The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs

by Damon Galgut

A year ago Patrick Winter was in Namibia completing his military service. Now, during the its first free elections, Patrick has returned to the country he defended, the place where he fell in love for the first and only time. With the country poised to change forever, Patrick is forced to revisit his past and scale the wall that he has built around his painful memories of love and war, and loss.

Genres: Fiction, Africa, South Africa, LGBT, Namibia, Literary Fiction, Novels

143 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Damon Galgut was born in Pretoria in 1963. He wrote his first novel, A Sinless Season, when he was seventeen. His other books include Small Circle of Beings, The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs, The Quarry, The Good Doctor and The Impostor. The Good Doctor was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Dublin/IMPAC Award. The Imposter was also shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He lives in Cape Town.

Reviews

[Berengaria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

short review for busy readers: quiet and unassuming, this early novel by the author of The Promise deals with the birthing struggles of South Africa and the new country of Namibia. Not terribly engaging, but powerful in a understated way.

in detail:
This short, early novel is difficult to pin down as it is written in a distanced, ethereal way. The landscapes and townscapes of both South Africa and Namibia are described, but not in a very tangible nor vivid way. It's only from the characters' actions that you get anything like a sense of place, but even they are not terribly there.

The 1st person narrator, Patrick, has such a hesitant connection to both his mother and his mother’s boyfriend, that, although the characters are well-drawn in themselves, it’s like we are viewing them from across the room.

What does really stick out is the anger Godfrey, the mother’s black Namibian activist boyfriend has towards white South Africans and whites in general, as well as Patrick's mother’s self-destructive fascination with it.

The story centres on the trip Patrick makes with his mother from Cape Town to South West Africa/Namibia for the first free elections which will decide if the colony should split off from South Africa and become independent or not. For his mother it’s a holiday and a chance to see (and sleep with) Godfrey. For Patrick, it’s a chance to revisit some of his military trauma and meet the boyfriend he's heard so much about.

Although Patrick can respect Godfrey’s political views, he’s troubled by Godfrey’s macho disrespect and brutal treatment of his mother in the bedroom.

“After another long silence I (Patrick) said to him: ‘You shouldn’t treat her badly. You should take care how you speak to her.’
I had meant this as good advice: a way of keeping her. But he stiffened, and I saw he’d understood me differently. He thought I was telling him what to do.
‘It’s part of my culture,’ he said. ‘Women don’t answer men back.’
‘It’s part of your culture you should think about changing.’
He made an impatient sound with his mouth and wagged a forefinger at me. ‘Always forcing us to change our culture. Always your way. Always the white way.’"

One might ask what is “white” about treating women with respect, but that would miss the point. Godfrey can't talk about anything without it becoming political, without it going back to culture, back to race. His relationship with Patrick’s mother isn’t love, it’s race revenge.

Despite that, only through Godfrey’s political activities is Patrick able to put what he always found wrong with South Africa’s treatment of Namibia into thoughts and words. At the end of the novel, he’s just realising the potential of this but he’s not there yet, which has led some reviewers to see the ending as ‘let down’.

As much as the content of the narrative is compelling, I found it a slog to get through for the first half simply due to the tangible distance of the narrative voice.

What I did enjoy were the few sentences in Afrikaans, which was nice touch.

Recommended only for completionists and those interested in South African literature and culture.

[But_i_thought_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compared to The Promise, The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs (first published in 1991), is a much darker and more sombre read. It is a novel with furrowed brows — each word, each gesture laden with meaning.

We follow a young white South African man, Patrick Winter, and his mother on a road trip to Namibia at a critical transition period — the first democratic elections of 1989. As we might expect from Galgut, the plot is full of situational irony. The last time Patrick was in Namibia he was doing compulsory service for the South African army, “defending” the land against freedom fighters. Now, a few years later, he has come to meet Godfrey, a young black man and political activist, who happens to be his mother’s new lover. A few years ago, both men might have shot at each other. Now they are hanging up election posters and engaging in awkward conversation.

