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Up Against the Night
Frank McAllister has long since dropped "Retief" as his middle name, but the legacy of his family's history proves harder to shake. His ancestor Piet Retief, leader of the South African Great Trek, was killed by Zulu king Dingane in the 1838 massacre, along with a hundred men, women, and children. Afrikaner legend paints Retief as a homegrown Moses, bringing his people to the Promised Land. But Frank believes something rotten lies at the core of this family myth.
Frank spends his days in his London home with his new partner and her son and the products of his wealth. But the return of his daughter, Lucinda, from rehab in California brings him intense having sided with him during his divorce from her mother, she crumbled under the weight of the bitter separation. Lucinda has brought home with her a mysterious boy, and they will join the family trip to Frank's beach house in South Africa--not far from the site of the 1838 massacre. In the lulls of their idyllic days, Frank unravels what really happened on that fateful day, and how it may connect to the violence of the apartheid years, and the violence encroaching on them even now.
Up Against the Night is an enthralling tale of personal conflict and intrigue, set against the backdrop of South Africa's tangled past and troubled present, and told with tremendous color and insight. Absolutely original and gripping, it is destined to be as influential as JM Coetzee's Disgrace .
Frank spends his days in his London home with his new partner and her son and the products of his wealth. But the return of his daughter, Lucinda, from rehab in California brings him intense having sided with him during his divorce from her mother, she crumbled under the weight of the bitter separation. Lucinda has brought home with her a mysterious boy, and they will join the family trip to Frank's beach house in South Africa--not far from the site of the 1838 massacre. In the lulls of their idyllic days, Frank unravels what really happened on that fateful day, and how it may connect to the violence of the apartheid years, and the violence encroaching on them even now.
Up Against the Night is an enthralling tale of personal conflict and intrigue, set against the backdrop of South Africa's tangled past and troubled present, and told with tremendous color and insight. Absolutely original and gripping, it is destined to be as influential as JM Coetzee's Disgrace .
- GenresFiction
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 27, 2015
16 people are currently reading
353 people want to read
About the author
Justin Cartwright
49 books48 followersJustin Cartwright (born 1945) is a British novelist.
He was born in South Africa, where his father was the editor of the Rand Daily Mail newspaper, and was educated there, in the United States and at Trinity College, Oxford. Cartwright has worked in advertising and has directed documentaries, films and television commercials. He managed election broadcasts, first for the Liberal Party and then the SDP-Liberal Alliance during the 1979, 1983 and 1987 British general elections. For his work on election broadcasts, Cartwright was appointed an MBE.
Cartwright had a wife, Penny, and two sons.
He was born in South Africa, where his father was the editor of the Rand Daily Mail newspaper, and was educated there, in the United States and at Trinity College, Oxford. Cartwright has worked in advertising and has directed documentaries, films and television commercials. He managed election broadcasts, first for the Liberal Party and then the SDP-Liberal Alliance during the 1979, 1983 and 1987 British general elections. For his work on election broadcasts, Cartwright was appointed an MBE.
Cartwright had a wife, Penny, and two sons.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
November 5, 2015
“History is a narrative written for a purpose--…but it is seldom able to convey the essence of being human.”
I’m just a little more familiar with South African politics than I am of Justin Cartwright. This is my first by him, although I’ve read other novels concerning the post-apartheid plight. There’s much more nuance than just the headlines say, such as how it affects people individually. Cartwright takes the era down to a personal level, the apartheid and post-apartheid periods never far below the surface of implication. He achieves a portrait of one family’s love, troubles, dysfunction, and loyalties, and executes the theme of history with identity and the sense of home.
“Now I feel an urge to go home, even if the home I have in mind is mostly imagined.”
Wealthy but generous McAllister is from Cape Town, but has lived much of his life in London. He has a home in Notting Hill, the New Forest, and a beach house in Cape Town. It’s there at the beach house that he feels uplifted, wild, and elemental, joined with nature. His lovely Swedish girlfriend, Nellie, is a lover of the natural world. “After all, the Vikings were the last pagans of Europe.” He also feels a calm stillness in Cape Town. His house, inspired by Martha’s Vineyard, is named Menemsha. Cartwright never lacks for elegant metaphors to describe the surrounding land and sea.
It opens on an identity with history, as the main character, Frank McAllister, is a descendent of the Boer Piet Retief, who was massacred, along with his followers (and women and children), by the Zulu king Dingane, in 1838. (Cartwright is also a descendant of Retief, so there’s a certain biographical significance). Afrikaners have lionized Retief, but Frank thinks that there’s some unspoken rot at Retief’s core. He’s vexed by these thoughts. And even in the modern South Africa, there is the “violence and desperation that are never far away.”
There isn’t much plot in the book, but as I was reading, I felt the tautness in Cartwright’s lean, sinuous, aphoristic prose, and the sense of a danger lurking underneath the family trek. McAllister, along with Nellie and her teenage son, Bertil, go down to the beach house and await the arrival of Frank’s daughter, Lucinda, fresh out of rehab in California. Frank is plagued by her fragility, and hopes she is fully drug-free now; he blames her problems on his messy divorce with his insufferable, self-centered ex-wife, Georgina. During this meditative, reflective story, memories of Georgina occasionally intrude on his tranquility. When Lucinda does arrive, she comes with a surprise guest--an African-American two-and-a-half-year-old, Isaac, the son of a recent boyfriend who is on a music tour.
