Marlene van NiekerkReseñas

This is an extremely demanding book. Not only does it approach doorstop territory at nearly 600 pages, but it also bounces the narrative around within a 40-year period stretching from the mid-1950s through the mid-1990s. Stylistically, author van Niekerk abandons traditional forms and jumps from unpunctuated, free-form diary entries to second-person narration to random chunks of stream-of-consciousness babble. Set in South Africa and translated into English for the American market, it’s set against the apartheid and political upheaval of that time and place – a background with which most American readers are totally unfamiliar. And if all that isn’t enough, the plot centers around and is told almost completely from the POV of a woman dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), and who is no longer capable of communicating verbally or in writing.

So why would anyone choose to tackle such a monumental project?

Perhaps it’s because van Niekerk is a master at laying out the breadcrumbs that lure the reader into the tale: who is Agaat, and how did this native African woman become such an integral part of the white de Wet family in an era of strict national apartheid? Is she nurse or servant, slave or “adopted” daughter, victim or master manipulator? Is it the reader’s imagination, or is there a definite “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” vibe going here? (All these questions eventually get answered – more or less – but none ever really deals with the soul of an abused, nearly feral child reluctantly spirited away to a fairyland she couldn’t understand, only to be expelled after a few short years for by circumstances she could neither control nor comprehend.)

Or perhaps it’s because the clash between the book’s main characters, told mostly in jumbled retrospect through diary excerpts, is as mesmerizing as a slo-mo train wreck. You know how this is going to end, but can’t look away.

Make no mistake about it – virtually all the characters in this book are monsters. From the brutal husband to the castrating wife to her domineering mother and perhaps even to Agaat herself – they slash and claw and manipulate one another without regard for the consequences. This is a tale of blood and fire, of a twisted marriage that spawns emotional cripples, of thoughtless cruelty based on race and social position, all coming to a head in the mind of the dying Milla.

The description of Milla’s descent into ALS is not for the faint of heart. This horrible disease slowly takes away muscle control – usually the ability to walk first, then use of the arms and hands, then the ability to sit upright. Bowel and bladder control are lost. Swallowing become difficult to impossible. Speech functions are lost. The patient’s world closes in tighter and tighter and tighter – but all the while, the brain is functioning. The patient *knows* what is happening but is helpless against it.

Amidst all this high drama, the often-lyrical writing shows up in sharp contrast. Van Niekerk’s roots as a poet are never far below the surface. Whether the reader welcomes the atmospheric cascades of words and images or merely considers them unnecessary verbiage in an already over-inflated tale will have a great deal to do with their enjoyment of (or impatience with) this work.

Readers who opt to take up the challenge should read the Glossary first, and then dig in for a difficult few hours as the rhythms and enticements of this compelling novel take hold.½

"La via delle donne" è un romanzo che appartiene al "plaasroman" o farm novel, un genere praticato nella letteratura sudafricana sia in lingua inglese che in afrikaans. La vicenda si svolge, infatti, in una fattoria della provincia sud occidentale del Capo, Grootmoedersdrift. Qui, agli inizi degli anni cinquanta, Jak de Wet sposa Milla Redelinghuys, figlia dei proprietari. Ma il matrimonio non sarà felice: Jak odia i neri e non ha inclinazione per l'agricoltura. Milla accoglie la piccola Agaat, dal braccino malformato che cresce ed educa facendone la sua fedele servetta.
Il romanzo narra proprio di questo legame, tra padrona e serva, tra una donna bianca e quella di colore unite da un legame indissolubile Quando molti anni più tardi Milla si trova immobilizzata a letto da una malattia degenerativa che le impedisce perfino di parlare, Agaat riesce a comunicare con lei leggendo i movimenti impercettibili delle palpebre e l'accudisce soddisfacendo ogni suo bisogno.
Opera colossale i cui fatti narrati coprono un arco temporale notevole, tra il 1948 e il 1994, "La via delle donne" è privo di riferimenti storici e politici, ma presenta un quadro realista dell'apartheid, attraverso il microcosmo di una ricca famiglia afrikaner.
E' molto bella la figura di Agaat, bambina selvaggia e denutrita che diventa una donna intelligente, esperta, in grado di gestire la fattoria e alla fine assolutamente indispensabile per l'infelice Milla.
La scrittura del romanzo può risultare complessa per le voci narranti che alternano il flusso di coscienza in prima persona alla seconda persona singolare, per i salti cronologici soprattutto verso la fine, con il riemergere dei frammenti di memoria di Milla ormai moribonda. Tuttavia è un libro magnifico, coinvolgente, capace di commuovere e indignare e di cui giustamente Goffredo Fofi ha scritto "Il più importante romanzo sudafricano dai tempi di Vergogna di Coetzee".
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Nella provincia del Capo di Buona Speranza, Grootmoedersdrift non è certo una fattoria modello quando, negli anni Cinquanta, Jak de Wet vi mette per la prima volta piede per chiedere la mano di Milla Redelinghuys. Davanti alla casa c'è un magnifico pascolo che si estende fino alla riva del fiume, cinto da alberi selvatici che si spingono fino al limite dell'acqua. Tuttavia, in quella striscia di terra del Sudafrica, le fattorie gioiello dei boeri sono ben altre. Tutte le speranze e i sogni di gloria della giovane Milla sono perciò riposti in Jak. È ricco, istruito, attraente, spiritoso, ha una spider rossa fiammante e la spavalderia di presentarsi in casa Redelinghuys con in mano un anello di brillanti incastonati in oro.
Bastano pochi anni di matrimonio, però, perché Milla si renda conto che Jak non può fare di Grootmoedersdrift quello che generazioni di Redelinghuys hanno desiderato. Ha le mani morbide, è l'unico figlio di un medico, è stato educato per diventare un gentiluomo non un agricoltore. Inoltre, è un afrikaner che non sopporta gli hotnot, i «negri». E, tra «gli sguatteri negri», non tollera innanzi tutto Agaat.
Agaat compare a Grootmoedersdrift che è una bambina con un braccino