The novel touches on issues of race, but only fleetingly. Galgut is more interested in exploring various forms of exile here (physical, emotional, political), queer identity, mental health and what it means to live as an outsider in your own community. The descriptions of Namibia are vivid and evocative — from the liquid quality of the dunes, to the desolation of the moon landscape, to the anachronistic nature of Swakopmund architecture:

“The big old houses, the spare Germanic architecture, were both elaborate and flimsy, like delicate but detailed screens that had been put up as a backdrop for some event which never quite took place”.

Overall, I missed the counterbalancing levity of The Promise. Like the narrator who is drugged on Prothiaden and Valium, the novel has a sedated quality to it, as if it feels strangely different to its fate. It lacks a certain forward propulsion, dragging its feet in the sand. By the end, it felt like I had read the prelude to a larger, missing work.

If you are a fan of Galgut, you will find familiar aspects to appreciate here (the controlled and understated writing, the subtext, the cinematic feel). But if you’re new to this author, rather sample his latest, The Promise!

Mood: Sombre and sedated
Rating: 7/10

Also on Instagram.

Historical note
The assassinated activist Andrew Lovell seems to be based on Anton Lubowski.

Related review
The Promise

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

As Galgut fans like myself know, he published his first novel when he was only seventeen (a literary wunderkind, I’d say). I had read all his work except for his first three books and found myself interested in going back and looking at the early work from the author who I’m hoping will win the 2021 Booker Prize.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from this, his third book, but I suppose I thought I would discover the work of a younger, perhaps slightly less mature author. That was not exactly the case. I was impressed by how accomplished this early novel is. This may be largely due to the fact that, first published in 1991, Galgut reworked the novel for this 2005 reissue, writing in an Author’s Note: “It is not a new book, but it’s not quite the old one either.” New, old, reworked, this is excellent and should please readers interested in Galgut’s earliest works. Beautifully written with complex characters, this slight novel explores love, war and the political events in South West Africa/Namibia that strongly affected South Africa.

[Alistair Mackay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever since I discovered Galgut, I’ve been mystified as to why he’s not more famous. He’s easily as good as Coetzee - and better in many ways, because the unease in his books doesn’t come from othering black people. He is, as other reviewers have said, ‘a master of psychological tension’ (Globe & Mail) and of ‘quiet menace’ (NYT).

Now, having finished The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs, I don’t understand why it’s not more famous among Galgut’s novels. It is perhaps the perfect novel about the transition in South Africa and Namibia. (Or perhaps I find it more relatable than Disgrace because the protagonist is gay, deeply troubled by the violence of white South Africa and its expectations of masculinity, and unable to turn his anxiety into anything useful.)

Covering everything from complicity to repressed psychological trauma, inter-racial love, idealistic burnout and disconnection, this is a short, gripping, beautifully told story.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

“All around us, South West Africa was turning into Namibia. The air was shimmering and bright, as if a gigantic energy had been unleashed somewhere.”
This is a fairly brief novella set at the time when Namibia was gaining independence. The protagonist is Patrick White. He has recently left the South African army. He was doing his National Service and now has PTSD. He lives with his mother who is something of a free spirit, which has meant he has had an interesting childhood. She has a new boyfriend, Godfrey, who is black. Patrick and his mother are driving to Namibia to meet Godfrey. They are going to get involved in canvassing for an election and a funeral.
There are several themes running through this. The effects of violence on an individual, the nature of independence amongst others. But there is a focus on Patrick’s interior struggles:
“I was convoluted, involuted, bent on myself. Like the whorls of a shell, my patterns ran inward, spiralling endlessly towards a centre that didn’t exist. My individuality was isolation, my personality an absence. I didn’t connect with the world. I stood outside movements and masses and words. There was too much desert in me.”
Then there is the title of course. His grandmother has a farm and there are some rather vivid descriptions of slaughter, particularly of pigs. I am still a little baffled about the reasons for the selection of the title, although there is a quote which attempts to explain:
“It was a sign of my state of mind or soul that on this particular morning the screaming of the pig sounded almost beautiful to me. It didn’t evoke violence or fear, but a train of gentle childhood memories.”
This deals with difficult issues in a very brief and rather truncated way, which left me somewhat unsatisfied, but I’m still glad I read it.