“He has a quality of warmth I have never before encountered in a very small child, a precocious empathy.” Isaac, (which means laughter) soon enchants everyone. Frank is immediately captivated by Isaac’s innocence and affection, and the baby calls Frank “Grandpa” right from the start.
Frank’s serenity is interrupted periodically by phone calls from his cousin, Jaco, a racist, gun-loving manipulator who once achieved his fifteen minutes of fame when he was attacked by a shark. His head camera filmed his eventual subdual of the shark, and it went viral on You Tube, leading to appearances as a guest speaker. However, he is now calling to ask for a large sum of money that he owes the Scientologists in California, saying that they are holding him captive and won’t release him without the money he owes. Jaco symbolizes that element of danger invading the idyll, and the chapters of his nature are fascinating, recalling the bloodshed of the past.
I find myself, several days after reading this novel, appreciating it even more. The story is subtle, sublime, with a striking denouement. The threads of the story may not initially suggest much of a unifying theme, or may come across as disparate, but, after contemplation, I recognize its transcendence. The allusions to myth, medieval history, poetry, Shakespeare, and the search for home and identity penetrate this landscape of the mind, body, and environment.
Frank seeks to understand his humanity by connecting the past with the present, history with its value and essence. His effusive words of love to Nellie may come close to syrupy and unreal at times, but I give it a pass, because it is fitting that Frank McAllister is something of the dreamer himself, an idealist.
“…I have understood that love is not an end in itself, but a process of learning to know another fully…Much of what I know has come from books. I have relied heavily on books in order to understand the world.”
In UP AGAINST THE NIGHT, Frank shapes his imagination and idealism with reality; he conveys the essence of being human.
I’m just a little more familiar with South African politics than I am of Justin Cartwright. This is my first by him, although I’ve read other novels concerning the post-apartheid plight. There’s much more nuance than just the headlines say, such as how it affects people individually. Cartwright takes the era down to a personal level, the apartheid and post-apartheid periods never far below the surface of implication. He achieves a portrait of one family’s love, troubles, dysfunction, and loyalties, and executes the theme of history with identity and the sense of home.
“Now I feel an urge to go home, even if the home I have in mind is mostly imagined.”
Wealthy but generous McAllister is from Cape Town, but has lived much of his life in London. He has a home in Notting Hill, the New Forest, and a beach house in Cape Town. It’s there at the beach house that he feels uplifted, wild, and elemental, joined with nature. His lovely Swedish girlfriend, Nellie, is a lover of the natural world. “After all, the Vikings were the last pagans of Europe.” He also feels a calm stillness in Cape Town. His house, inspired by Martha’s Vineyard, is named Menemsha. Cartwright never lacks for elegant metaphors to describe the surrounding land and sea.
It opens on an identity with history, as the main character, Frank McAllister, is a descendent of the Boer Piet Retief, who was massacred, along with his followers (and women and children), by the Zulu king Dingane, in 1838. (Cartwright is also a descendant of Retief, so there’s a certain biographical significance). Afrikaners have lionized Retief, but Frank thinks that there’s some unspoken rot at Retief’s core. He’s vexed by these thoughts. And even in the modern South Africa, there is the “violence and desperation that are never far away.”
There isn’t much plot in the book, but as I was reading, I felt the tautness in Cartwright’s lean, sinuous, aphoristic prose, and the sense of a danger lurking underneath the family trek. McAllister, along with Nellie and her teenage son, Bertil, go down to the beach house and await the arrival of Frank’s daughter, Lucinda, fresh out of rehab in California. Frank is plagued by her fragility, and hopes she is fully drug-free now; he blames her problems on his messy divorce with his insufferable, self-centered ex-wife, Georgina. During this meditative, reflective story, memories of Georgina occasionally intrude on his tranquility. When Lucinda does arrive, she comes with a surprise guest--an African-American two-and-a-half-year-old, Isaac, the son of a recent boyfriend who is on a music tour.
“He has a quality of warmth I have never before encountered in a very small child, a precocious empathy.” Isaac, (which means laughter) soon enchants everyone. Frank is immediately captivated by Isaac’s innocence and affection, and the baby calls Frank “Grandpa” right from the start.
Frank’s serenity is interrupted periodically by phone calls from his cousin, Jaco, a racist, gun-loving manipulator who once achieved his fifteen minutes of fame when he was attacked by a shark. His head camera filmed his eventual subdual of the shark, and it went viral on You Tube, leading to appearances as a guest speaker. However, he is now calling to ask for a large sum of money that he owes the Scientologists in California, saying that they are holding him captive and won’t release him without the money he owes. Jaco symbolizes that element of danger invading the idyll, and the chapters of his nature are fascinating, recalling the bloodshed of the past.
I find myself, several days after reading this novel, appreciating it even more. The story is subtle, sublime, with a striking denouement. The threads of the story may not initially suggest much of a unifying theme, or may come across as disparate, but, after contemplation, I recognize its transcendence. The allusions to myth, medieval history, poetry, Shakespeare, and the search for home and identity penetrate this landscape of the mind, body, and environment.
Frank seeks to understand his humanity by connecting the past with the present, history with its value and essence. His effusive words of love to Nellie may come close to syrupy and unreal at times, but I give it a pass, because it is fitting that Frank McAllister is something of the dreamer himself, an idealist.
“…I have understood that love is not an end in itself, but a process of learning to know another fully…Much of what I know has come from books. I have relied heavily on books in order to understand the world.”
In UP AGAINST THE NIGHT, Frank shapes his imagination and idealism with reality; he conveys the essence of being human.