I just finished reading this masterpiece and my head is reeling. It is a book that requires a lot of patience, as at times it seems that little is happening, yet I found that I hung on every word, highlighting lines and paragraphs to be reread later. It is a complex and very internal story told through diary entries, disjointed prose, and the thoughts of a completely paralyzed dying woman. It explores the ever-changing relationship between two very strong women - one a white land owner and the other a black maid/daughter/nanny/caregiver/competitor. The interactions between them and their relationship with the white woman's son is painful, at times exquisite, and often conflicted.

I was mesmerized by the prose, deeply touched by the humanity, challenged by the multiple story lines and intensely intimate relationships, and found that though the book was very long, I was never bored. This will surely be one of my top books of 2017.

Translation, Kentridge. Birds. Humaneness.

This is one of those books that I wanted so much to like. I had many moments where I recognized how good of a book it was, but I just never really enjoyed reading it and I think the fault is mine.

Agaat takes place in South Africa and tells the story of a white woman, Milla, who has advanced ALS and is mostly paralyzed, and her black maid, Agaat. The complicated relationship between the two women is slowly revealed throughout the novel.

The narrative style can be quite difficult to digest, and while I appreciate it, I don't think I had the patience for it while I was reading. The story is not told in chronological order and much of it is told without complete sentences. There are a lot of other liberties taken in the writing that made it difficult for me to read, and I was just never all that excited to pick it up. But again, I suspect the fault is mine because I think it is actually a really good book.

Not an easy read for a broad variety of reasons but well worth the journey.

Not an easy read for a broad variety of reasons but well worth the journey.

oh boy.

i really don't know how to review this one. i suspect it is one that is going to sit with me for a long while and that my rating will likely increase over time, as i get further beyond the read. i liked it but, right now, i can't say i loved it. i felt too much was left dangling and that for the work of the read, i am left a bit unfulfilled.

the story is heartbreaking and unsettling. the style is interesting and effective. to a point. i think where i am feeling a bit lost with it all has to do with the fact that the perspective is very narrow. the title of the book is 'agaat' and we get her story, but it comes through the filter of another character, milla. towards they end of the book, we get a bit more from agaat's side of things. for me, that just wasn't quite enough.