[Hulyacln · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Ben anlaşılması güç, karmaşık, içe dönük biriydim. Denizkabuklarının halkaları gibi benim desenlerim de içeri kıvrılıyor, var olmayan bir merkeze doğru sonsuza dek daralıyordu. Benim bireyselliğim tecritti, kişiliğim diye bir şey yoktu. Dünyayla bağlantı kurmuyordum. Hareketlerin, kitlelerin, sözcüklerin dışında duruyordum. İçimde çok fazla çöl vardı.’
.
Patrick Winter, annesi ve annesinin erkek arkadaşı ile seçimlere tanık olabilmek için bir yolculuğa çıkar. Patrick, bu seyahatte pek çok şeyi düşünür. Babasını, annesini ülkesini, savaşları ve yitirdiklerini. Daha geçen sene bir askerken; şimdi o zamanki düşmanıyla yoldadır. Sahi bir ülkenin-dostluğun-erkekliğin-evlat olmanın sınırları nedir?
.
Tek oturuşta okunabilecek, akılda pek çok soru bırakabilecek, satır aralarındaki detaylarıyla da psikolojik gözlemleri yüksek bir kitap Domuzların Güzel Çığlıkları. Damon Galgut, Güneybatı Afrika ( Namibya)’nın Güneybatı Afrika Halk Örgütü (SWAPO) ile savaşını anlatırken, bir gencin de kendiyle mücadelesine yoğunlaşıyor.
Severek okudum~
.
Mert Doğruer çevirisi, Khosro Ashtari kapak tasarımıyla ~

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having become unmoored during his military services - fighting against Namibian independence - Patrick feels increasingly disconnected from the world around him. He returns to Namibia at the time of its first free elections but struggling to find an identify for himself, he doesn't quite understand what's happening to him: "I was losing all sense of who I was by then, but I didn’t know how to give voice to the gathering absence." Confused, he vainly tries to make sense of not just himself but, in both place and time, how he fits into the prevailing environment of disorder and instability: "It was like the edge of the world. Beyond it, as in ancient maps, was where monstrous and unknown things dwelled: Communists. Terrorists. Other Ideas." A growing feeling of senselessness and futility sets in and he comes to the realization "My individuality was isolation, my personality an absence."

This is a fairly early effort by Galgut (1991) and it doesn't feel quite as technically gifted as his subsequent work. It's a little bit uneven but it also has a more immediate bite to it.

[Gülşah'ın kitaplığı · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damon Galgut'un kaleme aldığı Domuzların Güzel Çığlıkları, Güney Afrika'nın karmaşık tarihini ve bireyin bu tarih içindeki mücadelesini,
apartheid sonrası Güney Afrika'da yaşayan genç bir adamın, geçmişiyle yüzleşme ve kimliğini bulma arayışını anlatıyor.  Bir nevi aile hikâyesi kitap, anne ve oğlunun yaşad��kları, sorunlarının zamanla dışsal vurumu, ve ülkede ki ırkçılık....siya*set...
Kitapda aynı zamanda Patrick'in kendini keşfetmesi, yüzleşmesi ve ön yargılarından kurtularak öğrenme çabasını anlatıyor....

