Versamelde Gedigte

by Ingrid Jonker

Ingrid Jonker se lewe is ’n verhaal wat steeds nie net die verbeelding aangryp nie, maar lesers ook fassineer. Bewyse van haar uitsonderlike skryftalent, haar verbeelding en realiteit, en die interessante en onstuimige draaie wat haar lewenspad geneem het word in elke gedig bespeur. op elke poësieliefhebber se rak.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Hardcover

Published September 20, 2016

About the author

Jonker (pronounced yän`ker) grew up with her mother, grandmother and older sister, Anna. Her father, Abraham, never wanted to believe that she was his daughter and that Beatrice (Ingrid’s mother) had had an affair. Unfortunately, Beatrice was fairly unstable emotionally and although she was taken up in a mental institution, she died of cancer when Jonker was 11 years old. At the time, the women had moved from the family farm to Strand and from there to Gordonsbaai, where the girls were attending school. Their father came to fetch them and they had to leave their beloved grandmother behind for a stepmother.

After matriculating at an English high school, Jonker got married to Pieter Venter in 1956. Their daughter, Simone, was born the following year. In 1961 the marriage ended in divorce. By this time Jonker’s debut Ontvlugting had already appeared in print. In 1963 Rook en Oker appeared and she was awarded the Afrikaans Imprint Book Trade prize for it. Jonker used the prize money to travel overseas, but this ended in disaster. She met up with her then-lover, André P. Brink, in Barcelona. By the time they went to Paris, the relationship had become a see-saw of fighting and making up. She ended up at a mental institution there and was sent back to South Africa. Her other lover, Jack Cope, had gotten wind of Brink and didn’t want to pursue his relationship with her any further either.

Jonker couldn’t find work and was even trying to sell the rights of some of her poetry in order to feed herself and Simone. This, in addition to the political turmoil apartheid South Africa was in at the time, added to her emotional distress and she committed suicide by drowning in the ocean at Three Anchor Bay.

Jack Cope was instrumental in having the remainder of her poetry published as Kantelson in 1966. Other than a couple of short stories, Jonker was also the author of a drama entitled Seun na my hart.

Reviews

[Ky Thorson · Rating 4 out of 5]

South African Sylvia Plath.

Best poems:
'Homesickness for Cape Town'
'Watch-time in Amsterdam'
'The child who was shot dead by soldiers in Nyanga'

[Kimberly Uys · Rating 5 out of 5]

Met hoë verwagtinge het ek die digbundel op bladsy 15 oopgeslaan en begin lees aan “Dwaling”- die eerste gedig wat in die bundel verskyn. Sonder huiwering kan ek verseker dat hierdie digteres ń enorme impak op my liefde vir poësie gemaak het. Haar skryfkuns verleen vlerke aan my siel. Hierdie bundel bevat van die bekendste Afrikaanse gedigte (insluitend Bitterbessie Dagbreek, Ontvlugting en Die Kind wat Doodgeskiet is deur Soldate by Nyanga).
Alhoewel ek- as individu- nie al Ingrid Jonker se gedigte ten volle verstaan nie, voel ek ń konneksie met háár deur die skryfstyl en kreatiewe gebruik van woorde wat in die verskeie gedigte gevind word.
Hierdie is definitief nie die laaste keer wat ek die woorde van Ingrid Jonker gaan inneem nie.
Die Versamelde Werke bevat al Ingrid Jonker se digbundels (Ontvlugting, Rook en Oker, Kantelson) asook haar jeugwerke. Ontvlugting, sowel as Rook en Oker, is albei voor haar dood gepubliseer. Kantelson is slegs ná haar dood gepubliseer.
Ek beveel hierdie bundel aan vir énige individu wat ń liefde vir letterkunde en poësie het!

Ingrid Jonker is ń ikoon wat se legende verewig is deur haar digkuns!

[Con Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great new reprint.