What Will People Say?: A Novel

by Rehana Rossouw

In What Will People Say?, a rich variety of township characters—the preachers, the teachers, the gangsters and the defeated—come to life in vivid language as they eke out their lives in the shadows of gray concrete blocks of flats. It is the story of the Fourie family, residents of Hanover Park in the Cape Flats during the height of the struggle era. Which members of the Fourie family will thrive, which ones will not survive? Generously spiced with Cape Flats slang, the novel features vivid and gritty descriptions of the difficult issues faced by those living in this marginalized and disadvantaged community.

Genres: Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rehana Rossouw truly deserved her NIHSSAwards2017 fiction category.

For the first time in my reading life I got to hear, see, taste, smell another perspective of the "Coloured" story. Something real, not a parody of lives of people we've always tucked away into minute stereotypical boxes.

I will not put a full review now. Do not want to spoil it for my book clubbers. We are spending an afternoon with Rehana Rossouw on 08 April.

Yes, we lucky fish!

Grab your copy NOW!

[Andrico Goosen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book pulls your heartstrings in so many ways. It speaks of a South Africa that was and in many ways still seems so real today. I felt like I became part of the family. Their every breath became my every breath. This book will deepen your understanding and interrogate your humanity. Rehana Rossouw is a master storyteller and I am looking forward to moving on to “New Times” and hopefully many more novels to come.

[Jocelyn Newmarch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this book on the last day of 2016, and couldn’t bring myself to start another book for the next couple of days. Rehana’s novel cloaks its tragedy with humour and vivid patois. I so much loved its use of Cape Flats dialect, its often vulgar humour, and its portrait of parents desperately trying to bring up their children “decently”. But this is Hanover Park in 1986. There is little decency to be found with residents caught between gangsterism and the apartheid security structures.

Neville and Magda fight often, but they both have their family’s best interests at heart. While Magda, the manager at a clothing factory, is committed to her church as a way to keep her children out of mischief, Neville, a messenger for a law firm, joins the neighbourhood watch to ensure their safety after dark. Suzette, beautiful and boy-mad, is 18 and determined to make a life for herself outside of her mother’s strictures. Nicky, at 16, is only interested in her schoolwork until she is forced into political awareness in support of her friends. And Anthony – just 13 – already feels the lure of the gangs.

Oh, Anthony. I was devastated by him, and yet, any other fate would have rung false. Next to Anthony, Suzette and Nicky’s stories were less compelling for me. I wanted Suzette to hit a couple more speed bumps on her way out of Hanover Park, while Nicky, as the goody-two-shoes who gains a conscience would always be a less interesting character next to her flawed family. The thinnest character, by far, was Kevin, Nicky’s love interest, who spouts political platitudes and always knows just how the other characters should solve their problems. Fortunately, Keven doesn’t get a lot of screen time. Aunty Moira, the sexy neighbour with a Princess Di haircut, and Pastor Williams, the smarmy preacher, were delightful minor characters.

I’ve long respected Rehana as a journalist, editor and colleague, and I’m so proud of this, her first novel, but, I feel sure, not her last.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, it was an interesting read, well paced, good characters, and rather sad. I'm not sure how an international audience would handle the colloquialisms without a glossary but fortunately I'm local.

[Tiah]

My interview with the author: http://bit.ly/2aty5lq

- Her childhood was ending and it was time to learn to be a woman. The lessons started with Mummy teaching her to iron shirts. –

- He still wasn't sure what they could do against gangsters, the cockroaches that crawled out of the walls after the kitchen lights went off. The watch members' torches cast a light on their activities, but it was dim. –

- He understood now why people got gerook. It made a boring life seem interesting for a while. -

- [The struggle] were like converted people who went around asking everybody if they had accepted the Lord into their hearts. Only they said Lenin. –

- Making love was the word in Mills & Boon romances, always at the end of the book. Fucking sounded better. -

- The problem isn't [parents], it's the system. The system created these ghettos, gave people kak housing and no hope. Then worst of all, they turned a blind eye to the crime that resulted. –

– People got a democratic right to fuck up their lives, Nicky...Your job is to show them a better life, but you can't force them to accept it. –

[C.M. Okonkwo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the book. When I got it, I sighed because of the size, but when I got into it, I took it down in a day... and a busy day, in which I had a lot to do. It’s a bitter-sweet book and that’s the reason why I couldn’t put it down.