[Bren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Galgut became well-known for The Good Doctor, which was sort of Disgrace Part Two, but I much prefer this earlier, more uneven novel. Its about a young, implicitly gay, white south african man who has been conscripted into the south african army and fought in the border wars of the late 1980s in Namibia. He is discharged, having lost his mind for a while after a boy he loved is killed, and the story begins shortly after his discharge, when he is back in Namibia with his mother and her new black lover, just as the first democratic elections are being held there (they happened before South Africa's, and its fascinating to read an account of that historical moment). His mother is a bit of a monster. The way in which she feels she is finally becoming a real African through a sexual relationship with the black man, Godfrey, while finding his political passion increasingly tiresome, is not a pretty picture. The young man, meanwhile, becomes friends with Godfrey, and finds himself fascinated with a (beautiful) white male SWAPO activist who has just been assassinated, who stands for an alternative life he could have lived if he hadn't been trying so hard, and unsuccessfully, to conform to white masculinity. His intense alienation is really beautifully conveyed--"Though I strain and I beat, my efforts are muffled, my cries are eaten by my silence. I have longed for a way to vent my country from me, to bawl it out of my flesh"--and this scene, during a SWAPO rally in the desert, is in some ways the core of the novel: "There occurred, later, an instant of grace: at some point that evening, a black man nudged my leg. Looking up, I saw him: a youth, the same age as me. He was grinning, extending his hand. "Hey, brother," he said. I accepted his grip. "Brother," I mumbled in reply. As he shambled away over the bluish sand, the moon broke free of the clouds. It had waxed to the full, was brimming with light. Hanging behind us, swollen with dust, it cast a radiance down. And here, in this corner of the desert, its roundness infected us all. In a moment, sucked up by its gravity, we were all on our feet. The orator at the microphone fell silent. And into the hush, hesitantly at first, a song slowly spread through the crowd. I didn't know this song. I'd never heard it before. But the rhythm went through me, moving my feet; I brought my heel down on the earth. My mouth hummed along without words. As my foot stamped the ground, a hand touched my back: Godfrey pulled me towards him. With his other arm, he embraced my mother. All three of us were singing; my mother, her lover, myself...for a second I saw how things could be: part of a mass, of a singing congregation, the family to which I'd never belonged. I stamped hard on the earth, treading my past. Words rose in beautiful arcs. This lasted only that moment."

[Lili Bammens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deze roman van Damon Galgut, geboren in 1963, is de tweede die van hem werd uitgegeven. "The beautiful screaming of pigs" verscheen voor het eerst in 1988 en werd in 1993 in het Nederlands vertaald. Het is deze editie die ik las.
Patrick, een blanke Zuid-Afrikaanse jonge man van 20 jaar, gaat met zijn moeder naar Namibië in de week dat daar de eerste verkiezingen sinds de onafhankelijkheid plaatsvinden. Zijn moeder wil er haar jongere zwarte minnaar Godfrey opzoeken die bij de SWAPO actief is.
Sinds de scheiding van zijn ouders woont Patrick bij zijn moeder die hem als klankbord en vertrouwenspersoon behandelt om al haar avonturen en heftige amoureuze verwikkelingen toe te vertrouwen.
Tijdens de reis denkt Patrick over het verleden: hun gezinsleven voor de scheiding en het overlijden van zijn broer, zijn leven met zijn moeder, zijn tijd als dienstplichtige in het leger, hoe hij zich daar een buitenstaander voelde, en zijn zenuwinzinking van één jaar geleden, die hij nog niet te boven is.
Mede dankzij Godfrey ziet Patrick in dat hij zijn grenzen moet stellen en zijn eigen leven leiden, zonder zijn moeder.
Toen de roman van Galgut "The good doctor" in 2005 op de shortlist van de Bookerprize stond werd dit boek opnieuw in het Engels uitgegeven. De auteur heeft het echter eerst wat herwerkt omdat hij niet heel tevreden was met de eerste versie. Je merkt inderdaad dat dit een roman is die geschreven werd toen de auteur nog vrij jong was, als je het boek vergelijkt met zijn later werk. Jammer dat deze herwerkte versie niet vertaald werd.
Toch is deze roman, die eens te meer slechts in enkele bibliotheken uit te lenen is, weer een goede Galgut over de scheidingslijnen tussen en de eigenheid van volkeren en individuen.