December 11, 2015
Oh, he's a bore, Frank McAllsiter. Self-satisfied, superbly successful, smug. And peevish. I felt sorry for his ex-wife, could see where she was coming from in leaving him. He continue to inventorise all the gorgeous gifts he gave her, and deplore her coarse taste. She's bling, he's bookish, he satisfactorily concludes. Lord! he's a bore. And the people in his life, all his darlings, made me laugh out loud. Oh, for God sake!
The perfect Swede, Nellie, with her famous mayonnaise and her artful flower arranging! But I see trouble brewing: I mean, all she asked, just mentioned it in passing, was that he buy an island in a Swedish archipelgo. So she can be close to what she so beautifully is. But Frank (silently) reckons, he won't. He'd be bored. (He's in charge of the relationship, the way wealthy men often are. In fact, he's in charge of the world of the book, and that is why it is mostly insufferable).
And Nellie's son, who masters surfing in about ten minutes, who says nothing that isn't wooden, whose pained relationship with his father is not touched, and whose drug misdemeanour is simply never mentioned again after it's introduced. And why is he in boarding school anyway? Can his perfect mother not manage to homeschool him or just make a few meatballs, give him a little time? Of course, he's happy out, the son, because he has Vanessa. Nobody except me seems to notice that literally a few minutes before she met Bertil, ( he's the son with a natural talent for surfing, unusual you'd have thought in a Swede smoking dope in school in Kent), Vanessa was kissing another dude. So, you'd maybe wonder at her commitment levels. But, no, she and her famly are embraced by Frank and his skittles. And they barbecue like fury. Then they package her and fly her to the wedding. As a surprise for the young fellow. It's nice, what loads of money and no sense can do.
And then Lucinda: well, again, it's nice. Frank calls her 'darling' and she calls him 'darling' and so he knows and she knows and we are expected to accept that the addiction issue is maybe sorted. It's not talked about. There's no intervetion, no account of rehab, no questions asked, no compulsions displayed, no suspicions, no........there's nothing consistent with a family or addict's experience of addiction. It's all very IKEA, regular and tidy and not likely to edure. She cooks a leg of lamb. Herbs and that. Thyme. Nothing stronger. And she is gorgeous, like her mother. Frank is a vain man, he'd only have beautiful women in his life. And she'll maybe do an internship in.................puppetry. It was just a fleeting idea. Puppetry. It filled a paragraph.
And the child Lucinda brings with her. Isaac. Not her child. Somebody's child. Nobody's child. But loved, immediately and unqualifiedly by all the adults around the barbecue who give him fruit juice to drink. Because they're that kind of family. Fruit juice, not soda. Of course, he's gorgeous and cute and precocious too. And he doesn't miss his real parents. Or his old life. It would have been downright unmanageable if he cried or acted out. Cartwright wouldn't have known what to do with him. Would probably have given him to the loyal and sweet black maid to mind. She'd have known what to do. And as to the child's passport issues and legal issues...............they're just too ridiculous to list. So I'll not: it would have been interesting if Interopol had knocked on the door, and taken Lucinda away in handcuffs. But they didn't. She just fluttered like a butterfly, the way recovering addicts generally do not do.
And who, by the way, is Jacqui? Frank asks Alec, and he answers with predicatble lack of grace. But she doesn't seem to be the Latvian pole dancer who is a stereoptype on steroids. Maybe Jacqui is the Latvian. But, really, who cares? Frank certainly doesn't, she doesn't get invited to one of his homes for slices of cured reindeer and berries.
HOWEVER, just as I was about to throw the book out of the window. Jaco got to speak. Now, he is far from perfect as a narrator, his own story is not without its ridiculous gaps, he has his own non-beautiful absurdities, but he rescued the book. And more than anything or anybody, he helped by shining a shaking torch on the troubling complexities of the changed South Africa. And, bless him, he has a sense of humour and pain and much anxiety and many failings and lots of bad judgment. And he is overweight. He is a human being in the land of androids.
And finally, I concede with real respect, that somehow, in the middle of this lumnpen book, Cartwright writes with real talent and skill of the beauty of South Africa. Not often, because often he's happy to just list a few indigenous species so we know we're in Africa, but when he lifts his eyes to Table Top Mountain or looks around him, sometimes the reader is brought to an enchanted and enchanting place.
And that is why I give him a reluctant two stars. He can write well. He just doesn't do it often enough. He has no interest in people. But he is interested in South Africa. And that rsecues him from complete tedium.
The perfect Swede, Nellie, with her famous mayonnaise and her artful flower arranging! But I see trouble brewing: I mean, all she asked, just mentioned it in passing, was that he buy an island in a Swedish archipelgo. So she can be close to what she so beautifully is. But Frank (silently) reckons, he won't. He'd be bored. (He's in charge of the relationship, the way wealthy men often are. In fact, he's in charge of the world of the book, and that is why it is mostly insufferable).
And Nellie's son, who masters surfing in about ten minutes, who says nothing that isn't wooden, whose pained relationship with his father is not touched, and whose drug misdemeanour is simply never mentioned again after it's introduced. And why is he in boarding school anyway? Can his perfect mother not manage to homeschool him or just make a few meatballs, give him a little time? Of course, he's happy out, the son, because he has Vanessa. Nobody except me seems to notice that literally a few minutes before she met Bertil, ( he's the son with a natural talent for surfing, unusual you'd have thought in a Swede smoking dope in school in Kent), Vanessa was kissing another dude. So, you'd maybe wonder at her commitment levels. But, no, she and her famly are embraced by Frank and his skittles. And they barbecue like fury. Then they package her and fly her to the wedding. As a surprise for the young fellow. It's nice, what loads of money and no sense can do.