(i also suspect that if journals had not been used as a narrative device, i might be feeling differently abut the perspectives. we get single perspectives in fiction all of the time, but in this read, it really stood out for me as too narrow given the subject, agaat, was evolved mostly through diary entries not of her own hand.)

the narration is unreliable - and i don' t mind that in fiction. in fact, i tend to like it a lot. but this book almost verges on meta-unreliable narrator - is that a thing?? i might have just made that up. heh.

agaat is a complicated and dense novel but i do feel as though it is an important book that more people should read. and when you do...you can come and tell me what i am missing. what is it that should be giving it a 4- or 5-star rating over my 'it was fine' 3-stars. okay? thanks! :)

Agaat is unlike any book you’ll ever read. It is challenging, delightful, frustrating, poetic, shocking and beautiful. Agaat is the name of a black maidservant to a white farmer’s wife, Milla DeWet. The novel is written in shifting perspectives, jumps in chronology and streams of consciousness. While it can be confusing and at times infuriating, it ensnares you deeper into the core of the book, the soul and reason why the story is being told. After the end of the Apartheid in South Africa, Milla is diagnosed with ALS and slowly loses the ability to move. Agaat must then act for her. But how is she to know what Milla wants when she lies there on a bed, moving only her eyes? To say outright how, is to recant the entire book page by page. Agaat is beautifully written and a somewhat challenging read; do not expect answers to be handed out, plots to be tied into neat little parcels. Expect to be transported into the very particular culture of South Africa, when the Dutch ruled and after the Apartheid ended. Expect beautiful, masterful literature that could be read hundreds of times, each with a deeper meaning. The South African Sunday Times had it right when they said, “A masterpiece has arrived.” It is a masterpiece indeed.½

I really wanted to like this one. I mean I reallly did. I pushed myself to finish it hoping that at some point during those 600 pages that I would fall madly love with it. That did not happen. I recognize that the writing was very good; in fact I would absolutely read something by this author again. For the most part it, the main characters were well developed. Can't exactly pinpoint it, but this one just wasn't for me.

Deeply South African, reflects real life and culture in the apartheid era in small Afrikaaner farming areas, wonderful consideration of the complexities of morality in a closed cultural setting, characters are complex and very real, beautiful and deeply southern African descriptions of the environment, wonderful and complex language, amazing translation from Afrikaans.

At the beginning of this epic novel, seventy-year-old Milla de Wet is confined to her bed. Once the strong and competent owner of a successful farm inherited from her mother, Milla suffers from A.L.S. and now is left with only the ability to blink her eyes and, after a while, not even that. Milla is entirely dependent on the ministrations of Agaat, her devoted house servant, who wordlessly promises Milla “the best-managed death in history.” It is 1996 in South Africa, just two years after the demise of apartheid.

From this confined vantage point, Milla narrates her adult life story, beginning with her troubled marriage to the dashing, if agriculturally-challenged, Jak de Wet in 1947. Soon after she and Jak settle on her farm, Milla decides to take in and raise the abused young daughter of a farm laborer, renaming the girl Agaat. Long unable to have a child of her own, Milla eventually gives birth to a son named Jakkie, marginalizing Agaat’s position in the family. Over time, Milla and Agaat develop a complex co-dependency, as do Jakkie and Agaat, while Jak becomes jealous of Agaat’s hold over both his wife and his son. Agaat forms the center of a decades-long, multi-dimensional game of tug-o-war: “a pivot she was, a kingpin, you’d felt for a while now how the parts gyrated around her, faster and faster, even though she was the least.”

Agaat is about many things, including marriage, parenting, friendship, sickness, and death. Politically-minded readers will find plenty of support for interpreting the novel as an allegory for apartheid, while those with more domestic interests will appreciate the details on embroidery, ecologically-sensitive farming practices, and home-based nursing procedures. Perhaps Agaat’s most important lesson concerns the importance of communication to achieving lasting change. The best education and carefully constructed systems cannot bridge the gap between master and servant, between white and black. Rather, true understanding is possible only after years of empathetic communication. As Milla nears death, she and Agaat have finally approached this kind of understanding:

"[The doctor’s] face looms above mine. He looks at my eyes as if they were the eyes of an octopus, as if he’s not quite sure where an octopus’s eyes are located, as if he doesn’t know what an octopus sees. He shines a little light into my face, he swings it from side to side. I look at him hard, but seeing, he cannot see.

Agaat catches my eye. Wait, let me see, she says.

[The doctor] stands aside. He shakes his head.

Agaat’s face is above me, her cap shines white, she looks into my eyes. I blink them for her so that she can see what I think. The effrontery! They think that if you don’t stride around on your two legs and make small talk about the weather, then you’re a muscle mass with reflexes and they come and flash lights in your face. Tell the man he must clear out.

A small flicker ripples across Agtaat’s face. Ho now hopalong! it means. Her apron creaks as she straightens up. Her translation is impeccable.

She says thank you doctor. She says doctor is welcome to leave now, she’s feeling better. She says thank you for the help, thank you for the oxygen, we can carry on here by ourselves again now.

I close my eyes. He must think she’s crazy.