[Misha · Rating 3 out of 5]

"My individuality was isolation, my personality an absence."

Patrick Winter returns home after a year of fighting on the side of white South Africans against Namibian Independence. He suffers from severe PTSD, is disillusioned, has no idealistic commonality with the white colonialists. Once home, he is drawn into the midst of Namibia's first free elections, and all of a sudden he starts questioning his purpose and ideology.

This book is such a contradiction. It's both intensely political and intensely personal. It is both so gently written, and so uncomfortable at times. The colonialist ideology intertwines with a toxically masculine ideology, and Patrick struggles with both. His immense pain translates into an immense detachment from those around him in the military. Later, this identity struggle stretches to his sexuality. He is quiet and tender when he is supposed to be violent; supposedly 'weak', 'girl-like' when he is supposed to be living upto the macho standard of military nationalism.

It's incredible that the author manages to tell this powerful little story in under 150 pages. However, it is clear that this is one of his early works, because there are spots in the book where it feels like the reader is watching everything from a distance, which is where it didn't always work for me. But this is an accomplished early work on politics and identity.

[Irmak Zileli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toplumsal ile bireysel hikayeyi çok iyi harmanlamış, bunların birbirinden ayrılamazlığını güçlü bağlar kurarak gösteren bir roman. Irkçılığın ve militarizmin eleştirisini bireyin yaşantısındaki izleri takip ederek yapması, bireysel hikayenin içinde derinleşirken insan ruhunun ikiyüzlü, çıkarcı taraflarını deşifre ettiği kadar, kırılganlığını da gösterme biçimini çok başarılı buldum. Bu dünyaya ayak uyduramayan insanın yaralarını açması, romanın en etkileyici tarafıydı benim için. Ve en yakınlarımızın çirkin yüzünü görmenin bizde yarattığı hayalkırıklığı içimi acıttı. Ama belki tam da bu sayede kendimizdeki çirkinliklere de bakmamız gerektiğini hatırlattı.
Dilini çok sevdim. Sadeliğini. Yakaladığı ayrıntıları. Gösteriş yapmadan hikayesinde derinleşmesini.

[anusha_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of the book drew me towards itself. I found the title very intriguing. It made me wonder why any book would have this title. There is a scene in the book where the author describes how the pigs squeal when they are about to be killed.

The story is about a boy named Patrick, and his mother Ellen. This story takes place around the first free elections of Namibia.

Patrick is the son of a very rich man named Howard. His brother Malcolm, gets killed in an accident. Patrick is devastated by his brother’s death and he gets mentally disturbed and emotionally traumatised after some brutal killings while in the army. His parents divorce each other after Malcolm’s death and thereafter his mother has transient relationships with many men.
Patrick and his mom set out on a journey to Namibia. This journey makes Patrick revisit his past. His mom currently is in love with a much younger black guy, Godfrey, who is a political activist. Although the novel touches upon the issue of race, it is only transitory.

I liked the character Patrick. He is a guy who is sidelined for not being able to play rugby and go hunting like his brother and his father. Why should anybody feel bad about not being able to play a game or do things that others do? Being judgemental, just because someone is not good at a particular field is harsh.
People go by certain generalisations. Men shouldn’t cry! Men should be strong-hearted. Girls are sugar-and-spice-and-all-things-nice. When people are not confined to these ‘so-called’ categories, people look down upon them! WHY?

The book is packed with themes like emotional turmoils, painful memories, mental health, political transitions, revolution, and war.

The author is an expert at weaving a very engaging tale brimming with simplicity yet with an undercurrent of subtlety. It is a  beautiful novel that covers a very meaningful journey.
This is the third book that the author has written and he wrote his first book at the age of seventeen. This book won the Central News Agency Literary Award. 

