Stephen Finn

Stephen Finn’s debut novel has a disturbing immediacy about it right now, when South African’s are newly perplexed by the actions of Morne Harmse, the most recent perpetrator in a series of scholastic slayings.

Harmse, who wore a fetishist mask and went on the rampage armed with a Samurai sword, claimed Occult influences [the time-honoured South African excuse ala Hansie Cronje, ‘The Devil made me do it’]: Errol, the protagonist of Soliloquy, knifed only one classmate to death, and was not media-savvy enough to use the Satanic ‘Get out of Gaol Free’ card.

Both Morne and Errol were in Matric, outsiders and victims of bullying: but Harmse is a real person who committed his crimes barely a month ago, while Errol is imaginary, and transgressed in the 1960s.

Soliloquy takes the form of a private expiatory diary Errol – who has been struck dumb since the murder – is asked to write by a psychologist to be presented in mitigation for sentencing., since he unable to speak for himself.

Errol is part of a close-knit family and, being Jewish, is a member of the small, close knit community which acts as an extended family: despite this, he is very much alone and by the time he reaches Matric, has no close friends.

He is doubly an outsider because not only is he much younger than most of his class and physically and emotionally immature [no pubic hair or erotic sensations even at 16] but he is physically handicapped as well, suffering from degeneration of the bone.

To make matters worse, he has an irrational fear of worms and when the bullies of his Matric class discover this, they set out to make his life hell – and succeed, driving him to the brink of suicide until he discovers there is a betting pool, and the object of the torture is to drive him to kill himself.

Errol finds new reserves of strength and his own death ceases to be an option but, attacked on every side, he acts without due consideration and kills one of the few boys in his class whom he genuinely liked.

The story is both a mirror of small town life, of the prejudices which were accepted without question at the time, and a reminder of how the more brutish and unacceptable facets of human behaviour tend to survive, despite changes circumstances and conditions.

An excellent book, well written and readable but, more important, of thought provoking relevance for out times when we convince ourselves we know who the victim is, and who the villain… Read Soliloquy, and think again.… (más)