Again the fingers snapping in front of my face.

She’s conscious, really, doctor, you can leave her alone now, she’s just tired, when she shuts her eyes like that then I know. Everything’s in order, she says, she just wants to sleep now. I know, I know her ways."

Milla’s disease has the potential to reduce this nearly 600-page novel into an exercise in claustrophobia, but, instead, Van Niekerk has created a work of stunning breadth and emotional potency. Milla’s second-person narration is liberally broken up by her diary entries, which Agaat has decided to read to Milla during her last days, and by italicized paragraphs of Milla’s stream-of-consciousness musings. Van Niekerk is a poet as well as a novelist, and her considerable poetic abilities are on display throughout the novel. Likewise, Michiel Heyns’s masterful work yields an English translation with all the elegant power of the original language. These various elements come together in Agaat to create an unforgettable reading experience that transcends the lives of its four primary characters to implicate the broader world.

This review also appears on my blog Literary License.

It is a hard book to describe in any sufficient fashion. The basic theme of the story explores the relationship between a white woman and her maidservant over time in pre and post apartheid South Africa. The tale takes place in a small farming community and explores complications in marriage, farming, race relationships, illness, and family.

The narration is done in several formats. One is from the perspective of the protagonist as she lays dying and paralyzed in her bed with the maidservant as her caretaker. Another part of the narration is from diary entries, yet another is third person to clarify missing points in the diary entries. The fourth narration type is free-form thoughts interspersed through out the book. These multiple narration styles can make reading this book somewhat complicated, especially at the beginning. I found that as I got further into the story though I was able to get used to it.

The story began somewhat dry and slightly confusing. As it moved along it got more and more interesting. The best part of the book was the last quarter of it. I felt it was the most emotionally charged section of the entire novel.

The prose and imagery in this novel were gripping and beautiful. There were times when the words read out beautifully and other times when they were ugly and you knew they were supposed to be. This book carries a lot of emotions in the words and images it conjures up.

Overall this was a good book, full of emotionally charged and very difficult issues dealing with life, death, and human relationships. If you can move past a book that begins slowly and are adaptable to varying narration styles then this is a excellent book to read.

Marlene van Niekerk deserved all the accolades and more. A well written novel about a farming family living in South Africa in the past fifty years. Compassionate, heartfelt, sensitive, never boring or pathetic. The perspective of a lame author dying slowly losing life's gifts one by one is dramatic - especially as we get to know her as a director of life in her earlier days. The husband - a caricature of a "wit afrikaaner man" - never really got my sympathy even though the son and even the adopted slave girl did sometimes even take his side. The insights into farming life in the Karoo are priceless - the slaughtering of the lambs, the hunting for butterflies, the description of the stars and cooking customs.
It's a bit of "Fiela's kind" [Mathee], Disgrace [Coetzee] and "This life" [Schoeman] and probably much more even. I just loved reading it and can just recommend: "Tolle lege"

Marlene van Niekerk heeft dit boek geschreven in opdracht van de Universiteit van Utrecht, die haar vroeg haar visie op de rol van de literatuur in de materialistische tijden van nu uiteen te zetten. Zij heeft niet de voor de hand liggende vorm van het essay gekozen, maar heeft haar visie in de vorm van een verhalenbundel gegoten. Dit maakt het lezen van De Sneeuwslaper tot een wat wonderlijke leeservaring, omdat het non-fictie in de vorm van fictie is geworden.

Lees je dit met de verwachting fictie te lezen dan is enige teleurstelling waarschijnlijk je deel. De Sneeuwslaper boeit niet, sleept je niet mee naar andere werelden, laat je niet het hier en nu vergeten zoals de beste fictie kan doen. Nee, de Sneeuwslaper is een constructie van vier verhalen, knap in elkaar geknoopt, dat zeker, maar geconstrueerd, bedoeld om je aan het denken te zetten over de aard en het doel van fictie. Je wordt dus gedwongen continu buiten de verhalen te treden, de schema’s te ontdekken, de betekenis.

