The Reluctant Passenger

by Michiel Heyns

Nicholas Morris is a fundamentally decent chap who likes order, and isn’t given to messy emotions. He and his ‘sort-of’ girlfriend Leonora share a relationship that is comforting in its sameness, and he is ensconced in a well-paid career as an environmental lawyer.

Apart from his frustration with the madness of Cape Town traffic, he is not aware of feeling any dissatisfaction with his lot. But then, he’s not aware of feeling very much at all, really. Until he realises he’s forgotten to vote in South Africa’s first democratic elections - because he was seeing to the long-overdue mowing of his lawn. With a jolt Nicholas begins to wonder if he isn’t being squeezed to the margins of his own dull life, despite the efforts of his flamboyantly gay colleague Gerhard, who constantly tries to provoke him into letting go and living a little.

But soon Nicholas has no choice. When he takes on a case to save the baboons of Cape Point from developers, he becomes drawn into intrigues involving a charismatic liberal judge, dinosaurs of the old régime and the full cast of the wealthy Tomlinson family, not to mention its golden boy heir.

When the baboons are captured for experimentation by a research institute from the Old South Africa, which has somehow become incorporated into the New, he finds himself acting with uncharacteristic passion and conviction. Sucked into a whirlpool of deceit, he finds a lot more going on below the surface than he’d ever imagined – and soon he is not only struggling with his own identity, but also fighting for his life.

The Reluctant Passenger is a hugely entertaining and intelligent comic novel set in contemporary Cape Town. The rainbow nation begins to unravel in a hilarious riot of traffic chaos, ecological mayhem and sexual discovery. Irreverent, satirical and uninhibited, this novel retains something of the poignancy of The Children’s Day, and all of its humour.
Heyns’ quiet intellect and dry humour make this novel a wonderfully satisfying romp.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michiel Heyns went to school in Thaba Nchu, Kimberley, and Grahamstown, and studied at the universities of Stellenbosch and Cambridge. Following the huge success of his remarkable debut novel, The Children's Day, he now writes full time. He has published three novels, The Children’s Day, The Reluctant Passenger and The Typewriter’s Tale, all published by Jonathan Ball Publishers.

Genres: Fiction, South Africa

435 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Michiel Heyns is a South African novelist, translator and literary critic. Until 2003, he was Professor of English Literature at the University of Stellenbosch when the success of his first novel allowed him to become a full-time writer. As an academic he is best known for his work on 19th and 20th century literature, especially his acclaimed study, Expulsion and the Nineteenth-Century Novel: The Scapegoat in English Realist Fiction (Oxford University Press, 1994).

In 2002 he made his debut as a novelist with the comic coming-of-age story, The Children's Day. This was followed by another novel of high comedy, The Reluctant Passenger (2003) which has since been translated into French. His subsequent novels have moved away from the South African milieu: The Typewriter's Tale (2005), which focuses on Theodora Bosanquet, the amanuensis of Henry James, was followed by Bodies Politic (2008), which deals with the English suffrage movement of the turn of the 20th century.

He is also the award-winning translator of Tom Dreyer and Marlene van Niekerk (most famously of her The Way of the Women), and continues to write widely as a literary critic and reviewer.

Reviews

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a remarkable, surprising find! In a book this long and this delightfully verbose, you expect the writer to fail you somehow. Heyns never does--Nicholas never varies as the uptight, articulate narrator and his colorful castmates speak with their own voices in well-considered dialogue. This book serves both entertainment purposes and to encourage the thinking readers' synapses to fire. South Africans can probably read more into the sequence of events than non-South Africans, but non-South Africans get a peek into the Capetown world as seen through the eyes of an environmental lawyer who thinks he craves averages, normalcy, and ordinariness but whose acceptance of a case brought by an irritating but beautiful young man launches him into self-discovery. Nicholas's transformation comes at a time when South Africa itself is transforming, so against the backdrop of politics, heightened suspicion of fellow citizens, a mix of cultures grappling with stereotypes and identity, and animal welfare, readers are treated to a story with twists and turns of phrase galore.

[Gail Gilbride · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm late to the party but lockdown has led me to explore my bookshelf.

The Reluctant Passenger is an absolute treat of a novel, set in contemporary Cape Town, where the new order is showing cracks in unexpected places. Sex and satire weave their way through hilarious escapades, involving baboons, the law, ecology and frenzied traffic jams.

Michiel Heyns has always been in my peripheral vision but now he's centre stage. His writing is sublime. Add great story teller to that and use of incredibly intelligent humour...and you have an unputdownable saga.

Sign me up for the fan club!

[Carmelita Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a gem of a find in the bargain bin at a popular bookshop. A well written and very entertaining story filled with laughs aplenty. Being born and bred in Cape Town, I could relate to all his references to places and situations and his clever humorous writing kept the pages turning well into the late night hours by the assistance of a lantern (courtesy of load shedding)!!

Some unexpected revelations added to this great page turner which I highly recommend for a lighthearted and highly enjoyable read.

[Catrien Deys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miami meets Cape Town as in Carl Hiaasen meets Michiel Heynes and with a little more depth to the story I now favour the latter.

[Alasdair Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the very good grammar and admirable use of English. Comedies are wasted on me though.

[Hjwoodward · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't so crazy about the baboon part of this book, but really loved the end. Michiel Heyns often hits on something that is true, true, true.

[Димитър Тодоров · Rating 4 out of 5]

Гей-насмешливата история на южноафриканския преход! Главният герой е целомъдрен възприемащ се за хетеросексуален обичащ подредеността и мразещ изненадите млад адвокат. Клиентът е рус аполон, богатско синче, който напук на баща си предприемач, живее в наследствената къща на Кейп Пойнт в приятелство с морето и бабуините. А д-р Йохана фан дер Мерве е окарикатуреният огледален образ на д-р Воутер "Смърт" Басон, която държи секретната държавна лаборатория Силвърмайн (прототип: Рудеплаат), където върху бабуини се експериментират всевъзможни програми от рода на стерилизиране на черната популация на страната. Или селективното ѝ изтравяне. И към края се разбира, че злият гений на целия сюжет е възрастен бял англоговорящ съдия, добил слава на либерален, отсъждайки редовно против стария режим, но без да се разкрива, че оправданите са точно информаторите. Той е хем ревнив, хем манипулативен, хем забогатял чрез премерени бизнес решения и шантаж (а е тръгнал от нула). Хомосексуалният аромат е много по-силен от по-късните романи на същия автор, които съм чел. Езикът му е радост за сетивата като богатство и ироничен стил на изразяване.

[Dirk Theunissen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A romantic comedy about baboons that is really funny. One cant always choose who you will fall in love with. As a South African I really enjoyed all the political shenanigans and have seen all the places described in the book and enjoyed the story all the more for that.

[Lewis Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

plan to re-read in 2019

[Robyn]

My all time favourite Michiel Heyns book!