My Beautiful Death

by Eben Venter

Konstant Wasserman rebels against his people, culture and country. In his own I’m going to get the hell away from here and make the life I want somewhere else.

Thus he migrates to Sydney, Australia where he slips into a new way of a vegetarian diet, a crazy hairstyle and an adventure with the sexually ambivalent Jude. With this “dark horse” of his he arrives at places where he’d never wanted to go.

In the Wollondilly wilderness west of Sydney he discovers the first symptoms of a terminal disease. Now his real journey starts.

275 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Leone Mattheus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik heb echt veel meer tijd in dit boek én het leesverslag gestoken dan strikt noodzakelijk was, maar hé, dan heb je ook wat: ik heb er zelfs een vergelijking met A Little Life in kunnen verwerken. Het verhaal zelf is ijzersterk, helemaal mijn ding. (Op na een paar ontiegelijk vage scènes na.) Alleen die taal… ja, ik ben Zuid-Afrikaans aan het leren, maar dit ging toch echt naar een heel ander niveau qua woordenschat. Op dit moment kan ik wel probleemloos alle soorten drugs in het Zuid-Afrikaans opsommen, mocht ik nog een funcact voor de feestdagen zoeken binnenkort.

[Nick Shears · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book while on holiday in South Africa because the outline interested me: a young Afrikaans man leaves post-apartheid SA for a radically different life in Australia.
While the opening was interesting enough, the development left me uninterested in how the main character himself, let alone his new life, would develop.
This was not due to the writing itself but to the character. I stopped reading because I didn’t see the point of continuing to spend time with him – I have too many books I am keen to read. My 2/5 score may have become higher had the author made the character more interesting.

[Jude · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a feeling that this book works a good deal better in the original Afrikaans. The translator, Luke Stubbs, has tried hard to transfer the flavour of the original but it often jars. The stream of consciousness style of writing is not easy at the best of times, and I think it loses a good deal in translation - especially given the use of slang, colloquial language and South African expressions and references to songs.

[Nadja · Rating 4 out of 5]

A haunting rendition of the Afrikaans diaspora post-Apartheid....the children breaking away from the sins of their fathers, to be overcome by the sins of the world. A text that belongs in a museum, for its moment-in-time portrayal of a culture...

[Henning Janse van Vuuren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dié een nogal by ‘n plek getiteld Stunning Boeke vir ‘n ei aangeskaf waar ‘n man my vertel het dat hy bose geeste kan uitdryf.

Nietemin en nou ja toe: tot op p. 50 het Konstant se gedagtegang gelees soos die memoirs van ‘n opgeskote tiener … al op dieselfde trant. Sepiestyl. Die woorde ’skoolmeisieagtige manier’ daar op p. 54 is raak.

Net so. Begin vluglees. En gestop. Nie vir my nie.

[Con Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe the English version loses a lot of the beauty of the original Afrikaans. You can sense the rhythm and feel that falls short in the translation.

It is however a truly gripping novel with a devastating conclusion. It is a real gut punch

[Lara Crafford · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Tamara]

so ver is dit 'n strange boek, maar ek kan dit tog nie neer sit nie! Die final verdict nog nie uit, sal weer post as ek dit klaar gelees het

[Kimmy Beach]

But in English.

[Gronum]

Great journey of the body, and the mind.