The Distance

by Ivan Vladislavić

A boxing bildungsroman - a collage of memories, love, resistance, and the spectacle of Muhammed Ali in Apartheid South Africa. In the spring of 1970, a Pretoria schoolboy, Joe, becomes obsessed with Muhammad Ali. He begins collecting daily newspaper clippings about him, a passion that grows into an archive of scrapbooks. Forty years later, when Joe has become a writer, these scrapbooks become the foundation for a memoir of his childhood. When he calls upon his brother, Branko, for help uncovering their shared past, meaning comes into view in the spaces between then and now, growing up and growing old, speaking out and keeping silent.

Genres: Fiction, South Africa

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 5, 2019

About the author

Ivan Vladislavić is a novelist, essayist and editor. He lives in Johannesburg where he is a Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing at the University of the Witwatersrand. His books include The Folly, The Restless Supermarket, Portrait with Keys and Double Negative. Among his recent publications are Flashback Hotel, a compendium of early stories; The Loss Library, a reflection on writing; and 101 Detectives, a collection of new short stories. He has edited volumes on architecture and art. His work has won several prizes, including the University of Johannesburg Prize, the Sunday Times Fiction Prize and the Alan Paton Award for non-fiction. In 2015, he was awarded the Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction by Yale University.

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 5 out of 5]

He wants us to collaborate on his book. I'll make space for you in the text, he says... Can a story ever belong equally to two people?

How is it that I haven't read Vladislavic before? This book is magnificent. Structurally, linguistically, in terms of form, of narratology, its politics and its emotive power are all rendered with flawless mastery. It's written with a light touch but is freighted with significance that gives it real weight without ever being weighed down by its own importance.

Ostensibly the story of Joe's obsession since the age of 12 with Muhammad Ali, it uses the idea of a boy's scrapbook archive to think about history: of the boxer, of apartheid-era South Africa, of three generations of a family living in Pretoria, of the relationship between two brothers, of the evolution of a book. Boxing is both viscerally literal and yet also serves as a figure for writing and the relationships between author, text and reader; and, through Ali, this also thinks about the politics of sport and, of course, of racial and religious identity.

In writing this, I realise I'm making the book sound ponderous which it really isn't - one of Vladislavic's skills is in making the offshoots cohere and keeping the whole thing marvellously readable. Moments of significance are executed with subtlety: when Joe first realises that 'the absence of black people from places like this, places my cousin and I thought of as ours, was not the natural order of things'; when he first questions America's self-perpetuated image of being 'the bastion of freedom'; when he acknowledges that part of his obsession with Ali was a covert rebellion against his conservative father.

I'm not going to say more as readers deserve to discover the nuances of this book for themselves. Those following my reviews know that I reserve my 5 stars for the truly special, meaningful books - this is one of them.

Many thanks to Archipelago for an ARC via NetGalley

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joe fell in love with Muhammad Ali in 1970 when he was a 12 year old student in Pretoria, South Africa. He kept scrapbooks of Ali’s every move. Forty years later, he wants to use those notebooks as a basis for a book, more about his family than Ali, tracking his personal evolution and that of his country. He enlists the collaboration of his brother Branko. This book is written in the alternating points of view of Joe and Branko.

I had to pay close attention to tell when the pov changed since the narrator of the audiobook did not really differentiate the voices, and what the brothers were saying wasn’t all that different. I expected Ali to be a “backdrop” to a coming of age story as the blurb suggested, but there was way more about Ali than I was expecting. It recounts every fight and opponent. Unfortunately, I couldn’t care less about boxing and I found the Ali content disruptive and the book disjointed. I think that this just wasn’t the right book for me.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the July 2020 selection from my Archipelago Books subscription. The author is South African and writes in English, so it does not count as translated literature but does count as a "reading the world" book.

Ivan Vladislavic was born in Pretoria in 1957. His father was of Croatian heritage; hence the last name.

