South Africa native Nadine Gordimer has been producing outstanding fiction since 1953, and her latest work, “Loot and other Stories” is no exception.
Gordimer, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature, is a master at deconstructing issues of apartheid South Africa. “Loot” deals with these subjects and others through 10 short stories that are at the same time largely universal and intensely personal.
“Generation Gap” is among the best. When four grown children learn their father has had an affair, their grasp on their reliable childhood is suddenly disassembled.
Gordimer’s lyrical narration soars through descriptions of the pain and affliction of a family torn apart, as she writes, “But her poor father, she couldn’t humiliate him, she couldn’t follow him, naked, the outer-inner man she’d never seen, through the months in the woman’s bed beside the violin case.”
By turning the parental role upside-down, Gordimer dispels the infallible myth of authority figures.
“Look Alikes” is a sardonic story of a college campus invaded by hobos. Gordimer displays her mastery of wit in her juxtaposition of academics and the dispossessed, writing, “The Vice-Chancellor was importuned by parents who objected to their sons’ and daughters’ exposure to undesirables, and by Hope For the Homeless who wanted to put up tents on this territory of the over-privileged.”
As time progresses in the story, college professors morph until they are no longer distinguishable from the homeless. Ultimately, “Look Alikes” forces readers to scrutinize societal constructions of identity.
The construction of identity is a main theme throughout the stories, which are otherwise as diverse as South Africa itself. In “The Diamond Mine,” a teenage girl has her first sexual experience with a soldier staying with her family. “Mission Statement” describes a multi-racial love affair between government officials in Africa. Malaria invades the developed world in “The Emissary.”
In “L,U,C,I,E,” a young woman travels to Italy to investigate her heritage. The title story describes an earthquake that exposes the human tendency toward greed.
The dominating story in the collection is “Karma,” in which Gordimer uses a disembodied narrator to trace various cultural perspectives of apartheid South Africa.
One fascinating account details a “white” woman found and raised by a “colored” couple in Cape Town. The young woman is denied marriage to a “white” man because she lacks the papers needed to prove her race.
Gordimer uses these insightful accounts to portray the ambiguity of race. Through these thoughtful, beautiful fictions Gordimer calls for social and political change worldwide.
Readers cannot help but be touched by Gordimer’s taboo story lines, written in singing prose. The author’s cosmopolitan writing style makes the work accessible and entertaining, but her socially inclined stream-of-consciousness makes the text unforgettable.
Grade: A
