Up Against the Night

November 9, 2015
Cartwright (Lion Heart) writes a tale of one South African man that combines beauty, joy, and foreboding. Frank McAllister is a scion of the Retief family, whose most famous member, Piet, led a group of Boer settlers to their deaths at the hands of the Zulu king, Dingane, in 1838. Frank left South Africa behind to become a very successful businessman in London. Now he is making his annual return visit to his seaside vacation home on the Cape with his new love, Nellie Erikson; his daughter, Lucinda; and Nellie's son, Bertil. Frank is trying to keep away from his cousin, Jaco Retief, a drunken failure of a man with a violent temper. While Frank is surrounded by gorgeous scenery and his loving family, the reader also follows Jaco's ominous progress across the country as he purchases a gun and moves inexorably toward his cousin. Frank himself describes the land "as a kind of tapestry, intimately woven of beautiful landscapes and violent death." His love of Shakespeare contrasts sharply with Jaco's low vulgarity, but both lend this work an air of impending tragedy.

July 1, 2015

In 1838, a small group of disaffected Boer colonists, led by Piet Retief, trekked into the wilderness and were savagely murdered by a party of Zulu tribesmen under orders from their king, Dingane, whose docility Retief had badly misjudged. Years later, Frank McAllister, a descendant of Retief, returns to South Africa from his home in England, seeking a better understanding of his Boer ancestry. Along with his Swedish girlfriend, her sullen teenage son, and his daughter Lucinda, a recovering drug addict, Frank hopes for a restorative visit. Arriving late, Lucinda has with her a black child whose connection to her seems mysterious and tenuous. On a collision course with McAllister is his unstable cousin Jacko, a recent escapee from the church of Scientology who's hell-bent on a path of destruction. VERDICT Cartwright's (In Every Face I Meet; Other People's Money) provocative tale of one troubled family mirrors the history of South Africa, from its brutal beginnings through its repressive apartheid years to its violent, vengeful present. Strongly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 5/17/15.]--Barbara Love, formerly with Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.

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