Cheap Lives

by Antony Sher

Colorless is a coloring experience like no other. Travel through the mind of a seven year old by coloring more than 30 pages of colorless art.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT

246 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Sir Antony Sher, born in Cape Town, South Africa on June 14th, 1949, was an actor, memoirist, playwright, painter, and novelist, best known for his performances of Shakespearean characters like Richard III, Macbeth, and Sir John Falstaff. He has performed in plays by such writers as Molière, Chekhov, Brecht, Arthur Miller, Mike Leigh, and Harvey Fierstein, and has portrayed historical figures as diverse as Primo Levi and Adolf Hitler, Benjamin Disraeli and Ringo Starr. In 1985 he received the Laurence Olivier Award for his work as Richard III, and again in 1997 for Stanley.

His writings include novels, plays, and memoirs, including Year of the King: An Actor's Diary and Sketchbook, his account of playing Richard III for the Royal Shakespeare Company, called by actor Simon Callow "the most wonderfully authentic account of the experience of creating a performance."

He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000.

In 2005, Sher and his partner – director Gregory Doran, with whom he frequently collaborates professionally – became one of the first gay couples to enter into a civil partnership in the UK.

Reviews

[Asha Stark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy shit, where do I even begin with this one.

It's about a black, Muslim serial killer, a white victim ('the one who got away'), written by a South African Jewish dude who intensely dislikes Israel, Israelis, and apartheid.

I think it would probably be considered incredibly racist if read by the masses today. Writing as Yusuf, the author is unflinchingly crude in his descriptions. It does tie in with Yusuf's character, but at the same time it is uncomfortable to read him described as a monkey and all kinds of other either borderline or straight out racist terms. Do I think Antony Sher intended harm or malice? No, I don't. Do I think it makes it perfectly ok? Again, no. However; I'm neither white or South African and therefore I can only stress that as someone who tried their hardest to not be prejudiced, it was indeed uncomfortable.

Did I enjoy this book though? Yes, I did! It was kooky, it was funny, it was bleak, it was without a doubt one of the strangest books I have ever read and I don't regret giving it my time at all.

The author's illustrations are scattered through the book too, and he's a wonderful artist so that also was nice.

[chicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘The sensible side of me knows you’re not the devil, yet when you come into my dreams I have a hell of a job exorcising you.’

When Adrian and Yusuf have their fateful encounter and start exchanging letters four years later, they are all too aware that time is running out.

Set against the backdrop of the ending of Apartheid in 1989 South Africa, the two men become entangled with each other through desperate letters, redefining their understanding of what it means to be rich and poor, white and black, and victim and perpetrator in a South Africa cracking and on the verge of defining change.

—
Sher’s assessment of South Africa through the relationship of two men is so claustrophobic and intense, and I also love how he balances tourist South Africa with the South Africa of the people. Adrian shepherds Western tourists around, safe in their coach as they observe the beauty of South Africa while being able to ignore the destruction that their countries have imposed upon the disadvantaged in South Africa.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, powerful, gripping. The personalities of each writer, victim and attacker, come across vividly. Adrian the victim seems archetypal white Sth African, a deep malaise seems to underlie all his words and his job as tour guide for international tourists an almost too obvious metaphor for the white Sth African presence in a country where they behave like little more than long term visitors themselves. Yusef, the prisoner and his attacker is the exhausted, disenfranchised, impoverished and battered African whose grip on sanity and self seems reduced to nothing more than frantic grabs at survival but whose voice and suffering is agonizingly real. 'Cheap Lives' is a deeply haunting read about man's inhumanity to man, individual and race based. At the end the author has woven a story of a murder and an assault which is a story where killer is also victim and the victim is also killer. An awesome accomplishment.

[Michael Alan Grapin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A convicted serial killer awaiting execution on death row in a South African prison is contacted by his only surviving victim seeking answers about his survival. They begin corresponding and the story unfolds in alternating letters that reveal their lives before, during and after their meeting for a homosexual tryst.

[Adriana Afonso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a vivid story and set of characters. So interesting to read about Yusef and Adrian and their relationship, their separate histories and their intertwined one.

[Lainy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to follow xxx