cannot rely solely on that source). In 1993 admitting that Rive was a gay man was impossible - but that impossibility would also change in the near future.
I am still giving it four stars because so much of the material is excellent, but there is little good fiction. It is the memoirs that stand out.
Books published during the immediate prelude to great change always date fastest. Monolithic regimes such as apartheid South Africa; the Soviet Union and its satellites appeared as immovable mases until, like Bourbon France, Romanov Russia or Salazar's Portugal, they disappear in a puff of wind and everyone is left astounded at how easily they crumbled.
Of course in the case of South Africa, rather like the Soviet Union, the system had been crumbling from within from the challenges of its own contradictions. Neither South Africa nor the Soviet Union was what it had been in its glory days of unrepentant power. The laws and ideology remained but the heart had gone out of them. Those who had most to lose were making the adjustments to ensure they lost little while those with little to lose would lose most of it.
This anthology is fascinating as a historical document. The voices are priceless, but they are only the beginning of a story. In his memoir of Richard Rive the author Stephen Gray ties himself in knots trying not say that Rive was murdered in his home by a poorly chosen pick-up. He is even more convoluted in the way he tries to avoid saying that Rive was queer without actually making it odd that a memoir of Rive should be so prominent in a 'gay' anthology. If you look online now (2025) you will find many memoirs celebrating and remembering Rive as a gay man (though not his Wikipedia entry - a good example of why you cannot rely solely on that source). In 1993 admitting that Rive was a gay man was impossible - but that impossibility would also change in the near future.
I am still giving it four stars because so much of the material is excellent, but there is little good fiction. It is the memoirs that stand out.
Displaying 1 of 1 review