And then Lucinda: well, again, it's nice. Frank calls her 'darling' and she calls him 'darling' and so he knows and she knows and we are expected to accept that the addiction issue is maybe sorted. It's not talked about. There's no intervetion, no account of rehab, no questions asked, no compulsions displayed, no suspicions, no........there's nothing consistent with a family or addict's experience of addiction. It's all very IKEA, regular and tidy and not likely to edure. She cooks a leg of lamb. Herbs and that. Thyme. Nothing stronger. And she is gorgeous, like her mother. Frank is a vain man, he'd only have beautiful women in his life. And she'll maybe do an internship in.................puppetry. It was just a fleeting idea. Puppetry. It filled a paragraph.
And the child Lucinda brings with her. Isaac. Not her child. Somebody's child. Nobody's child. But loved, immediately and unqualifiedly by all the adults around the barbecue who give him fruit juice to drink. Because they're that kind of family. Fruit juice, not soda. Of course, he's gorgeous and cute and precocious too. And he doesn't miss his real parents. Or his old life. It would have been downright unmanageable if he cried or acted out. Cartwright wouldn't have known what to do with him. Would probably have given him to the loyal and sweet black maid to mind. She'd have known what to do. And as to the child's passport issues and legal issues...............they're just too ridiculous to list. So I'll not: it would have been interesting if Interopol had knocked on the door, and taken Lucinda away in handcuffs. But they didn't. She just fluttered like a butterfly, the way recovering addicts generally do not do.
And who, by the way, is Jacqui? Frank asks Alec, and he answers with predicatble lack of grace. But she doesn't seem to be the Latvian pole dancer who is a stereoptype on steroids. Maybe Jacqui is the Latvian. But, really, who cares? Frank certainly doesn't, she doesn't get invited to one of his homes for slices of cured reindeer and berries.
HOWEVER, just as I was about to throw the book out of the window. Jaco got to speak. Now, he is far from perfect as a narrator, his own story is not without its ridiculous gaps, he has his own non-beautiful absurdities, but he rescued the book. And more than anything or anybody, he helped by shining a shaking torch on the troubling complexities of the changed South Africa. And, bless him, he has a sense of humour and pain and much anxiety and many failings and lots of bad judgment. And he is overweight. He is a human being in the land of androids.
And finally, I concede with real respect, that somehow, in the middle of this lumnpen book, Cartwright writes with real talent and skill of the beauty of South Africa. Not often, because often he's happy to just list a few indigenous species so we know we're in Africa, but when he lifts his eyes to Table Top Mountain or looks around him, sometimes the reader is brought to an enchanted and enchanting place.
And that is why I give him a reluctant two stars. He can write well. He just doesn't do it often enough. He has no interest in people. But he is interested in South Africa. And that rsecues him from complete tedium.
September 29, 2017
This is my first book by Mr. Cartwright and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. But I must say I enjoyed this book and will look into other titles by him.
It was set in South Africa which was very well described and made it easy to follow and feel like we were there.
The family in this book was insane and there were quite the few issues they had to deal with.
Most of the book read fast and was enjoyable but some parts were a bit di drawn out and could have been a bit smaller so it would not make it boring and make one lose almost interest. But that were just some parts.
The writing was good and easy to follow, the world building was also well done and I think I enjoyed that part the most about the book. There were some slower parts like I said but mostly it was a steady pace.
I rate it 3 ½ ★
September 25, 2015
Novel set in South Africa (day and night…)
Up Against The Night is a quite excellent novel. Justin Cartwright writes extremely well, and uses his words to paint evocative pictures. His style is easy going and fluid. The book starts in the New Forest in South West England, moves through the beaches and countryside surrounding Cape Town in South Africa (where the majority of it is set), and ends up in Sweden. At one level it is the story of Frank McAllister, a South African who became rich in the UK, his almost second wife Nellie (to whom he actually gets married at the end of the book), his recovering drug addict daughter, and her teenage son. They travel to Frank’s house outside Cape Town for an idyllic holiday – surfing, sun bathing, BBQs on the beach, and wildlife safaris. It is a wonderful, carefree existence. Just one slightly more serious note. Piet Retief, a Boer ancestor of Frank’s (and, incidentally of the author) led an expedition that was massacred at Drakensberg by a Zulu chief called Dingane. Frank and his daughter set off with a driver to visit the scene of the battle all those years ago… Piet Retief is still revered amongst the Afrikaans community, although he was not the nicest of men.
So far we have been in the ‘day’ scenario – the privileged existence of white South Africans (years, of course, after the end of Aparthied). Their privileges are rivalled only by the new black millionaires… But for the majority of South Africans, the working class Boers and the black masses, life is not all roses. It is pretty miserable and desperate…This is the ‘night’ scenario. Frank has a cousin called Jaco who fits perfectly into the classification of working class Boer – he finds it hard to get work because of the preference given by law to black applicants. He is also an alcoholic, separated from his wife and missing his children. He, too, is not the nicest of men. Frank helps him out financially, but reluctantly. But absolutely tries to distance himself. It is a parallel plot that shows us the underbelly of the country.
We come (no spoilers) to a very dramatic ending to the South African holiday before our brief visit to Sweden.