[Nils · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second Galgut, having read The Promise recently. The writing is clean and tight and lean. And left me wanting to read more of the author’s oeuvre. Other reviewers have pointed out the dissimilarities to The Promise but I found here similar resonances. A certain dream-like quality to the life situation of the narrator, and a feeling of being inexorably drawn along in the river of history. His character portraits are sparing but always revealing, and all his characters full of humanity and authenticity despite their sometimes distasteful political views.

[LeastTorque · Rating 5 out of 5]

This early book by the author deals with a lot in a small page count, but does it effectively and devastatingly. The protagonist’s breakdown is potently portrayed, and painfully so. The personal, familial, racial, and national issues are deftly wrapped in the arc of one young man struggling to reconcile his role in the past, present, and future of his region, with obedient silence being the voice of complicity.

[Mert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad to be the Turkish translator of this. :)

The birth of Namibia, reflected within a PTSD-stricken youth with a drama-goddess of a mother as his guardian: It eloquently fulfills most expectations without any overreaching, irking ado.

[Sophie Binks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not particularly enthralling but I like a fiction with true events entwined so it was still interesting

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this book between 3.5 and 4.00 stars. The book is set in Namibia, at the time of the country's first elections, but its main focus is on the two South African protagonists: a son (a former conscripted soldier in the South African army who was deployed in Namibia), and his mother (a women who seems engaged in a perpetual quest to shake off her Afrikaner roots and her years of married life) as they go on a trip to Namibia to meet up with the mother's latest lover. The book explores these character's struggles with identity in the changing Southern African landscape, as the apartheid era is progressively coming to an end. I thought this aspect of the book was ok but maybe a bit underdeveloped. However, the writing about the mental breakdown suffered by the son as a result of his experience in the army is incredibly evocative and beautiful. Galgut really manages to convey the sense of being unmoored and the feeling of alienation, as well as the physical manifestations of the mental breakdown. For the beauty of the prose alone I bumped up the book with one star (note: I read the reissued version of this book (2005). In the author's note, Galgut mentions that he revised the book for this reissue. So I don't know if the prose was as striking in the original version of the book). I wouldn't say this is Galgut's best book, but I will happily come back to it in future just to soak up the prose.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Damon Galgut's earliest, published novels (1991 - and re-edited for 2006! - perfectly shows that his talent for storytelling is innate & long-standing, having moved on to 'The Promise, & a Booker Prize in the late 2010s.
This tale of a damaged soul in a young, awkward man's weak body catches the deep understanding that Galgut has of his troubled homeland - South Africa in the years in & around the end of apartheid & the release from captivity of Mandela & his polyglot compatriots by the forces of time, justice & liberation from their sad history of conflict & violence.
The characters are all well-sketched (in 140-0dd pages)...his highly-strung mother & her ambitious black lover, distant but caring father, lost friends...with a variety of their own psychological problems. Sadly, the new South Africa still has monumental problems to deal with; but, at least, the free spirits of native Africans are no longer dependent on the persistent failures of 'white supremacy' to motivate their social & political energies.
They can now make their very own, home-made 21st century vortex of thorny issues, conflicts & violence, & deal with it, fairly, without prejudice or discrimination!
New dawn...new problems!
Damon Galgut is a fine novelist with many an axe to grind; this gives his novels a real slice of reality, even as they deal with complex, psychological issues. Fair enough!

[K.J. Chapman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 out of 5*

Patrick is a white South African who had been drafted into the South African army to fight at the border of Namibia in the 1980's; a war he never believed in. He had a breakdown after a soldier he loved was killed in combat, and now, after an honourable discharge, he has to start his life again with sexual orientation confusion, a promiscuous mother, and her Namibian, SWAPO activist lover. The narrative shows Patrick's struggle with his identity, whilst highlighting an important historical moment in Africa.

