Louis Greenberg (2)

The idea behind this book is a clever one. 24 South African writers each write about an hour of the day or night in 24 cities around the world and in the process reflect on home and being away. Each author is smart , bright, young and aspiring in the literary world , and each is good at their game, namely writing . The cover blurb says each has been "born, raised or resident in South Africa " and that means you could be South African or maybe you are yourself an immigrant to SAfrica or are only passing through . Common themes of homesickness, memories of the smell of home, anxieties about urban life in South Africa today , identity and reasons for being somewhere else creep into many stories . It is a truism that it's when you travel you discover a new you , push the boundaries of tolerance and discover that your own nationality and identity are more defined by your Africanness than you thought possible . Travel too sets one adrift from social conventions and those signals and norms of behavior that anchor you in your own culture . How do you read and understand another's culture without reference to one's own? Often the stories tell you more about the writer than the foreign city. This is definitely not a travel book. I loved Fiona Snyckers story Tea Break in Oxford . It's quirky and original as are so many of these stories . My favourite writer on Johannesburg is Ivan Vladislavic , but this time he's meeting a very odd family in Oklahoma City , where the characters are so peculiar that you wonder if this could really have happened . So fiction and imagination creep in to stories , as in Stowaway by Richard de Nooy , where the narrator is a piece of luggage ... Charming but peculiar. Rather more real and emotionally raw is Sarah Brittan being made redundant in Sydney , she needs to be back in a more secure familiar space called home , that is, Johannesburg . Overall an entertaining book to take you through 24 hours and perhaps an airplane journey .… (més)