This story is framed by the career of Muhammad Ali because, in the ways of autobiographical fiction, both the author and Joe, the protagonist, fell in love with the famous boxer in the spring of 1970 and followed his career until its end.

It is also a story about brothers, about coming of age as Apartheid is being fought against and finally dismantled as a policy of Whites in South Africa.

Personally, I have never had an interest in boxing. I have a problem with the brutality of the sport. I have long had an interest in American Civil Rights as well as in how that conflict evolved in South Africa. I almost felt tricked into being made to read so much about boxing.

Fortunately for me, Ivan Vladislavic is an excellent writer. I was a reluctant captive at first but not for long. I had a good time reading The Distance.

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 'The Distance'’ Joe, a boy from Pretoria, begins to obsessively collect newspaper cuttings about Muhammad Ali (the famous boxer). Forty years later Joe begins writing a book based on his personal archive with the help of his brother Branko. “Over twenty years, I went through the scrapbooks so many times I lost track, intending to write something about them, intrigued anew by what they might reveal of the world I grew up in.”

There is so much to like about this elegant, evocative and elegiac novel by Ivan Vladislavić. It vividly evokes the rapidly changing political and cultural landscape in Africa during the 1970s. This is juxtaposed with Joe’s boyhood and family life in Pretoria. The chapters begin with epigraphs taken from newspapers in the 1970s and mix history with personal events. In this respect, the novel reminded me of Annie Ernaux’s ‘The Years’, which also traces history and collective memory alongside a more personal memoir.

The novel also poses interesting questions about the past both on a collective and a personal level. Branko questions his authority in being able to recount the past. “My brother wants me to tell his story. Or is it mine? Ours? Can a story ever belong equally to two people?’”. That question can be extended to “Can a story belong equally to a nation?”. Here the boxing analogy works well, as personal and national identity are the result of the figurative fight between memory and oblivion. In the end, as the two brothers tell us, “the archive will clarify everything.”

With thanks to Archipelago and Netgalley for a digital arc of this book.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set largely in 1970s apartheid South Africa, this is the story of Joe, a 12-year-old boy, who becomes obsessed with Muhammad Ali and compulsively fills scrapbooks with every news clipping he can find. These scrapbooks later allow Joe and his brother to look back and re-examine their own pasts and that of their country. I found the book an insightful and often moving account of a young boy’s coming-of-age in a troubled era, against a background of racism, not only in South Africa but all round the world. The portrait of Muhammad Ali was far more interesting than I expected it to be, and although I have no interest in or knowledge of boxing I found the insight into the sport surprisingly compelling. There’s so much to enjoy here. At its heart the novel is an exploration of family and especially the relationship between brothers but it is so much more than that – politics, history, sport and its importance, Muhammad Ali himself – all elements combine to make this a really accomplished work of fiction – well-paced, well-written and well-plotted with convincing characterisation and dialogue, with Joe himself being a really memorable protagonist.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Distance by a wonderful South African novelist, Ivan Vladislavic is a magnificent and stunning literary achievement. This is a remarkable, thoughtful read and a real feast for all the bibliophiles. This book is both, global and local; universal and South African – Praetorian; ordinary and surreal; alien and familiar. The ‘distance’ in the book is both, metaphorical and real.

The Distance is a profoundly moving study in family relations during the political and social changes offering a very intimate insight into snippets of the South African society of the 1970s, as well as that of the present day. The story features the variety of themes including love, memory, loss, immigration, our own perception of who we are and its impact on how we perceive the world, race relations in the 1970s and a present-day South Africa and the limitation of language.

The story evolves around two narrators, voices – brothers, Joe and Branko Blahavić, originally from Pretoria who are of Croatian descent (like Vladislavic himself). In the book, they tell their childhood story, alternating between the two versions. We follow them as they grow up in the 1970s Pretoria and then their later adult selves. There is also a third silent protagonist, a famous boxer of that era, Muhammad Ali (also Cassius Clay).

Joe is revisiting his childhood scrapbooks in which he meticulously recorded the heights of Ali’s careers, mainly from the 1971 Fight of the Century between Ali and Joe Frazier until their rematch in 1975, as well as Ali’s conflict with the authorities and his flamboyant persona.

