Other Lives

Publishers Weekly

Brink's latest novel-essentially a collection of three novellas-is a vividly imagined if claustrophobic chronicle of the lives of three subtly connected men living in contemporary South Africa. The first story is the dreamlike tale of a white painter named David le Roux who one day returns to his studio and finds a black woman named Sarah and her two children waiting for him. He quickly surmises that the woman believes he is her husband and the father of the children, but he has never seen any of them before. The second story revolves around a white architect (and acquaintance of David) named Steve, who looks into the mirror one day and discovers he is black. The third story is that of Derek Hugo, a celebrated pianist infatuated with singer Nina Rousseau. Despite years of womanizing (including an affair with Steve's wife), Derek cannot bring himself to touch Nina, and the night he finally makes his move, their date is violently interrupted. An enervating awkwardness suffuses the pieces, though the conceit is a little too thin to carry a whole book. (Sept.)

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Booklist

White architect David looks in the bathroom mirror one morning in Cape Town and discovers he is black.
Unsettling as this revelation is, David, always the opportunist, sees that his new skin color could be an
advantage in the new South Africa. Afrikaner artist Steve cannot get home to his sweet wife, but he finds
he has a beautiful Xhosa wife and two lovely kids. Is this a guilty throwback to a mixed-race woman he
once deserted? Then there's frustrated white musician Derek, forced to work as an accompanist and
teacher, who has sex with a gorgeous pianist and, nearly, with David's wife. The three stories come
together in a violent restaurant holdup, as eminent South African writer Brink fuses the racist past with
contemporary upheaval, evoking Magritte-type scenarios of dreams, wishes, and unrealizable desires.
Rooted in the post-apartheid reality, the haunting connections raise elemental issues, disquieting and
passionate. Do we always want to get home?
- Hazel Rochman

Kirkus

A realistic book with surrealistic twists that allows the author to explore themes of race in contemporary South Africa.

Brink (Before I Forget, 2007, etc.) presents his narrative in three discrete but related parts. The first, "The Blue Door," begins with an allusion to Kafka's The Metamorphosis, a story that supplies an appropriate metaphor for the world Brink's characters inhabit. David and Lydia are preparing for a dinner party with their friends Steve and Carla. As David, an artist who has recently experienced some commercial success, steps through the blue door that leads to his house, he's greeted by cries of "Daddy!"-strange, because in their nine years of marriage he and Lydia have had no children. An even bigger shock occurs when he's also greeted by his "wife," Sarah, a black woman of great beauty and sex appeal. Just as Gregor Samsa tries to make sense of his situation, Steve also is bewildered but ultimately accepting of this strange new world. "Mirror" involves a similar tale of transformation. This story focuses on Steve and Carla, but here Steve looks into the elaborate art nouveau mirror Carla has bought and discovers he is in fact black. Other characters take this dream reality at face value (no pun intended)-for them Steve has always been black-but Steve needs to accommodate himself to a new self-image, one that he doesn't comfortably inhabit. Toward the end of this section he and Carla are having a quiet dinner at a local restaurant when they're interrupted by five masked thugs. Carla startles Steve by urging him to engage these quasi-terrorists in a dialogue because "'You're one of them.' " The final episode follows the relationship between Derek Hugo, apianist who teaches the two talented daughters of Steve and Carla, and Nina Rousseau, a talented but reclusive soprano, who wind up being caught in the same terrifying restaurant experience.

While at times a bit facile and almost overly clever, an ultimately fascinating commentary on race and identity.