De verhalen in dit boek cirkelen om elkaar heen en hebben allemaal een verhalenverteller in hun centrum. Op een intrigerende wijze zijn een literatuurdocente in Zuid-Afrika, een zwerver in Amsterdam, een Zuid-Afrikaanse student, een klokkenmaker, een mislukte schrijver, een onderzoekster van het Amsterdamse statistisch bureau O+S, en een fotograaf met elkaar verbonden. Zij vertellen verhalen over elkaar, waarbij de waarheid in grote relativiteit verzandt. Centrale thema’s zijn kijken, al dan niet door verrekijkers, fototoestellen en ramen, en vertellen (mondeling, op schrift, in statistiek, op cassettes, in beeld). Elke verteller heeft zijn eigen methodiek en visie. Wat hoort een verhalenverteller vast te leggen? En hoe doe je dat het beste? Is dat door beeld, is dat door statistische gegevens, is dat door het dagelijks leven in microscopische details te beschrijven, of mag je een verhaal maken van de werkelijkheid, door er zelf je fantasie op los te laten?

Kortom, een boek waar literatuurstudenten vast met veel plezier hun tanden in zetten, een boek dat lezers van fictie aan het denken zet over wat ze eigenlijk van fictie verwachten en waarom, een boek dat knap geconstrueerd is. Maar ook een boek dat je niet als fictie zou moeten lezen, omdat het dan teleurstelt.½

Mooi verhaal, wel iets lang, over de verhouding tussen een zwarte en een blanke vrouw tijdens de apartheid in Zuid Afrika.
De zwarte vrouw begint als ondergeschikte, wel heel erg, eerst is ze een soort vervangend kind, als de witte vrouw dan zelf een kind krijgt wordt ze verbannen naar de keuken (!). later, als de witte ziek en afhankelijk is geworden, draaien de rollen langzaam maar zeker om.

Geweldig boek over de machtsstrijd tussen een vrouw (boerin) en haar echtegnoot, de zwarte bediende Agaat en de natuur van Zuid Afrika. Het wordt vertelt vanuit het benauwende perspectief van een bijna geheel verlamde zieke vrouw die verzorgd wordt door haar zwarte bediende Agaat en de machtsspelletjes tussen die twee. Langzaam wordt de hele levensgeschiedenis van de Boerin prijs gegeven. Het prachtige maar ook harde boerenleven speelt ook een hoofdrol, je ruikt de bloemen, het vee, je hoort de geluiden op de boerderij. Het speelt zich af in de jaren '60 '70 '80, tijdens de Apartheid . Het is wel een dikke pil!

In het begin moest ik heel erg wennen aan de manier van vertellen van dit boek. Ik heb na een bladzijde of vijftig zelfs op 't punt gestaan om het boek terug te brengen naar de bibliotheek. Tot het kwartje ineens viel, en ik geraakt werd door het geheim tussen de twee hoofdpersonen en de - voor mij althans - bizarre wereld waarin zij leven.

Lees verder op deze pagina van mijn boekenblog.

Heb je het eind van de jaren ’80 in Nederland doorgebracht, dan denk je bij het lezen van dit boek of je nu wilt of niet aan de familie Flodder. De eerste indruk van deze familie, bestaande uit twee broers, hun zus en haar zoon, is dat het een losgeslagen zootje ongeregeld is. Gaandeweg blijkt dat de familie Flodder nog een tamelijk onschuldige familie is in vergelijking met de familie Benade.

Lees verder op deze pagina van mijn boekenblog.½

This definitely wasn't a pleasant book to read. It was, as they say, outside of my comfort zone. The main characters, Pop, Mol, Treppie and Lambert Benade form an incestuous family, at the bottom of society. They are uneducated, they are racist, they are violent and loud and looking for trouble. They are not the kind of people you would really enjoy as your neighbours.

The setting is Johannesburg, South Africa, 1994. The first democratic elections are on their way, big changes are expected. These are the final days of the old South Africa, of the days of Apartheid. The Benades observe the changes in their own very particular way from their family home in Triomf, a neighbourhood built for poor whites, on top of what was once the artistic (and mixed) neighbourhood Sophiatown. A very symbolic location.

The strength of this novel was, to me, the way van Niekerk shows a basic goodness in these unpromising characters. Through the book you get to know them, and their peculiarities. I actually started to, what should I call it?...not so much like them, but appreciate some parts of them, or even understand them. Lambert is raving crazy, but also an artist. Mol is dumb but also just looking for some love and ready to give loads of it. Treppie is evil hearted, yet smart in his own way, and sharp. Brutality and tenderness mingle in this novel, which is tragic and comic at the same time. After 50 pages I thought I wouldn't finish this, because the characters were so unsympathetic, but surprisingly I did, realizing - somewhere on the way - how well written it was, and how well the characters were described, very distinctive.