Boxing or rather the theatrical aspect of that fight with Frazier and the invented persona of Ali constitutes a backdrop for the story of our narrators’ childhood portrayed in the context of a complex South African society. The Distance explores the dynamics between two brothers and their memories about their childhood, the idea of masculinity, power, and social changes in the apartheid South Africa as they grow up.
Joe and Branko are vastly different characters. Branko is an outgoing extrovert who always fits in while Joe is a quiet introvert, a misfit, an outsider who prefers reading books to spending time with people. There is clearly a distance between two of them when it comes to their personalities and how they perceive the world. That distance widens as they enter adulthood.

In The Distance there is an interesting usage of different streams of language, from the one used by sport commentators when talking about Ali or used in the newspaper to the use of many local words, including many Afrikaans terms creating the sense of familiarity of place and time and marking the events of significance in our narrators’ lives. This is also a book about limitations of words, and linguistic expressions when it comes to depicting the current events.

The ‘distance’ in the book carries a multitude of meanings: that of the language as mentioned above, that of often seen in the complex family relations; that of the persona of Muhammad Ali and his previous self, Cassius Clay and his relations to the surrounding world he lived in; that of Joe’s perception of the world and his attempt to find his own path; that of the immigrants (in this case of Croatian descent) living apart from the apartheid society in the 1970s South Africa.

The Distance is like a literary museum of individual childhood memories contrasted with the reality of living in a complex society.

This book has resonated with me deeply. You do not have to be a fan of boxing or have a huge understanding of South Africa to devour this book.

Ivan Vladislavic guides the reader throughout the process of reading The Distance, offering many detailed descriptions of unfamiliar aspects of the world he portrays. Ivan Vladislavic is unbelievably sensitive, thoughtful, ambitious and compelling writer and I will definitely add his other books to my never ending reading list.

[stampatominuscolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casa, appartenenza, fratellanza sono i temi che emergono da La distanza, romanzo del sudafricano Ivan Vladislavić, nato a Pretoria nel 1957, di origini croate, i cui libri sono in corso di pubblicazione nel catalogo di Utopia Editore che ancora una volta vi segnalo come meritevole di attenzione.

Pretoria, primi anni 70: l'adolescente Joe si innamora di Muhammad Ali, "quel tipo di amore, intenso, incondizionato, che chiamiamo culto dell'eroe" e si infiamma per il campione più che per lo sport che pratica, che da adulto Joe avrebbe potuto facilmente dimenticare non fosse stato per quell'archivio di ritagli: tre album da disegno - ALI I, ALI II, ALI III - che conservano articoli di riviste e quotidiani, frammenti delle imprese di Ali, illustrazioni e poster incollati con nastro biadesivo, in ordine cronologico, con rigore e cura ossessivi.
La famiglia di Joe, modesta famiglia bianca di Pretoria, con nonni di origine balcanica, non ha televisore, e le notizie, gli incontri e i colpi di Ali passano per i giornali e la radio, descritti con parole vivide che devono accendere l'immaginazione del lettore che da casa non può vederli. Un tipo di giornalismo che probabilmente non esiste più.

Il sogno di Joe è scrivere un libro: che non parli solo di Ali, ma che attraverso Ali e quegli album di ricordi, racconti della famiglia di Joe e del Sudafrica degli anni 70.
Eppure, ormai scrittore di mestiere, quel libro Joe non riesce a scriverlo: come colmare la distanza tra le passioni giovanili e la consapevolezza dell'età adulta?

Egli chiede aiuto al fratello maggiore Branko, da sempre più razionale di lui, ora, da grande, forse anche più scettico: Branko da ragazzo non lo capiva, quel fratellino che leggeva in continuazione, Branko lo schivava come fanno a volte i fratelli maggiori, complici e rivali al tempo stesso; Branko nonostante la distanza che il tempo ha imposto, è custode come Joe della memoria familiare.
Il rapporto tra i due fratelli diviene centrale nella narrazione, che alterna le loro voci: esse si fanno via via più intense, si scoprono e raccontano di una famiglia e di un paese.

