Jack Duggan’s Reviews > Cape Fever > Status Update

This sequence with a medium was interesting - Soraya claims to see spirits herself but immediately writes the medium off as a charlatan, so it’s hard to tell if anything either of them sees is real

I lucked out with this one I think, with ‘Language as a Means of Resistance and Control’ being such a central theme. I am finding it slightly annoying I’ll pick up on something in one paragraph, then two pages later Davids will make it painfully explicitly clear as if she doesn’t trust the reader, but the use of the letters to explore both characters needs and flaws is really strong

Gradual increasing hints that something went wrong in her last job, which I like being introduced subtly. Less subtle are the superstitious-feeling rituals the Islamic South Africans perform; I’m not sure if I’m being too white saviour but they feel sort of outdated in their portrayal? A bit of a Wise Magical Negro vibe to it

Lots of little hints of something sinister - a former maid she talks about all the time but no description of why she left, a son who hasn’t been home since the war but writes all the time - on top of the supernatural element. I expected it to be unclear whether the narrator was imagining it all or not, but she’s now described it as a major part of her community which surprised me

Gradually introducing supernatural elements, which is interesting and I wasn’t expecting. There’s a clear demarcation between Soraya with her oral storytelling and Mrs. Hattingh, a woman of letters, and with the sort of supernatural elements I wonder if it’s going to be an ego/superego/id type trichotomy

Off to a decent start. I’m impressed by how much I’m learning about the characters incidentally - not quite Shown-Not-Told, but told in a way that matches the flow of what’s happening without feeling to expository. The First Person Present narration is interesting, as it gives the impression the narrator is describing in real time and doesn’t already know how the story ends.