Suzy Bell
Six guitarists, all fluent in French – yet decidedly South African. Doctors, artists, teachers, a lawyer and a sailor – a Durban writers’ circle. Over a year, every two weeks, they met in caf,s, restaurants and private homes to mull over words, sip whisky, write and rewrite until they created Unwrapped – irreverent fiction for a post- Calvinist South Africa.
Unwrapped is a gutsy little collection of short stories published by the University of Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, edited by Ted Leggett. Many of its contributors have chosen wacky pseudonyms like Charlie Berea, Deepak Ra and Shan Tampoek. Their initial inspiration came from attending a series of workshops held by poet Breyten Breytenbach.
Among the most potent stories is Walton Golightly’s Boknaai, which bristles with colloquial realism: “Nought, so anyway, there I was down between the steering-wheel and Redlips’ gut, sucking his cock and thinking about these lekker boots I’d seen at the wheel – genu-iron cowboy boots, with fancy stitching, high heels and narrow toes – better than the Army shit which I normally wear, because that’s all I have, one of the free gifts you got for taking a year’s time share with the good ol’ SADF.”
The pornographic edge to the writing came about, as did the front cover of the book (a sepia photograph of a female breast), because the group initially thought, “Yeah, let’s do a collection of erotic short stories – that’ll sell!”
But then even the staunchest feminists in the group wrote such hot and heady stuff that it offended someone in the group, and debate arose. “We discussed what was deemed sexually offensive to any gender and we examined our own biases and beliefs,” explained one of the writers.
In Breytenbach’s introduction he lauds the writers and says it’s through our stories that we are confirming the many faces of this land, and “beyond … because the urge and the suffering and the pleasure of writing know no borders, neither the frontiers of language nor the limits of time.”
If you can’t find Unwrapped at a bookshop near you, call Adriaan Donker at (031) 260- 1111.