The South African woman in fiction


There is a dearth of literature about previously-advantaged South African women or, put another way, well-off white women who grew up on the tip of the African continent and still live here.


This is a big claim, I know, but as an avid reader of literary fiction, contemporary fiction, women's fiction and memoirs, I'm well qualified to make it. Of the 80-odd books I read a year, only a handful are by South African authors. This is because the majority of books released by local publishers focus on current events and how these events were shaped by apartheid. As important as such subjects are, they are a far cry from what I like to read about.

Of the few non-political novels which get published in South Africa, most are in the thriller or young adult genres. Thrillers have historically done well, supposedly because readers enjoy escaping from the everyday crime and corruption in society. That's fine for those who enjoy action and suspense. Personally, I prefer  novels that portray ordinary people going about their business in ordinary settings.

My favourite novels are those which treat the ordinary as extraordinary. They pay attention to the small details that set one life apart from another and make it significant. For people interested in the way other cultures operate, this can be enormously enlightening. However, even reading about cultures very similar to one's own can bring pleasure. I love to put myself in another woman’s shoes and vicariously experience her day.

Having lived with visual impairment since my early teens, I gain something extra, too. I actually learn from these ordinary stories. For years, I've not been able to see facial expressions, gestures, interior settings and exterior scenery. Thus, something as small as a scene depicting a woman sitting at the Hairdresser can prove thoroughly delightful, letting me glimpse human nature in action. It's hard to explain how grateful I feel when an author takes the trouble to describe The way a client peeps over her neighbour's shoulder to see the image displayed on her phone, for example,, or secretly pulls a face at the person in the mirror when that neighbour makes an inappropriate remark to the assistant.

Just as I appreciate evocative descriptions as a reader, so I include sensory details in my books as an author. Naturally, I avoid trying to describe the appearance of things, providing instead the kind of details to which I pay attention; for example, the feeling of a room, the tone of a person's voice, the texture of clothes against the skin, and the flavour of an unusual kind of cheese. Readers are often surprised at how much apparently visual detail they find in my novels but, the truth is, I've learnt to rely on my other senses to inform my impression of the world. Thus, I may portray an outdoor setting in vivid terms, but a closer look at the text will reveal that I infer the presence of birds by their song, or the height of a ceiling by the way sound echoes, or the fact that there is a freeway in the distance by the drone of traffic reaching my ears.

Back to my assertion that South Africa lacks fiction about the everyday lives of women like me, then. I believe it is vitally important that social history be captured in literature. Novelists and memoirists have a special role to play in this regard. Every individual who lives in a country has a unique story, and none is more important than any other. Traditional publishers may focus on popular genres with a view to making a return on their investment but, thanks to the rise of self-publishing, it is now possible for books to come to market for other reasons, such as sharing a message or satisfying the reading taste of a niche audience. Books which include small, graphic examples of how everyday tasks are accomplished will, no doubt, yield valuable material for future social historians, historical novelists and genealogists.

Even if the only reason you read familiar fiction is to feel cosy and comfortable, though, it is reason enough. A book can serve as a good friend when you are lonely. There's nothing nicer, in my opinion, than entrusting oneself to an author whose experience is relatable. Hence my decision ten years ago to write in the same genre as Joanna Trollope, Maeve Binchy and Liane Moriarty while filling the gap in the market for novels set in South Africa.

1 comment:

  1. I just listened to your episode of What Should I Read Next. I love the phrase “treat the ordinary as extraordinary”. I will be checking out your writing.

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