Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’ll admit I struggled with this one. Overall, it was an interesting read. The characters were well drawn and the story was compelling. And it seemed like an insightful piece of South African history.
But the author’s writing style was…well, bizarre. There was this early fascination with farting — the sound, the smell, it was distracting. And everyone seemed to be involved in, or contemplating, incest. Everyone. Then there was a chapter where the author seemed obsessed with smells: dogs, monkeys, people…at one point, Mikey smells that his mother is about to return to the house. He smells her. A mile away. In a taxi. Really?
I’m willing to grant a writer a certain poetic license but enough is enough. If you’re interested in South Africa, you’d be much better served reading the works of J. M. Coetzee.