Up Against The Night is a book that really shows the reader the two South Africas close and up personal. I recommend it.
This review originally appeared on our blog: http://www.tripfiction.com/novel-set-...
Up Against The Night is a quite excellent novel. Justin Cartwright writes extremely well, and uses his words to paint evocative pictures. His style is easy going and fluid. The book starts in the New Forest in South West England, moves through the beaches and countryside surrounding Cape Town in South Africa (where the majority of it is set), and ends up in Sweden. At one level it is the story of Frank McAllister, a South African who became rich in the UK, his almost second wife Nellie (to whom he actually gets married at the end of the book), his recovering drug addict daughter, and her teenage son. They travel to Frank’s house outside Cape Town for an idyllic holiday – surfing, sun bathing, BBQs on the beach, and wildlife safaris. It is a wonderful, carefree existence. Just one slightly more serious note. Piet Retief, a Boer ancestor of Frank’s (and, incidentally of the author) led an expedition that was massacred at Drakensberg by a Zulu chief called Dingane. Frank and his daughter set off with a driver to visit the scene of the battle all those years ago… Piet Retief is still revered amongst the Afrikaans community, although he was not the nicest of men.
So far we have been in the ‘day’ scenario – the privileged existence of white South Africans (years, of course, after the end of Aparthied). Their privileges are rivalled only by the new black millionaires… But for the majority of South Africans, the working class Boers and the black masses, life is not all roses. It is pretty miserable and desperate…This is the ‘night’ scenario. Frank has a cousin called Jaco who fits perfectly into the classification of working class Boer – he finds it hard to get work because of the preference given by law to black applicants. He is also an alcoholic, separated from his wife and missing his children. He, too, is not the nicest of men. Frank helps him out financially, but reluctantly. But absolutely tries to distance himself. It is a parallel plot that shows us the underbelly of the country.
We come (no spoilers) to a very dramatic ending to the South African holiday before our brief visit to Sweden.
Up Against The Night is a book that really shows the reader the two South Africas close and up personal. I recommend it.
This review originally appeared on our blog: http://www.tripfiction.com/novel-set-...
January 7, 2016
Up Against The Night
How have I missed Justin Cartwright? I just don’t know. This novel is nothing short of amazing in its fine sense of language, the wonderful use of the controlled narrators, and the perfect combination of incident with plot. Add to that a particular sense of place, both South Africa and England, and you have one very fine novel.
The Author examines the Afrikaans’ experience with a survivor of that doomed culture, a descendant of Piet Retief. Frank McAllister, one of two narrators, tries to make sense of guilt and evil in a setting that is both paradisial and hellish. (The other narrator is his cousin Jaco, another piece of the South African puzzle and easily understandable to anyone living in 2016.) Throughout there is a wondrous sense of foreboding even with the positive words of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 floating in the aether. Add allusions to Philip Larkin and wow!
His minor characters from the daughter with the pierced septum who arrives from rehab dragging her lover’s mixed race child around the world. His ex-wife who starts (and fails) at boutique hotels and at age 46 is trying for in vitro fertilization is still another aspect of failed Colonialism. McAllister and his new love Swedish Nellie ring true as do the remarks about Tom Cruise and Scientology. He also examines mortality in the illness and death of a close friend.
I tried to place Cartwright and his writing talent: I came up with Richard Ford, Louis Begley, Coetzee, and Joseph Kanon. Certainly he is a master stylist in the mode of William Trevor’s Felicia’s Journey.
I could find no false step, no awkward part. I welcomed the dénouement with its echoes of Howard Hodgkin, that is a contained work but one which spills over into our consciousness and makes us aware once more of the glories of literary art with a story worth telling in words burnished and right. The cover quotes The Irish Times, “Few living British novelists write English fiction quite as wellas Cartwright.” I agree.
How have I missed Justin Cartwright? I just don’t know. This novel is nothing short of amazing in its fine sense of language, the wonderful use of the controlled narrators, and the perfect combination of incident with plot. Add to that a particular sense of place, both South Africa and England, and you have one very fine novel.
The Author examines the Afrikaans’ experience with a survivor of that doomed culture, a descendant of Piet Retief. Frank McAllister, one of two narrators, tries to make sense of guilt and evil in a setting that is both paradisial and hellish. (The other narrator is his cousin Jaco, another piece of the South African puzzle and easily understandable to anyone living in 2016.) Throughout there is a wondrous sense of foreboding even with the positive words of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 floating in the aether. Add allusions to Philip Larkin and wow!
His minor characters from the daughter with the pierced septum who arrives from rehab dragging her lover’s mixed race child around the world. His ex-wife who starts (and fails) at boutique hotels and at age 46 is trying for in vitro fertilization is still another aspect of failed Colonialism. McAllister and his new love Swedish Nellie ring true as do the remarks about Tom Cruise and Scientology. He also examines mortality in the illness and death of a close friend.
I tried to place Cartwright and his writing talent: I came up with Richard Ford, Louis Begley, Coetzee, and Joseph Kanon. Certainly he is a master stylist in the mode of William Trevor’s Felicia’s Journey.
I could find no false step, no awkward part. I welcomed the dénouement with its echoes of Howard Hodgkin, that is a contained work but one which spills over into our consciousness and makes us aware once more of the glories of literary art with a story worth telling in words burnished and right. The cover quotes The Irish Times, “Few living British novelists write English fiction quite as wellas Cartwright.” I agree.
