Aubrey Paton likes Ben Trovato’s latest, but not Tom Sharpe’s; Diane Awerbuck tries to soften her stick for The Lazarus Funeral Parlour; and Muff Andersson has good things to say about the resissue of Don Mattera’s Memory is the Weapon:
When Ben Trovato sent out review copies of his latest publication Still On The Run, he enclosed a R20 note in each book to encourage favourable reactions: a writer of his experience should know better.
A fantastic plot, zippy dialogue and a cast of delicious weirdos can’t save this novel from the author’s finger-wagging take on the “new” South Africa.
Mattera’s streets contain Chinese traders who run vendettas against local gangsters. By the end of this book, we know our way through Kofifi’s gangs and VIPs.
But flaws there are, and as Sharpe grew older the laughs turned into sniggers and finally into mere smirks as the inherent nastiness of his brand of humour – his general misanthropy and vicious misogyny – make his books unsettling.
When Ben Trovato sent out review copies of his latest publication Still On The Run, he enclosed a R20 note in each book to encourage favourable reactions: a writer of his experience should know better.
A fantastic plot, zippy dialogue and a cast of delicious weirdos can’t save this novel from the author’s finger-wagging take on the “new” South Africa.