La distanza col passato è colmata...ve ne è un'altra che invece non può esserlo.

[Giulio · Rating 4 out of 5]

La distanza che separa due fratelli corre sullo spazio fisico e temporale, attraverso un doppio dialogo lungo tutto il romanzo.
Un romanzo che parla appunto della volontà di ridurre quella distanza, venutasi a creare nel tempo, attraverso uno studio delle passioni di uno dei fratelli.
Alla fine forse il libro vuole dirci come l'identità di una persona si rifletta anche nei suoi interessi, nei desideri, negli atti irrisolti.
Una di queste passioni riguarda il pugile Muhammad Alì (di cui seguiamo una ricca descrizione biografica), ma alla fine poteva essere una passione qualsiasi. Il bello (almeno per me) è stato scoprire la figura dell'appassionato, più che della passione.

[Leila · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The Distance. It’s the first book I’ve read by Ivan Vladislavic and thought his writing was excellent. I’m definitely going to look out for his other books.

[Saverio Mariani · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Questa recensione è uscita per la rivista "Il rifugio dell'ircocervo", qui: https://ilrifugiodellircocervo.com/20...]

Nel canone a due voci, in musica classica, trovano ristoro, appunto, due voci: la prima è chiamata antecedente e governa un po’ il brano suonando la melodia; la seconda, detta conseguente, si occupa di suonare un contrappunto alla melodia. L’intreccio che ne viene fuori ha più livelli di ascolto: possiamo focalizzarci sul dialogo fra le due voci; possiamo privilegiare l’ascolto della melodia oppure quello del contrappunto; infine possiamo cercare di capire dove il compositore ha messo più “in difficoltà” la fluidità della melodia con il contrappunto. La distanza, il romanzo dello scrittore sudafricano di origini croate Ivan Vladislavić, tradotto da Carmen Concilio per Utopia editore, si può leggere proprio come si ascolta un canone a due voci. 

Joe, pur essendo il fratello minore, svolge il ruolo di antecedente, sfogliando il suo immenso archivio su Muhammad Ali, nel periodo che va dall’inizio degli anni ‘70 alla metà dello stesso decennio, ovvero nel momento in cui il pugile combatté la così detta Sfida del secolo contro Frazier e gli incontri storici con Foreman e Bob Foster. Branko, invece, si inserisce in questa ossessione del fratello come un contrappunto familiare, mostrando al lettore com’era il Sudafrica degli anni ‘70 del Novecento, come viveva una famiglia piccolo borghese in un quartiere residenziale di Pretoria, l’arrivo degli elettrodomestici e delle più moderne comodità. La famiglia di Joe e Branko, anche lei di origine balcanica, si muove compassata nello svolgersi degli eventi, in una trasformazione appena visibile e che pure erode alcune certezze e ne cementa delle altre. 

Mia madre prende le mie mani tra le sue e passa il pollice sulle mie nocche. Alla punta l’anulare curva all’interno, proprio come quello di Papà, e di mio Nonno Blahavić. Questa curvatura è il marchio degli uomini Blahavić. (p. 129)

I capitoli scritti da Joe sono composti da pagine che alternano narrazione a documentazione: le citazioni dei molteplici ritagli di giornale su Ali si inseriscono nel testo con un font di colore grigio, così che la lettura non venga interrotta e anzi benefici di un cambio di registro interno. Le descrizioni più visive sono senza dubbio la cosa più riuscita della scrittura di Vladislavić, poiché si scontrano con la necessità di mostrare qualcosa che non c’è. Non ci sono immagini sulla pagina e, soprattutto, non ci sono immagini di Muhammad Ali nella testa e nei ricordi di Joe. Quest’ultimo, infatti, non ha mai visto combattere Ali, se ne è innamorato per i racconti alla radio e per le cronache sui giornali e le riviste. La lingua, insomma, ha forgiato un’immagine della quale Joe si sente innervato. È per questo che, da scrittore, Joe Blahavić, dopo che i suoi genitori sono morti, in età adulta, si tuffa di nuovo negli album di ritagli su Muhammad Ali: vuole scrivere un libro sul pugile che lo ha conquistato. Le difficoltà incontrate, però, sono enormi e l’aiuto di Branko (che di mestiere fa il montatore di film ed è invece abituato a lavorare con le vere immagini) è insufficiente. 

