The Curator

by Jacques Strauss

Shortlisted for the 2015 Encore Prize Longlisted for the 2015 Green Carnation PrizeIt's not possible to undo what happened in 1976.In rural South Africa a family massacre takes place; a bloodbath whose only witness is the family’s black maid. Hendrik Deyer is the principal of a state-run school camp who lives nearby with his wife and their two sons, Werner and Marius. As Hendrik becomes obsessed with uncovering what happened, his wife worries about her neighbours, a poor white family whose malign influence on her son Werner is – she believes – making his behaviour inexplicably strange and hostile. One night another tragedy changes each of their lives, irrevocably. Two decades later, Werner is living with his mother and invalid father in a small Pretoria flat. South Africa is a changed place. Werner holds a tedious job in the administration department of the local university and dreams of owning his own gallery. His father is bedridden, hovering on the edge of death, and furious, as he has been for twenty years. As Werner feels his own life slip away, his thoughts turn to murder as a means to correct the course of all their futures. He can't undo the past, but Werner’s desperation to change his own his fate will threaten not only his own family but also those still living in the aftermath of what happened all those years ago.

Genres: South Africa, Historical Fiction, Africa

Kindle Edition

First published February 5, 2015

About the author

I was born and raised in South Africa and lived in New Zealand for a few years. I moved to London in 2005. In my twenties, I was a failed playwright but when I turned thirty, I decided this was undignified and decided to become a failed author instead. This seemed more glamorous. But then hey - I got published: UK May 19 2011 (Cape); US August 30 2011 (FSG).

During the day I'm a freelance digital producer. This ensures that I enjoy life's little pleasures like food and shelter.

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a narrative that shifts between 1976 and 1996, we are introduced to the doomed and dreadful Deyer family, primarily patriarch Hendrik and underachieving son Werner. Living in pre- and narrowly post-apartheid South Africa, they negotiate a changing world with suspicion, hatred and selfishness; the junior and senior Deyers are both devious and murderous individuals, and both are defined by obsession. The story has a wide scope, with its main arc involving the lasting impact of a massacre on the Deyer family, but on a lower level it is concerned mainly with the repulsively fascinating character of Werner and all his idiosyncrasies. The aspiring 'curator' of the title, he nurses an unfulfilled love of art alongside tendencies towards sadism, and these repressed desires will bring him, like his father, to ruin. Indubitably bleak but laced with black humour, this is a book with dark themes - murder, racism and child abuse among them - yet it keeps a surprisingly light tone by centring on Werner. His naivety and self-delusion make him both amusing and dangerous - a brilliant creation - and part of what makes The Curator work so well is its ambivalence towards him. This is one of those books that stays in your head and reveals more layers every time you think about it; I loved it.

Review originally published as part of a blog post at Learn This Phrase.

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Unfinished longer review:
When we first meet Werner Deyer, it is 1976 and he is thirteen years old. Captivated by a reproduction of Dali's 'Christ of St John of the Cross', he enlists his younger brother, Marius, to help him paint his own version. In the rural town of Barberton, where Werner's parents run an adventure camp for children, a massacre has just taken place; the head of another white family, the Labuschagnes, has shot his wife and children, leaving only a severely injured son and one witness: the family's maid. This opening chapter is short, but it lays the groundwork for many of the major themes that run through the novel - Werner's formative obsession with art, his sadistic tendencies (in a memory of accidentally breaking Marius's arm, the snapping of bone 'sent a shiver up his spine and his breathing quickened'), and the lingering effect of the Labuschagne massacre on the Deyer family.

The next chapter is set twenty years later, and Werner is waiting for his father, Hendrik, to die; in fact he is veritably encouraging him to die. We learn that Werner lives with his parents in a flat in Pretoria, waiting and waiting for Hendrik, who is now bed-bound, to give up on life so that he can claim an inheritance of two hundred and fifty thousand rand. With this money he dreams of opening an art gallery, exhibiting the work of promising graduate students. Werner's life, it seems, has been on hold since childhood. He has denied himself friendships, relationships, and the pursuit of a career he enjoys, or else he believes these to be things he cannot have. He is a pathetic character but not a sympathetic one, not someone to feel sorry for: that sadism touched on in the first chapter is emphasised again when we see him torturing and taunting Hendrik.

By switching between 1976 and 1996, The Curator tells the story of the Deyer family. It is a story of thoroughly unlikeable people; of self-delusion, lust, racism and unfulfilled desire. At the same time, it's darkly funny: an early episode in which Werner invites two Nigerian neighbours to dinner - assuming, with prejudice typical of the character, that they must be drug dealers, and will be able to help him procure heroin with which he will murder his father - plays out as a sort of comedy of errors. It also establishes an aspect of Werner's character, a very naive, clumsy and childlike way of deluding himself, which makes him both amusing and dangerous. This is one of the ways in which the story keeps a light tone despite its very serious themes.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This dark and unsettling novel by South African author Jacques Strauss is a compelling and tense story that draws the reader in to the troubled world of Werner Deyer. The massacre of a neighbouring family during his childhood has repercussions that haunt him throughout his life. Never at ease with the world even as a child, a complex character, Werner as a man still lives with his parents and feels his life to be without meaning. Although he can’t change what happened in the past, he begins to think that maybe he can do something to change the future. It’s an unremittingly grim book, but as anti-hero Werner is a fascinating character and the story is both well-written and well-paced. The slow reveal of what happened is expertly handled and the sense of time and place authentic and atmospheric. A very enjoyable read indeed.

[Carolyne Gathuru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark dark dark book. Dark thoughts, Dark actions, Dark happenings, Dark beginning, Dark middle, Dark ending
Darkness and more darkness everywhere.
Of dark plots, dark strategies and dark executions.

All Dark

[Nina Spence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting thoughts raised, but found the ending disappointing.

[Rispah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting and compelling read. Deserves 5*

[Claire Ngigi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not sure whether it’s because this is my very first time reading a historical fiction novel or something else entirely, but this book was weird to me. While the pacing was solid and kept me turning the pages, I still didn’t feel impressed overall. Perhaps I just haven’t yet developed a taste for this genre, so I’m trying not to let this one experience discourage me. I’m determined to give historical fiction another chance, as I know it has the potential to be both rich and rewarding this just wasn’t the book to fully win me over.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Steven Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable read

[Shiku Njathi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strange, strange book. That's all I am going to say for now.