Incipit: "And who was it?" There is always someone who no one remembers. In the photographs of the group only those who have become famous, for better or worse, or faces that can be remembered through common experiences, they occupy space and time flattened on glossy paper. Who could it be? hands dangling, feet lined up for the camera, smile, profile facing to the character that was to become the center of the captured moment, the only developed image with greater intensity, and the margins of this focal point is an appendix, which could also be cut out why, in recognition and memory in particular that it conveys the photograph, the figure has never been this device. But if it was someone and acknowledge the person who no one remembers, right now would develop another reading of the photograph. There would be immediately something else, some other meaning, namely the presence of what has been accepted over time. Something secret, perhaps, read it absent-mindedly ".
The book tells the story of two couples, Vera Stark and her husband Ben, a white couple, and Sibongile and Didymus Maqoma, blacks in apartheid South Africa in the transition from the racist regime that began with the release of Mandela. In fact, the central character is that of Vera. It 's you who do not want anyone to his side: an independent woman, free, open sexually that seems to live only for his political commitment. It reminds me of the "militancy" of sessantottino, in which there was room for family, love, everyday life, but only for politics, lived day per day, along with sex. Overall, there is a book that I did not like, where are predominantly psychological introspection. I have not seen any drama about the events and the history of South Africa, which is seen from the perspective of the few small militant protagonists. There are also bloody episodes, but seem to flow quite gently, without much involvement. Finally, the writing is complicated and sometimes convoluted and often incomprehensible dialogue.
There is a passage that I liked a lot. It 's a part of speech of a delegate to a congress of the victorious party, which begins properly deal with the compromises of power
" We have made many compromises with the past. We have swallowed many things unworthy. We have established relationships that we never imagined possible or necessary ... But if we really want to serve our people, if we convince him, in every cabin or camp, with the cross that marks where a piece of paper in our first elections single-member constituencies has a real chance to be led and represented by men and women honest, not seeking power for sleep between silk sheets, to make large salaries, to corrupt and be corrupted, to appropriate money and to protect others who steal, to dispel the secret funds of public money with contracts that will never be realized, if we ask our people to give confidence to a new constitution, we must first publicly expose our lives to ensure their integrity, we swear here and now, was confirmed by a constitution that we never will share with the power that has divided the former regime. ... We will not pay the private aircraft that carry our ministers abroad, will not pay the hotel bills pr their families and their lovers, we will not give appanages members of parliament to drive their Mercedes, do not hide under the label "top secret" expenditure of public money, that the general public should not know. We must not say to our people: no lying, no cheating, no stealing ...
A page in which shines the beauty of politics.