Nel corso di vent’anni ho sfogliato quegli album non so più quante volte, poiché intendevo scriverne qualcosa, incuriosito nuovamente da ciò che avrebbero potuto rivelare del mondo in cui ero cresciuto. Ma sembrava che il libro mi sfuggisse. (p. 23)

L’ossessione di Joe viene ricostruita a posteriori, intrecciata alla storia familiare che Branko racconta nei capitoli in cui Vladislavić decide di suonare il contrappunto. Nel frattempo assistiamo all’evoluzione del paese, ad un ampio e dilatato discorso sul razzismo e sulla violenza. Negli ultimi capitoli del libro (forse i migliori) Branko è un uomo maturo e oramai padre. I rapporti che intrattiene con suo figlio e la sua fidanzata costruiscono l’appendice di una crescita sociale, affettiva, familiare e culturale, iniziata negli anni ‘70 proprio con l’uragano Muhammad Ali in quanto elemento dirompente nel dibattito pubblico, soprattutto di un paese complesso come il Sudafrica. Ma perché proprio Ali? Risponde Joe: «Tutti quanti sanno che Muhammad Ali era più che un pugile, era un artista» (p. 185). Insomma, Ali era altro, dimostrava che le categorie sono fragili già nel momento in cui vengono dette e delineate. 

Il romanzo di Vladislavić, pur senza particolari guizzi narrativi o plot twist mozzafiato, ma grazie a una scrittura lineare e consolidata, conduce facilmente il lettore dal micro al macro, dalla ricostruzione alla distruzione, gli fa indossare lenti che allontanano e lenti che avvicinano, in definitiva lavora incessamente sulla distanza che malgrado tutto permane tra la melodia e il contrappunto. 

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

South African novelist Ivan Vladislavić delivers a moving, closely observed study in family dynamics during a time of apartheid in The Distance. This novel is an intricate puzzle, crafted with lyrical power and formal inventiveness, set against the backdrop of the 1970s and its political and social tumult.

The narrative centers on two brothers, Joe and Branko, both narrators of their shared past. Joe, as a schoolboy in Pretoria, becomes enamored with Muhammad Ali, collecting newspaper clippings about his hero, which later form the basis for a book about his boyhood. Now a writer, Joe revisits these scrapbooks forty years later, attempting to weave them into his narrative. Branko, a sound editor, joins Joe in this endeavor, raising questions about ownership of memories and stories. Can a tale truly belong to two people equally, or is it a struggle for narrative supremacy?

Vladislavić's prose is noted for its grace and precision, blending personal anecdotes with historical context. The novel is structured with alternating viewpoints from Joe and Branko, their voices distinct yet harmoniously intertwined, reflecting the complexities of their relationship and the broader societal issues of apartheid South Africa. The language used is rich with local color and idiomatic expressions, capturing the essence of the time and place.

The relationship between the brothers serves as a microcosm for broader themes of memory, identity, and the struggle for personal and national narrative in post-apartheid South Africa. The backdrop of Ali's boxing career adds another layer, symbolizing resistance, the spectacle of sport, and the intersection of race and power.

However, the novel's structure, while innovative, might challenge some readers with its fragmented narrative and the heavy reliance on historical detail and cultural context that might not resonate with those unfamiliar with South African history or the era's sociopolitical landscape.