Library Journal

Stylistically precise and emotionally evocative, this latest novel from prolific and much-lauded South African novelist, dramatist, and educator Brink provides a window on life in contemporary Cape Town. Only this window keeps shifting as one reads. Long known as a vocal opponent of apartheid, Brink is here less overtly political than in earlier novels like Act of Terror. The narrative offers three intertwining stories that probe familiar themes of racial tension and postcolonial identity. Characters, relationships, and events overlap in intriguing ways, with "Mirror" providing background information about characters appearing in the other two stories as well as an alternative version of the events in "Appassionata." While the female characters all seem somewhat alike, as if they were different versions of the same person, they are nevertheless strong and sexy. Though the sameness is probably unintentional, it adds to the surreal quality of the interwoven stories. Recommended for literary fiction collections and libraries with an interest in South African literature.
—Gwen Vredevoogd

Kirkus Reviews

A realistic book with surrealistic twists that allows the author to explore themes of race in contemporary South Africa. Brink (Before I Forget, 2007, etc.) presents his narrative in three discrete but related parts. The first, "The Blue Door," begins with an allusion to Kafka's The Metamorphosis, a story that supplies an appropriate metaphor for the world Brink's characters inhabit. David and Lydia are preparing for a dinner party with their friends Steve and Carla. As David, an artist who has recently experienced some commercial success, steps through the blue door that leads to his house, he's greeted by cries of "Daddy!"-strange, because in their nine years of marriage he and Lydia have had no children. An even bigger shock occurs when he's also greeted by his "wife," Sarah, a black woman of great beauty and sex appeal. Just as Gregor Samsa tries to make sense of his situation, Steve also is bewildered but ultimately accepting of this strange new world. "Mirror" involves a similar tale of transformation. This story focuses on Steve and Carla, but here Steve looks into the elaborate art nouveau mirror Carla has bought and discovers he is in fact black. Other characters take this dream reality at face value (no pun intended)-for them Steve has always been black-but Steve needs to accommodate himself to a new self-image, one that he doesn't comfortably inhabit. Toward the end of this section he and Carla are having a quiet dinner at a local restaurant when they're interrupted by five masked thugs. Carla startles Steve by urging him to engage these quasi-terrorists in a dialogue because "‘You're one of them.' " The final episode follows the relationship between Derek Hugo, a pianist whoteaches the two talented daughters of Steve and Carla, and Nina Rousseau, a talented but reclusive soprano, who wind up being caught in the same terrifying restaurant experience. While at times a bit facile and almost overly clever, an ultimately fascinating commentary on race and identity.

From the Publisher

"Rooted in the post-apartheid reality, the haunting connections raise elemental issues, disquieting and passionate. Do we always want to get home?
" - Booklist

"A realistic book with surrealistic twists that allows the author to explore themes of race in contemporary South Africa.

Brink (Before I Forget, 2007, etc.) presents his narrative in three discrete but related parts. The first, "The Blue Door," begins with an allusion to Kafka's The Metamorphosis, a story that supplies an appropriate metaphor for the world Brink's characters inhabit. David and Lydia are preparing for a dinner party with their friends Steve and Carla. As David, an artist who has recently experienced some commercial success, steps through the blue door that leads to his house, he's greeted by cries of "Daddy!"-strange, because in their nine years of marriage he and Lydia have had no children. An even bigger shock occurs when he's also greeted by his "wife," Sarah, a black woman of great beauty and sex appeal. Just as Gregor Samsa tries to make sense of his situation, Steve also is bewildered but ultimately accepting of this strange new world. "Mirror" involves a similar tale of transformation. This story focuses on Steve and Carla, but here Steve looks into the elaborate art nouveau mirror Carla has bought and discovers he is in fact black. Other characters take this dream reality at face value (no pun intended)-for them Steve has always been black-but Steve needs to accommodate himself to a new self-image, one that he doesn't comfortably inhabit. Toward the end of this section he and Carla are having a quiet dinner at a local restaurant when they're interrupted by five masked thugs. Carla startles Steve by urging him to engage these quasi-terrorists in a dialogue because "'You're one of them.' " The final episode follows the relationship between Derek Hugo, a pianist who teaches the two talented daughters of Steve and Carla, and Nina Rousseau, a talented but reclusive soprano, who wind up being caught in the same terrifying restaurant experience.

While at times a bit facile and almost overly clever, an ultimately fascinating commentary on race and identity. " - Kirkus

""Brink's portrait of a contemporary South Africa mobbed by unappeased ghosts has a disquieting resonance as a meditation on how the past continues to infiltrate the present." " - The New York Times Book Review