The story starts with Patrick and his mother heading to Namibia for the first democratic elections, and jumps from present time to his time in the war. The writing is beautiful and controlled. I was continuously in awe of Galgut's simplistic, yet impactual descriptions and prose.

'Maybe somewhere in space light has preserved the image of that moment, suspended and infinite.'

The dialogue was on point throughout the whole novel, recounted in Patrick's slightly detached POV.

"Have you ever been in love?"

"Yes. Once. I think so. I'm not sure."

"You never told me about it."

"I don't think I knew at the time."

The ending was anti-climatic, and kind of just...was, if that makes sense. I was hoping for more of a climax or pivotal moment for Patrick, but that didn't take away from the story.

[Dillon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story of returning from war after fighting for something you never believed in, and trying to find a true identity during the turbulent times during the end of Apartheid. Patrick is a young, white South African returning from war at the border between Namibia and Angola. He left for battle without an identity, clearly confused both politically and sexually, and returns scarred. He comes back to live with his newly divorced and sexually adventurous actress mother. Written from Patrick's POV, the story jumps between the current time, where he is traveling with his mother to celebrate the Namibian elections and to be with her black, freedom fighter, boyfriend, Godfrey, and Patrick's experiences during war. This interplay in the story allows the reader to understand why Patrick is so lost and emotionally scarred, and why his Mother is equally, though in a very different way, battling to find a new identity.

[Sean de la Rosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In this world, you can get anybody to do anything if you just keep at it. People will come round to any idea, even an idea they hate, if you persist. Persist. Don't ever give up."

The book tells the story of Patrick Winter, a young South African discharged from military service after a nervous breakdown in Namibia. In returning to Namibia he relives the events that lead up to the breakdown. This short piece is tense, stressed and brilliantly written - 100% Damon Galgut!

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this book more than once. It is a finely crafted coming of age story set at a point of transformation in South Africa. For a full review see http://wp.me/p4GDHM-gm

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and faultless.

[Dan Pierce · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice easy read but I'm not sure that it was worth it. I didn't really get the point of it.

[Rick Lupert · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The beautiful screaming of pigs" is an early novel by South African writer Damon Galgut; his third. The short story (only 134 pages long) is narrated by Patrick Winter, a young veteran of the South African war against the independence movement in what is now Namibia. He is traveling there with his mother about a year after his military service, at the time of the first free elections in the country. Patrick is a deeply disturbed man - traumatized by the war and alienated by his sexuality from the world to which he should actually belong - that of men. He has a very close, perhaps too close relationship with his mother, who takes him on a trip to Namibia, where she visits her lover Godfrey - a black man who is highly politicized. She is also aware of the politically charged nature of this love affair - as a white South African, she is in a relationship with a Black supporter of the Namibian freedom movement. She really adorns herself with this scandalous liaison - until the political burden becomes too much for her. Patrick, on the other hand, observes all of this - the spirit of optimism in Namibia, her mother's relationship with Godfrey - and at the same time recounts his military service. There he not only experienced confusion, but also fell in love for the first time, with another soldier, Lappies, who is also an outsider. He also has his first sexual experience with him. But this leads to nothing more - it is unclear whether the other man reciprocates Patrick's feelings, whether he could do so at all; perhaps the mutual hand job for him was only born out of necessity and sexual frustration in this all-male place. We don't find out, and neither does Patrick. For Lappies is killed - and as a result Patrick's mind begins to break apart.

The latter, the slow descend into madness and the never-ending alienation of a gay man from a hetero-masculine world, are portrayed so incredibly strongly that this alone makes the book one of the best I've read this year. But the rest is perfect too: the stunning landscape descriptions, the charged dialog, the symbolism of every metaphor and gravity of every sentence. This book has weight, and without weighing much. Great like few others.