In conclusion, The Distance is a testament to Vladislavić's skill as a writer, offering a memorable and beautifully written story of love, loss, and the quest for understanding one's past. It is recommended for readers who appreciate literary fiction that delves into the nuances of family, history, and identity. This novel is a significant contribution to South African literature, deserving of attention for its artful exploration of how we remember and narrate our lives.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Distance is a fictional account of a family in South Africa told against the backdrop of the great boxer Mohammad Ali, one of the larger than life entertainers of our time. Joe is a bit of a nerd who lives his life through the scrapbooks of his hero, while Branko, his brother, is more practical and wishes he could get Joe to deal with his real life problems. The Distance is the 5th novel by the South African editor and professor Ivan Vladislavić

Joe worships his hero Mohmmad Ali and spends hours of his youth filling scrapbooks with accounts of Ali’s fights, as well as, Ali’s encounters with the global media. Joe becomes a writer and forty years after Ali’s prime, he decides to write a book based on his scrapbook collections, as well as, his life at the time. As this becomes an onerous task, Joe appeals to his brother Branko to help him make sense of it all. Branko’s contributions become short vignettes of a middle-class family growing up in a Pretoria. The result is a series of disconnected stories of the two brothers and their family set against a chronological account of the fights of one of the greatest boxers of that time.

Vladislavić uses beautiful language to take us back to that time in the 1970s and to witness ordinary family life in Pretoria, South Africa. His character descriptions are excellent, particularly of the father and of Joe. They leave you feeling as though you know the characters personally and you can predict how they will behave. This is my favorite part of the book.

I do not like the detail surrounding the description of Mohammad Ali’s career. The Ali story tends to interrupt the flow of the family’s story. The result is a very fragmented book where, in my opinion, one speeds through tedious parts to get back to parts you want to read. I feel as though significant parts of the book are quite dry and tedious.

I recommend this book to people who want to learn details of the Ali fights, although I am not certain this is the purpose of this book. I give it a 2 on 5. I want to thank Net Galley and Steerforth Press for providing me with a digital copy of the novel in exchange for a fair review.

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Thank you to Net Galley and Archipelago for the advance copy"

In South Africa, two brothers, Joe and Branko, came of age during they heyday of Mohammad Ali. Joe was obsessed with Ali growing up and kept scrapbooks full of clippings from Ali's fights and newsworthy moments. Seeking to write a book about this period of his life, Joe enlists the help of his brother Branko in helping him remember the stories of his youth.

As a fan of Ali, coming of age stories, and novels set in international locations, I was drawn to this book immediately. However, I had a hard time connecting with the material and I made it halfway through this book before calling it quits, It was hard to follow along as the narrators changed (especially since in this Kindle version it is single spaced and easy to miss the name of the narrator between lines.) The information about Ali was too dense and didn't really connect back to Joe. Branko's portion of the story was also complex and, combined with Joe's Ali narrative, made for what felt like a very dry book.

[Cordelia]

One of my favourite small publishers.

Even though boxing is not one of my favourite topics, I still found this book to be lovely read. It is beautifully written - almost poetic. A boxing bildungsroman book. And a story of memories, love and resistance in Aparteid South Africa. The story of a boy's obsession with Mohammed Ali.

A lovely read.

Thank yoy fpr sending me this ARC.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

a lovely, fluid, elegant collage of two brothers remembering growing up in apartheid south africa, through the lens of hardcore love for muhammad ali.

[Antonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una doppia storia che si intreccia.
Da una parte Joe, ragazzino sudafricano che ama visceralmente Cassius Clay; dall’altra parte Branko, il fratello, che racconta l’amore del fratello per il pugile.

[Clare Grové · Rating 4 out of 5]

My entrance into the writing of Vladislavić is most enjoyable. (The present tense used as the style and phrasing and relatability of the setting remain with me after the reading.)

[Caroline Fai · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
struggled to get invested until the last 1/3rd of the book. but the topics are fascinating.
realizing my parents grew up in a time of insane change, and using Muhammad Ali and boxing to frame said shift was both clever and effective imo. but it was slow at the start and vladislavic almost lost me.