November 5, 2017
I honestly can't remember the last time I had to will myself to finish a book as much as I did this one. I wouldn't recommend it.
September 17, 2015
The family portrayed in Justin Cartwright’s new novel, Up Against the Night, is a mess, as so many families are.
The patriarch is wealthy Londoner Frank, who has houses all over the place, including a beautiful beachside home close to Capetown in his native South Africa.
Frank has a vicious ex-wife and a loved but fragile drug-addict daughter, Lucinda. Frank has rescued her by sending her to rehab in California, where she still lives. On the plus side, he has a sweet new Swedish lover, Nellie, also recovering from her own marital wars.
Then there’s Nellie’s son Bertil, in trouble at school over marijuana use.
Best, Frank thinks, to take them all to his South African house for some R and R, a trip that will also give him a chance to reach back to his Boer roots and get a better sense of a ruthless ancestor famously murdered by Zulus.
And so they all gather at his luxury hideaway to enjoy a beautiful, lazy, surfing, swimming, barbecue-fuelled holiday. Love blossoms all over, as Frank and Nellie grow closer, Bertil finds a girlfriend, and Lucinda turns up with a tiny child in tow. She just in temporary charge of the boy, and travelling on his real mother’s passport, but there’s little concern and two-year-old Isaac is soon everyone’s darling.
It all sounds too good to be true. And it is.
Beneath the good life are dark stories of revenge, pride, ignorance and bloody-mindedness, both past and present, that threaten to rear up and wreck the family’s golden idyll.
Cartwright has his own South African history, and his love for the country’s landscape shines in his vivid descriptions of its beauty. But so does his despair over the crime, poverty and corruption that scar its colonial past and mar its future prospects.
As tension builds, you just know that something is going to go very, very wrong in the house by the sea, where great white sharks lurk.
This is Cartwright’s 13th novel. I’ve not read the lot, but will get to them in time. He’s an ace story-teller and hasn’t let me down yet.
The patriarch is wealthy Londoner Frank, who has houses all over the place, including a beautiful beachside home close to Capetown in his native South Africa.
Frank has a vicious ex-wife and a loved but fragile drug-addict daughter, Lucinda. Frank has rescued her by sending her to rehab in California, where she still lives. On the plus side, he has a sweet new Swedish lover, Nellie, also recovering from her own marital wars.
Then there’s Nellie’s son Bertil, in trouble at school over marijuana use.
Best, Frank thinks, to take them all to his South African house for some R and R, a trip that will also give him a chance to reach back to his Boer roots and get a better sense of a ruthless ancestor famously murdered by Zulus.
And so they all gather at his luxury hideaway to enjoy a beautiful, lazy, surfing, swimming, barbecue-fuelled holiday. Love blossoms all over, as Frank and Nellie grow closer, Bertil finds a girlfriend, and Lucinda turns up with a tiny child in tow. She just in temporary charge of the boy, and travelling on his real mother’s passport, but there’s little concern and two-year-old Isaac is soon everyone’s darling.
It all sounds too good to be true. And it is.
Beneath the good life are dark stories of revenge, pride, ignorance and bloody-mindedness, both past and present, that threaten to rear up and wreck the family’s golden idyll.
Cartwright has his own South African history, and his love for the country’s landscape shines in his vivid descriptions of its beauty. But so does his despair over the crime, poverty and corruption that scar its colonial past and mar its future prospects.
As tension builds, you just know that something is going to go very, very wrong in the house by the sea, where great white sharks lurk.
This is Cartwright’s 13th novel. I’ve not read the lot, but will get to them in time. He’s an ace story-teller and hasn’t let me down yet.
October 13, 2015
I loved this book. The narrator is a South African living in the UK who feels a longing to go back to South Africa. He goes back with his family for a holiday where they all experience a time of healing. His descriptions of Cape Town, Natal and the South African people are very evocative for me. He describes the country as though to an outsider (his Swedish lover), an interesting view point. He is a descendant of Piet Retief (the author is also in real life), and goes to visit the site of the battle of Dingaan and Blood River.
Although I don't think Cartwright is entirely successful in communicating the true complexities of South Africa, one reads it between the lines. I just wonder whether the reader needs to have lived in SA to do so?
Still, the story moved me. It's a metaphor for the complex, exquisite and tragic place that is Our Beloved Country.
Although I don't think Cartwright is entirely successful in communicating the true complexities of South Africa, one reads it between the lines. I just wonder whether the reader needs to have lived in SA to do so?
Still, the story moved me. It's a metaphor for the complex, exquisite and tragic place that is Our Beloved Country.
April 28, 2016
Delving into the life — both past and present — of Frank McAllister, a wealthy man with a broken family and violent heritage, Up Against the Night takes readers on a journey of healing and change as a family rebuilds itself and comes to terms with its past. Based mostly in the protagonist’s beloved homeland of South Africa, readers get a uniquely deep view of modern day living as well as glimpses of its volatility.
Reviewed for TripFiction, see full review here - http://bit.ly/1QDH1Sh.
Reviewed for TripFiction, see full review here - http://bit.ly/1QDH1Sh.
November 22, 2016
A great read from an interesting author I've never heard of, but should have. He's been nominated for lots of awards in a long writing career, as an expat South African living in London. This latest novel celebrates the mystique of the past and its pull on the present and his style in quite lyrical and emotive. There's an interesting twist at the end .... won't spoil the surprise. I'll certainly read more of his!