A brutal look at the life and times of one family at the bottom end of society.
Reading it is like being hit in the face with a fist, repeatedly. It is a very realistic picture though and takes one on a journey to another life where the hopelessnes and claustrophobia of the characters is felt accutely.

It will take some fortitude to read it to the end.

Als je afgaat op de korte inhoudsbeschrijving dan kun je je niet voorstellen dat dit een fantastisch boeiend boek is. Ik moest het va tijd tot tijd even laten rusten, maar al lezend ga je er helemaal in op en krijg je een indringend beeld van het moeilijke en mooie Zuid Afrika

Het boek verhaalt over het leven van Mol en Pop, hun beider zoon Lambert en broer Treppie. Een incestueuze –blanke- verhouding tussen een zus , haar twee broers en het uit de relatie tussen Mol en Pop geboren kind Lambert. Levend aan de zelfkant van de samenleving en opgeborgen in een tot getto verworden woonwijk proberen deze mensen het hoofd boven water te houden terwijl de maatschappelijke omwenteling die een einde van de apartheid zal maken aanstaande is. Angst voor verandering, straatarme levensomstandigheden en een sterk racistisch mensbeeld bepalen voorts de kern van het verhaal.
De geschiedenis van de familie wordt beeldend neergezet, de karakters zijn goed beschreven en roepen uiteindelijk nog sympathie op ook, waardoor de roman zich vlot laat lezen. Van Niekerk beschrijft de mensen met een milde pen, veroordeelt niet en toont ons een andere kant van de apartheidspolitiek die ook verantwoordelijk is voor de bittere armoede en uitzichtloosheid van een deel van de blanke bevolking.

Een typisch Zuid-Afrikaanse roman ? Neen, het verhaal kan zich ook elders in de wereld afspelen; de zelfkant van de samenleving wordt in vele naties tentoon gesteld en de in deze kringen levende vooroordelen over andere culturen zijn overal waarneembaar. Dat de roman zich afspeelt in de periferie van Johannesburg en de ingrediënten Afrikaans zijn betekent geenszins dat deze roman typisch Zuid-Afrikaans is.

Géén Agaat, maar wel goed geschreven.

Een boek dat ik cadeau kreeg omdat ik het 'moest' lezen. Plichtsgetrouw als ik ben heb ik me dus door de eerste paar wat warrige pagina's geworsteld. Maar langzamerhand begon het boek steeds meer onder mijn huid te komen, begon ik steeds meer meegesleept te worden in de mensen, de gebeurtenissen en vooral de onderlinge verhoudingen.

Milla is een blanke grondbezitster in Zuid-Afrika die in de laatste stadia van ALS verkeert (een progressieve verlammende spierziekte). Op het moment waarop het boek begint kan ze alleen haar ogen nog maar bewegen en is ze een paar dagen van haar dood af. Ze wordt verzorgd door de zwarte huishoudster, Agaat.

De verhouding tussen de twee vrouwen is intrigerend. Agaat is de enige de Milla nog kan begrijpen, die haar blikken en oogbewegingen kan interpreteren. Ze heeft de absolute macht, ze kan zelfs bepalen wat Milla ziet of niet ziet, en de huidige situatie is een mengeling van ruzietjes, straffen, helpen en verzorgen. Tegelijkertijd krijgen we flashbacks naar vroeger en leest Agaat ook regelmatig voor uit de dagboeken van Milla.

Langzamerhand krijg je een beter beeld van de ingewikkelde verhoudingen, niet alleen tussen de twee vrouwen maar ook tussen mannen en vrouwen in Zuid-Afrika, de boerengemeenschap daar en natuurlijk de verhouding tussen blanken en zwarten. Zonder het als één op één vertaling te zien is het ook interessant om je te realiseren dat de omslagmomenten bij Agaat en Milla (geboorte Agaat, ziekte Milla) samenhangen met de verschuivingen in machtsverhoudingen tussen de blanke en de zwarte gemeenschap.

Een erg goed boek dat ik iedereen van harte aan kan raden. Het is prachtig geschreven met heel schilderachtige beeldende beschrijvingen. Het ene moment leef je helemaal met Milla mee, het andere moment gaat je sympathie helemaal uit naar Agaat, omdat het geen kartonnen twee-dimensionale personages zijn maar echte mensen, gevangen in een keurslijf van rollenpatronen en verwachtingen, angsten en onzekerheden. Vrouwen die op dat beperkte stukje dat ze hebben proberen om hun eigen koers te bepalen, hun eigen stempel te drukken en hun eigen stukje macht te veroveren.