Andre Brink’s memoir has generally been negatively reviewed in British media (including an odd review by R W Johnson). The latest is Adam Mars-Jones in The Guardian who suggests its all about Brink’s relationship with his father:
‘… Brink senior died in 1993, but some of his psychology survives in the heretical son. André Brink passionately wanted regime change in South Africa, but is quite rightly a fierce critic of the new dispensation. He’s entitled to label the ANC government “the enemy of the people”. He cites plenty of evidence in support of that claim. He’s entitled to describe it as “an entire regime which has lost its way”, though that seems rather feeble rhetorically when he has already called it the enemy of the people. But he’s not entitled to say, “today I find that there are some blacks standing between Africa and me”, unless he wants to sound like a looking-glass version of his father the magistrate. Because he doesn’t own the view, and it’s not up to him to decide who belongs and who doesn’t… ‘
