I'm revisiting this book now in my mind nearly a whole year after I read it. I want to briefly reappraise it, as the novel only really began to reveal itself to me sometime after I read it, when I began reading deeply into Afrikaner culture.Without a re-read I'm not sure that I could completely and accurately describe what makes this novel so much more excellent than what it seemed initially, but I recommend reading it only after having read somewhat into the background and traditional values of white South African culture. What Brink presents here is a very complex parody of much of traditional Afrikaner belief - albeit in a very gruesome and often depressing way. This is not a light-hearted parody or spoof, but it attempts to draw its somewhat comic parallels regardless. And when you can sense them there, you can let them shine like a diamond in the rough.11/05/15