[kübra terzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damon Galgut'u tercih etmeden önce, şöyle bir buradaki yorumlara baktım. Sonu eh işte! olacak diye başladığım okumama, kendi kendime hakettiğini bulamamış bir yazar! fikri ile son verdim. Su gibi bir çırpıda aktı gitti her satır. Anlatımı şahane. Kurgusu tam olarak olması gereken ölçüde. Keşke daha çok kişi tanısa!


Patrick Winter'ın annesi ve annesinin erkek arkadaşı ile çıktığı yolculuğu anlatırken, Namibya'da Swapo savaşı yaşanıyor. Seyirci oldukları onca yıkılış karşısında Patrick ve annesinin yaşadıkları sadece bir seçim midir peki?

-"Sen hiç aşık oldun mu Patrick?"

*Anneden hiç hoşlanmadığımı belirtmeden geçemeyeceğim.
Sen,
Bir yerlere ait olmak için yanıp tutuşuyordun ama büyüleyici uğraşlarının içi boştu; aktristlerin jestleri gibi..

**Patrick'in ise hem güçlü gözlemlerine hem de çekingen, naif karakterine bayıldım!
Sen Patrick ,
Anlaşılması güç, karmaşık, içe dönük biriydin. Denizkabuklarının halkaları gibi senin desenlerin de içeri kıvrılıyor, var olmayan bir merkeze doğru sonsuza dek daralıyor.

Gözlem ne büyük güç!

Sonlar böyle başlar, önemsiz jestlerle; elde tutulan çatalın bardağa bırakılmasıyla. Karşılıklı göz kaçırmayla bir de.

[Gül]

❄️ Norveçli yazar Roy Jacobsen’in Tarjei Vesaas ve Norveç Edebiyat Eleştirmenleri ödülüne layık görülen kitabı Oduncuları @denizyb tavsiyesiyle okudum.

❄️ Finlandiya ve Rusya savaşı sırasında Finlandiya’nın bir kasabasında yaşayan ve Rus kuvvetleri gelmeden önce boşaltılıp yakılacak olan kasabadan ayrılmayı kabul etmeyen oduncu Timmo’nun hikayesini okuyoruz.

❄️Yazar savaşın dehşetini açıkça gözler önüne sermeden müthiş bir savaş atmosferi yaratmış.
Kuzeyin iliklere kadar işleyen soğuğuna rağmen nevi şahsına münhasır Timmo’nun ve bir avuç oduncunun hayatta kalma mücadelesi epik bir dil ile anlatılmış.
Arka planda çiftçi ve işçi sınıfının zorlu yaşam koşulları çok derine inmeden ama oldukça etkileyici bir üslupla anlatılmış.
❄️ Beğenerek okuduğum bir kitap oldu. İskandinav edebiyatı sevenlere tavsiyedir.

[Clau MZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading MM Challenge 2025 | Symbology ~ June

5 | Western Zodiac ~ Gemini or Cancer
Heads = Gemini
Read a book where the title, series, author or narrator spells GEMINI or CANCER (heads or tails)

Choice: Galgut, The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs
Don't think it will get better than this xD
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️️⭐️️ (5/5)

A haunting, lyrical journey through the fractured landscapes of South West Africa. The novel follows Patrick, a young man adrift between his white South African upbringing and his uneasy place in a changing nation. His road trip with his estranged mother leads him to more questions than solutions.
This isn’t just a story about a country in political shift and war; it’s about the quiet violence of personal reckoning, too.

Theme: LGBTQ+, non-romance MM

[James McFarland · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a fantastically enticing title, The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs struggles to live up to its epic name. The story is packed full of interesting plot points: being gay in the army, post war trauma, family problems, issues of race and freedom in South Africa during apartheid. All of these set up something great but the novel doesn’t quite reach it on all fronts. However, when Galgut hits the mark, he hits the centre of the bullseye. His construction of the central character is brilliant, his journey is well thought out and the book genuinely leaves you thinking. I would love to give it 5 stars, but as said earlier, it doesn’t reach the all the ambitious heights it sets out for. Definitely worth the read!