Blood Orange

by Troy Blacklaws

Blood Orange is the bitter-sweet memoir of a South African boyhood. We follow Gecko from his magical barefoot childhood in rural Natal, to his tragi-comic sexual and political awakening in high school in the Cape, and on towards that ever-darkening cloud on his conscription into the South African army. This follow-up to Karoo Boy is written in sparkling, effortless prose that deftly evokes the poignancy, absurdity, longing and fear of growing up white in the last decades of apartheid.

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

I was born in 1965 in Natal, South Africa. I was uprooted at 9 when my father landed a job on a wine farm in the Cape. At 14 I discovered South Africa was a world pariah and that black men were shot in their struggle for freedom. Baited as a kaffirboetie (a niggerlover), I became an outsider at Paarl Boys' High. I studied English and History at Rhodes University and then spent two bitter years as a conscript in the army. I would not carry a gun. Nelson Mandela was in jail during all this time.

I have taught English in England (at Stowe and Sherborne), Germany, Austria and Singapore.

My writings so far draw on memories of my boyhood in apartheid South Africa.

Reviews

[Moushine Zahr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first novel I've read from South African author Tory Blacklaws and there are several other novels about South Africa during the Apartheid much better than this title. This novel is inspired by the autobiography of the author and about his life starting at 7 years in a farm in Zululand to his 20's escaping the Apartheid army to England.

Ironically, a paragraph of this book is about a high school teacher of literrature reviewing his material and writing down that "his work is too literal" because this is exactly how I'd review this novel, which is too literal. The novel follows only the author throughout his life and only him. The leading character is very well developed, but not the secondary characters. There is only one story, which is of course the leading character's life. There is no sub-story. There is no in-depth story. There is no story about society in general.

Besides writing well his life story during Apartheid South Africa, the author continuously names the various ways one can die in the Cape due to animals attack, nature incidents and other non-natural ways to die. I guess death is a sub story to the author, but mentionned as a top 100 ways to die in South Africa and spread through the entire book.

The novel is okay, but could have been much better.

[Enid Wray · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting, and probably important, addition to a literature exploring the reality of growing up under apartheid.
Notwithstanding the author's proviso at the outset that it is a 'novel blending memoir and fiction' to call this a novel is disingenuous. This is a series of - albeit interconnected and forward moving - vignettes. There is no plot in any way shape or form. There are characters... too many characters, too many incidental characters. Again, notwithstanding that this is essentially a re-telling of the author's experiences, we never really get to know the central character. At best I understand him - and his motivations - only very superficially.
Then there is the culturally specific language, which demands that there be a glossary or such. Initially I looked up each word as I encountered it but eventually I stopped... I couldn't be bothered, which is not a good thing for a reader to be feeling. I stopped because there were just too many such interruptions, but also because so many of my searches came back empty handed. Some words/phrases I could skip over and make sense of by context clues, but others just escape me entirely. But a few examples of words for which I was unable to find any 'definition' include: nkankaan bird, tula, sangoma (and those are all in the first few pages!!). The best however was 'songololo'... for which the dictionary definition helped not in the least the first time I encountered the word, but paying attention to the etymology of the word made sense of it's usage the second time I came across it.
An opportunity unrealised...

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was ok. There was so much vernacular that a glossary would have been very helpful. It was harder to engage with his life as a result. I would have enjoyed a little more in depth discussion of how he came to feel the way he did about apartheid. It seemed to not go much beyond the surface. So I definitely was exposed to some new things, but think I could have gotten more out of it with a few changes.

[Afrikan · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is the second book by troy I have read. usually they say an author's first book is autobiographical. I've read two of his books and both sound autobiographical. does he only write what he knows? writing not so great either

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!