February 16, 2016
Well written novel set in both Cape Town and London with complicated characters, with complicated histories. you get a wonderful feel of the main characters early life in Cape Town and his fierce desire that he can go home again. Throughly enjoyed it and rekindled my deire to read about Africa.
December 29, 2015
Excellently written. Wonderfully atmospheric. At times a little over sentimental, almost gushing. But South Africa superbly described through landscape, action and dialogue. Read it!
June 8, 2019
Frank McAllister left South Africa for England decades ago. In his adopted country he's become very wealthy and his money allows him to keep two holiday homes, one in England and one on the coast just outside Cape Town. He's preparing to take his Swedish girlfriend and drug-recovering daughter to the country of his birth for a month-long vacation.
Franks feels a sense of estrangement in the country where he lives and a pull towards the country of his birth. One such pull is Frank's ancestor, Piet Retief. In 1818, the Boer leader and dozens of Boers, including women and children, were killed by Zulu king, Dingane, after naively trying to negotiate for land. Frank is fascinated by the story, trying to understand the event, his forefather and considering its possible impact on racism and apartheid.
The story also briefly focuses on Frank's cousin, Jaco, a highly racist, ignorant Afrikaans man who gets involved in Scientology. Jaco will need Frank's help to escape the clutches of the cult-like 'religion'. Jaco's story is almost a tragi-comedy.
Violence and deception threaten Frank's idyllic holiday and his hopeful outlook on life and South Africa.
"Against the Night" is a book about family, identity, and the impact of the past on the present. The prose is evocative, especially in descriptions of natural beauty, and the story builds tension slowly until it erupts all at once.
I do have ambivalent feelings about the book. Perhaps because of my own heritage (Justin Cartwright is a descendant of Piet Retief's). At times, I felt very uncomfortable with the representations of South Africa, but that might be the intention. But it remains a brilliant and worthwhile read.
Franks feels a sense of estrangement in the country where he lives and a pull towards the country of his birth. One such pull is Frank's ancestor, Piet Retief. In 1818, the Boer leader and dozens of Boers, including women and children, were killed by Zulu king, Dingane, after naively trying to negotiate for land. Frank is fascinated by the story, trying to understand the event, his forefather and considering its possible impact on racism and apartheid.
The story also briefly focuses on Frank's cousin, Jaco, a highly racist, ignorant Afrikaans man who gets involved in Scientology. Jaco will need Frank's help to escape the clutches of the cult-like 'religion'. Jaco's story is almost a tragi-comedy.
Violence and deception threaten Frank's idyllic holiday and his hopeful outlook on life and South Africa.
"Against the Night" is a book about family, identity, and the impact of the past on the present. The prose is evocative, especially in descriptions of natural beauty, and the story builds tension slowly until it erupts all at once.
I do have ambivalent feelings about the book. Perhaps because of my own heritage (Justin Cartwright is a descendant of Piet Retief's). At times, I felt very uncomfortable with the representations of South Africa, but that might be the intention. But it remains a brilliant and worthwhile read.
September 18, 2022
I keep telling myself I shouldn't just keep a list of books to read, I should write down WHY I want to read them. This novel is so very, very British; so very, very understated; and it's obvious even without the book jacket that the author is an older man. Frank, an extremely wealthy divorced man of 60, returns home to South Africa with his Swedish girlfriend Nellie; her teenage son Bertil; and his 20ish daughter Lucinda, who's been in rehab. Frank narrates, and I couldn't help but wonder what the book would be like if written by a woman who could delve more into characterization and be less "stiff upper lip." Frank reflects from time to time on his experiences growing up in South Africa and on his ancestor, a Boer killed in 1838 by a Zulu king, an episode which is obviously hugely symbolic. His disreputable cousin Jaco, a total caricature of a racist, not-too-bright jerk, pops up from time to time and then takes over in a couple of chapters (which are far more interesting than Frank's solemnity). I won't be looking for anything else by Cartwright, no matter how many awards he's won. (Several reviewers, however, say that "Up Against the Night" is not one of Cartwright's better productions.)
June 16, 2020
This author can write well if he puts his heart into it but unfortunately his time on a sensation fired rag and his advertising background, together with his white South African mentality of making money, seems to have the upper hand.
The plot seems to be almost a caricature of a soap opera television serial in which he reveals his priveledged position, or just ignores, or is ignorance of the other side of South Africa, which also excludes the fate of the poorer whites there.
One would expect more from an author who appears to have studied in Oxford and coming from the same county as J. M. Coetzee, Doris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer.
But there is justice in the world of literature because yhis book hasn't even made it on the list of pulp best sellers.
The plot seems to be almost a caricature of a soap opera television serial in which he reveals his priveledged position, or just ignores, or is ignorance of the other side of South Africa, which also excludes the fate of the poorer whites there.
One would expect more from an author who appears to have studied in Oxford and coming from the same county as J. M. Coetzee, Doris Lessing and Nadine Gordimer.
But there is justice in the world of literature because yhis book hasn't even made it on the list of pulp best sellers.
April 19, 2019
I picked up this book having just returned from South Africa, and found the descriptions of the landscape quite uncanny in their accuracy. However, there was nothing 'real' about Frank the central figure in the book. Were these Cartwright's hollow values reflected in this guy's wealth - houses paintings etc? Oh dear! All filled with a cast of unreal characters.
The harsh Boer culture - past and sadly present - was tackled head on and there was a good build up of tension at the end of the book. What was the point of Isaac - the only future for the country? A Xhosa speaking mixed race future ......?
