Short stories, thugs and the language of war

EVERY good person has special books somewhere in their life. Books you don't discuss with a lot of people because not all of us are blessed with a lot of very special people in our lives. But you cherish those books, and mine stand next to the collected prose of Jorge Luis Borges. The author of one of them is Joy Williams, and the title is 99 Stories of God.

Williams comes from a religious family, is a well-known nature lover (she is the author of a highly regarded guide to the Florida Keys), has studied with Raymond Carver, her spouse was the fiction editor of Esquire, and she has taught creative writing courses at several universities.

99 Stories of God is short art. It has no theological slant. God, you find out, is either there or not there. It depends on the reader.

Of the 99 stories, number 17, “Dresser", is my favourite. It is about the children of an alcoholic gathering around her deathbed. The mother is hallucinating, and suddenly she asks in a sonorous voice, “Where is the refuge for my bewildered heart?" The children are stunned. Then the mother speaks again: “Lead me, Good Shepherd. Walk with me." One child rushes out of the room to cry in the hallway. Then the mother speaks again: “Tony, I want a martini. Go make me a martini, honey." But Tony doesn't comply. “I didn't, I couldn't. I felt like she would regret it. I felt like it just wasn't right." That's the story.

99 Stories of God came out in 2013 and I've been enjoying it ever since. Recently, Williams followed it up with Concerning the Future of Souls, which has a subtitle: 99 Stories of Azrael. Azrael is God's angel of death, responsible for carrying away people's souls after they die. He is associated with Islam and Judaism.

Williams's imagination is strong enough to bring us insight into Azrael's difficult task. As God's angel of death, he also has a working relationship with the devil and struggles to reconcile himself with the concept of death.

Here's a snippet of Williams's ontological sense of humour in the short short story “Pasture": “Nietzsche had a lot of thoughts but he maintained that the thought about thoughts was just repetition." This she connects with the book of John, chapter 10 verse 9: “I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and he will go in and go out and find pasture."

The devil, we read elsewhere, has an awful lot of sneakers, and as far as Azrael could ascertain he never wore the same pair twice.

And then there is Rainer Maria Rilke, the German poet whom Karel Schoeman loved so much. “Rilke once referred to his penis – the poet's penis – as a womb-blinding rocket. The angels were not indifferent to him, the devil thought. They just didn't like him." This is in reference to the Duino Elegies and the poem “Who, if I cried, would hear me among the angelic orders?"

It's easy to quote the short flights of Williams's creative responses to life. Concerning the Future of Souls, however, contains numerous longer meditations on the conversations between the devil and Azrael that have been with man for a long time. There's one about Azrael, who  begins to realise that in many people the soul leaves the body long before the body dies. The devil yawns at this question (he is fond of yawning) and reassures Azrael: That's understandable. They don't get the right food. Why still hang around then?

How should one approach Williams's short art? With an open mind. You know she's of our time, she's read Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil (Jenseits von Gut und Böse), and because she lives in Florida she knows where the world is going. Therefore, she can tell that the devil is starting to worry that every time he sees Azrael might be the last. Sometimes, when Azrael has stayed away for a long time, the devil wonders if he and his duties, therefore earth and its people, may no longer be God's great focus. But then Azrael shows up again, his heart full of joy and melancholy. “Azrael is still delighted, but only a tiny bit less."

Concerning the Future of Souls is short art. It doesn't have an ontological slant. The devil, you find out, is either there or not there. It depends on the reader.

Concerning the Future of Souls by Joy Williams was published by Tin House Books and costs R356 at Graffiti.

It's like Markus Jooste. When the bomb burst, everyone asked: did no one know? Inigo Philbrick is the man who, according to the FBI, ran the largest art scams yet. His fraud totalled at least R1.6 billion. It may be more, but many people don't want to claim. He was just 33 when he was arrested.

His great childhood friend was Orlando Whitfield, son of the Christie's auctioneer Harry Whitfield. Orlando was also scammed by Philbrick, but he's not angry enough to walk away from the saga. The documents on which this book is based were mostly supplied by Philbrick.

Whitfield spins a great story, intriguing and exciting as only the doings of an absolute villain can be. What makes it even more fascinating is the fact that Philbrick looks like he could star in an Argentine telenovella, is married to Made in Chelsea's incomparable Victoria Baker-Harber, and is no stranger to the readers of Vanity Fair (VF interviewed Philbrick in March).

Whitfield's book  lifts the veil on the slippery confidence trickster, even in the shadowy areas where VF does not dare to wander. When reading All That Glitters, one wonders if Daniel Silva didn't base his characters on Philbrick. Ultimately, this book leaves you with the deeply satisfying realisation that Philbrick will never be able to sit still. We're going to hear from him again.

All That Glitters by Orlando Whitfield is published by Profile Books and costs R553 at Exclusive Books.

Isn't it strange how the war in Ukraine slipped out of our daily consciousness? At one stage, we followed each day's news; now the fighting continues but is almost forgotten. Reading this book shocked me out of this delusion. One can hardly imagine the life of someone who has to live with daily attacks – the smell of gunpowder and decomposing bodies becoming increasingly mundane. It is from Oleksandr Mykhed and his family's experiences that one learns the most – the appallingly fast way in which all lives have become cheap and the incredible inner strength with which the Ukrainians oppose the Russians. The language of war is the language of resistance, even though the gains remain missing and so many misdeeds go unreported.

The Language of War by Oleksandr Mykhed was published by Allen Lane and costs $19.33 at Amazon.

♦ VWB ♦

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