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/ 23 September 2011
This frank look at how sexuality, sexual behaviours, relationship skills develop in a man, makes <i>Bad Sex</i> a groundbreaking novel.
<b>Jane Rosenthal</b> on how the women portrayed in local fiction are a reflection of their changing status.
<i>The West Rand Jive Cats Boxing Club</i> is written with verve, but is suffers from uneven editing.
Works by Chinese-South African authors give
insight into the immigrant experience.
Finuala Dowling’s third novel, <i>Homemaking for the Down-at-Heart,</i> explores familiar territory but is as poignant as ever.
The short review of this book is simply this: it’s remarkable, and you should not only read it but buy a copy as you will want to look into it again.
A bonding of fiction and history creates a tangible reminder of the fraught decade before Mandela’s release.
Jenny Hobbs paints a sympathetic portrait of the often ignored men who fought the battles that bought us our freedom.
This novel, <em>At Last</em>, is a sequel to St Aubyn’s previous four novels on the Melrose family, but can be appreciated by itself.
Many years of mulling over ideas about post-1994 South Africa has resulted in a skillfully considered novel that’s not an easy read.
This dark novel leaves you unconvinced, angry and asking all the ‘wrong’ questions.
In book circles, it’s important to choose carefully the partner with whom you do-si-do.
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/ 20 January 2011
This cheerful but realistic novel examines the right of young people to make personal choices that are different from those of their parents.
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/ 19 November 2010
Jane Rosenthal recommends books to while away the long, lazy, reading-friendly days that beckon.
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/ 19 November 2010
Jayne Galassi, in this new novel, describes perfectly the sudden transition from one reality to another, before and after the drowning of a child.
<em>Sunnyside Sal</em> is an apt title for this book, especially for those who know that Sunnyside is the Hillbrow of Tshwane.
Chris van Wyk has followed his first memoir, <em>Shirley, Goodness and Mercy</em>, with a second volume, <em>Eggs to Lay, Chickens to Hatch</em>.
<em>Parrot and Olivier in America</em> is a reflection on the restlessness of post-revolutionary societies, writes <em>Jane Rosenthal</em>.
Andrea Levy’s <em>The Long Song</em> is not for the fainthearted, but is filled with anger, strength and beauty.
<em>The Last Summer</em> is a very pleasing novel; for all its apparent artlessness, it remains in the mind long after one has put it down.
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/ 26 February 2010
Etienne van Heerden needs no introduction; as a novelist he is honoured both at home and internationally.
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/ 12 February 2010
Macaulay Vogel, presumably of Scottish and Dutch descent, is the dull-as-ditchwater protagonist of this sadly tedious novel.
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/ 11 December 2009
Jane Rosenthal looks back at a year of lives captured — or not — on the page in a series of autobiographies.
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/ 6 November 2009
JM Coetzee latest ‘novel’ presents a portrait of a vulnerable man who recognises his inability to establish close relationships.
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/ 23 October 2009
Crime is central to South African life, and to its genre fiction. Three local thrillers had Jane Rosenthal riffling and reflecting.
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/ 8 September 2009
Reif Larsen’s first novel is an impressive piece of work that deserves a special place on your bookshelf.
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/ 6 September 2009
Jane Rosenthal finds liberation, hope and thoughtfulness in three accounts of traumatic childhoods.
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/ 1 September 2009
Jane Rosenthal discovers a rich interpretation of the human touch in a South African anthology of short fiction.
Jane Rosenthal explores the complexity of the everyday in Imraan Coovadia’s third novel <em>High low in-between</em>.
As the winter solstice approaches and we tilt into the deepest part of winter, it seems the right time to hibernate with good books.
Jane Rosenthal reviews <i>The Lahnee’s Pleasure </i> by Ronnie Govender and <i>An African Cameo</i> by Naka Pillman.
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/ 10 February 2009
Jane Riosenthal reviews The Keep and Remembering Herman Charles Bosman — Herman Charles Recollected .