The harsh Boer culture - past and sadly present - was tackled head on and there was a good build up of tension at the end of the book. What was the point of Isaac - the only future for the country? A Xhosa speaking mixed race future ......?
March 1, 2018
Ex-pat Frank (like Cartwright, a descendant of Piet Retief) is very wealthy and returns to South Africa, with his lover and wayward daughter, for a visit. His cousin, Jaco (in America) needs financial help to escape the Scientologists, and calls on Frank. This is a credible story, but I found Cartwright's depiction of Jaco's, and the local South African lingo, belaboured and irritating.
Cartwright is a great contemporary author, but this , for me, is not his best.
Cartwright is a great contemporary author, but this , for me, is not his best.
December 2, 2018
There's an ominous undertone to this story, which takes place in part in Cape Town, South Africa. (I read it on a cruise ship, and coincidentally, we got a trivia question about Table Mountain right after I read about it in this book!) It is well-written, with good characterizations and an engrossing plot in a part of the world I didn't know much about. A good read!
April 26, 2020
This is one of the very few books that have been able to hold my attention in the lockdown. It is well structured and beautifully written, as are all his books. I particularly enjoyed the setting in Cape Town and South African history. In the plot tension rises and the ending is surprising and very clever. However I found the characters a little two dimensional.
February 4, 2022
I picked up this book because I thought Frank McAllister would explore post-apartheid South Africa in a way that only a South African can. He did no such thing. A little bit of family drama , a few mentions of SA’s extraordinary landscape and the rest is , well ,boring. There is no plot , there is no substance. I would not recommend.
December 3, 2018
I have read a couple of his books and said in a review that this author has a great novel in him. This is not it. It looks interesting then goes down a completely different path. By page 50 I was suspicious that it was going nowhere in particular and I gave up on page 90.
April 8, 2023
A really bad book. What did I possibly bother with this for. Nothing happens. No point to it. Two awful books in a row now! First was Lionel shriver 's nonsensical big brother... Now this!
May 28, 2024
Jarring. Ancestor's legacy vs actions, Frank vs Jaco, serenity vs violence. Masterfully written, the perspectives are well portrayed.
February 17, 2017
Much preferred this to Leading the Cheers although there are many common characteristics, most notably Cartwright seems to love writing about obscenely wealthy, middle-aged men who conjure up some existential crisis and seem to wallow in some unfounded guilt. Undoubtedly the narrator is a version of the author - they share the same colonnial background and a common ancestor, Piet Retief (it would be hard to invent a more stereotypical Boer name if it didn´t already exist) - I will be most interested to see if he is willing to stray out of his comfort zone in terms of central characters in other works. While the constant references to said predecessor are sometimes tiresome, I suppose they are key to the narrator coming to terms with his own identity. The story itself, however, is solid and I particularly like the twist at the end, perfectly illustrating how all our preconceptions can be turned on their head in an instant. The other characters are drawn most convincingly, the most resonant being the vindictive, harpy Georgina - I too have been plagued by malignancy personified - and, while four stars is generous from me, it is a most satisfying and worthwhile read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 26, 2019
It was a bit hard to get into with references back to his ancestor, a Boer, who was killed by the Zulu’s. The descriptions of the SouthAfrican landscapes are fabulous. Frank McAllister has returned to South Africa, bringing his new partner, Nellie who is Swedish, and her son, and they get married whilst in South Africa. His troubled daughter who has been in rehab in California also comes home for a holiday, bringing her ex-boyfriends son with her.
August 26, 2016
Frank McAllister has become wealthy in England, where he has lived for thirty years. He has a house in Notting Hill, a house in the New Forest, and a house near Cape Town. But more and more he feels alienated in England. As the book opens, he is preparing to go to South Africa with his lover, Nellie. He is also waiting anxiously for his daughter, Lucinda, to arrive from California, where she has been in rehab. Frank is a descendant of the Boer leader, Piet Retief, who was murdered by the Zulu king Dingane, along with all his followers, in 1838. Frank's Afrikaner cousin, Jaco, has become moderately famous on YouTube for having faced down a huge white shark. He is now in America, where he has joined the Scientologists. His chaotic and violent life spills over on to Frank.
Justin Cartwright is a favourite author and many times his books bridge England and South Africa as he once lived there. Sometimes his protagonist, Frank, seems a little too good to be true, trying to make life wonderful for his lover, her son, and his daughter, who he feels he has let down causing her to become an addict. He even bends over backwards to help the horrible cousin Jaco, who is a bigot, illiterate and a fool to boot.
Justin Cartwright is a favourite author and many times his books bridge England and South Africa as he once lived there. Sometimes his protagonist, Frank, seems a little too good to be true, trying to make life wonderful for his lover, her son, and his daughter, who he feels he has let down causing her to become an addict. He even bends over backwards to help the horrible cousin Jaco, who is a bigot, illiterate and a fool to boot.
April 25, 2016
Frank can buy anything he wants and he does. He keeps everyone happy. All the characters are perfect people. Ah, but Jaco! He at least is real, he gives us a glimpse of South Africa after apartheid, not at all perfect.
October 11, 2015
Not really impressed. Set in London & South Africa . Frank McAllister , whose ancestor was killed by the Zulu king, returns to S Africa on holiday where his home is attacked.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 22, 2016
Not a good offering.. I enjoyed being 'back' in South Africa, but the geographical errors annoyed me.
June 1, 2016
Great read about S. Africa. Well done story about a writer and his ancestry in S. Africa.
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