The book is set in the mid-1980s in Cape Flat, an area facing political difficulties, and the story centres on the members of a family, the Fourie family and its personal struggles.

The parents Neville and Magda seemed to be a happy couple but start arguing a lot. Things changed because of the new church Madga has joined that forbids a lot of things. She wants her husband to be more active, but he isn't getting any of that. In fact they had a funny argument where she asked "What are you: a man or a mouse?" and he answers by saying "I must be a man if I don't give into everything a woman wants. Don’t you think so?"

The couple have three children from hell.

Read more on my blog: http://cmokonkwosblog.blogspot.com/20...

***
CMO

[Tania Kliphuis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story of the Fourie family, living in the Hanover Park in Cape Town, is devastating, gritty and authentic. It's peppered with Cape Flats slang, which I really enjoyed. I don't often read books that really capture a segment of the South African population, and Rossouw does it beautifully.

The events that unravel the Fourie's family life are horribly sad. Unfortunately, this is the reality facing so many families in South Africa even today, even though What Will People Say is set in the late 80s. Rossouw touches on the District 6 removals as being the root cause of much of the violence. I do wish this had been explored in a bit more detail but also understand that it wasn't the main premise of the story.

The events that unfold made me feel uneasy. It was almost like watching a car accident unfold - you're horrified but cannot look away. Unfortunately, however, I found the ending abrupt and unsatisfying. The characters that I considered to be the main characters were almost shoved aside and I was left grasping for answers and unable to understand their arcs. In the end, I found myself wishing that Rossouw had picked a protagonist, rather than attempting to tell everyone's side of the story.

[David Bickerton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent book by Rehana Rossouw. In many ways a standard family drama about parenting and kids dealing with their lives as they grow through adolescence. It just happens to be set in the Cape Flats towards the end of apartheid. It deals with gangs, the political struggles, wanting a better life, tragedy, drama and hope.

It's told in the third person but deals with each of the five members separately to get their different viewpoints about themselves and the family. It takes a little while to get going but is well worth the effort.

[Marion Roux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad I read this - was very doubtful that I would persevere as the first few chapters are filled with foul words (only South Africans would understand most of it), but the story became very gripping as it described a Hanover Park that we hear about all the time, even today. The gangs are truly out of control and the effect on families is so sad. It does highlight how some people can rise above that lifestyle, but at what cost to their families and themselves

[Khanyisile Maseko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved reading this. Finishing it took longer than expected because of a busy schedule but it’s the kind of book that you’ll pick up and struggling to put it back down. I love Rehana’s style of writing, it’s absolutely amazing! I went through the last couple of chapters on the verge of tears and I truly appreciate the fact that we weren’t given a typical ending. I love, love, loved it! Totally recommend it.

[Graham Maart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome writing and a fantastic novel but it is more than a novel because it is real life experiences if you come from the Cape Flats. If you from the Cape Flats you can really relate to what this family went through as the book subscribed.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book. I bought it while in Cape Town as a way to better understand South Africa. The story is heartbreaking, but also inspiring. A normal family growing up in the townships, trying to better their circumstances.

[Emmanuel Mandela · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very compelling story. A typical family setting with myriad of lessons to learn.

[zuki madondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and so heartbreaking.

[Michelle du Toit · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important book to read.

[Fatima Moosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A difficult read but so important!

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read about life on the Cape Flats and how families are affected by poverty and gangsterism. Will really tug at your heart-strings.

[Sthembile · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fourie family comes across as a united front. Neville and Magda have worked out a way to raise their children in the environment they are exposed to in a way to build them to be the best that they can be. The one thing they do not realize is that they do not actually know their kids, they are consumed with the daily happening outside their house that they do not realize their own house is catching fire.

As the story unravels it exposes the effect of the outside world to the children regardless of the fact that Neville and Magda believe they have prevented their kids from being affected by it, Magda is too caught up in her beliefs and what people will say that she is loosing the plot in her home, she is not connecting with the kids. Neville on the other hand is too sweet and because he loves his wife tries to fit in and though he tries to connect in the house he also has his own demons he needs to deal with therefore he is not himself fully.

This book opened my eyes in a way that we need to listen to our children's voices and allow them to develop and own their personalities confidently. we need to be there for them and know them though it might be uncomfortable at times but the attention we give them can make a huge difference