Books that offer escape from jets, waiting rooms and hospital corridors

WHEN travelling and spending time in a hospital, books are one's companion and crutch. Medication, pain and fatigue do interfere and the storylines don't always stay neatly separated. You read more than you write. You end up more with an accumulation, almost a joint impression of a small stack of books. Still, I'm going to you give a short run-through of five books that comforted me.

This is supposed to be the last in the Hans series. Rudie van Rensburg has created a particularly striking character: Hans van Kraaienburg is over 90, but he's not an old man. He is simply a man: stubborn, unstoppable, with a head full of plans. Like an elderly Trompie, hero of Afrikaans youth novels, he is a hard-boiled rebel who does not care for rules and regulations. In addition, he engages in a rather muscular Afrikaans full of unexpected metaphors. He and his friend Vasie won't be dictated to. Vasie is always on the lookout for a quick money-making scheme ánd a free tot or two.

Hans is getting married and his soon-to-be bride's wealthy family is handling and funding the wedding arrangements. He is being ordered around by wedding planner Alexander Fokkens who calls himself a wedding architect. Everything sounds far too lavish for Hans, who really doesn't like spectacle. Meanwhile, at the nursing home, Vasie is frantically selling seats at the wedding tables.

This kind of book has become very popular: cosy dramas about unstoppable elderly people. The secret, of course, is that few of the characters ever capitulate to old age: They remain about 40, headstrong and full of vitality. They are imperfect, full of flaws and whims, butt their heads repeatedly, and are still susceptible to romance. Delightful reading matter on a plane: The book is even small enough to fit in a handbag.

Hans hou bruilof by Rudie van Rensburg was published by Queillerie and costs R238 at Graffiti.

I was there at the birth of Fokofpolisiekar, in my forties in Cape Town. That's why I devoured Francois van Coke's autobiography with Annie Kloppers. Their manager, Louise Crouse, is a friend of mine, so I watched the brilliant boys' rise from the sidelines. They grew up decently and strictly in Bellville and cite the following as stuff that formed them:

The list includes everything from ThunderCats to silkworms, He-Man, Mandela and De Klerk, Die Swart Kat, Bellville, Johannes Kerkorrel, Naas Botha and Rage Against the Machine. Also things like “imaginary personality limitations" next to MTV and youth songbooks, and everything we grew up with in the '80s and '90s, from Airwolf and Knight Rider to Orkney Snork Nie and Mannemarak.

It's tremendously honest and entertaining, the story of one long party that has never ended. These smart boys were constantly high and drunk, and yet they have accomplished so much. The picture that emerges of Francois is of a restlessly creative soul who wants to be different, not beige; who does not want to live according to the dictates of the suburb. He is impulsive and unpredictable, frequently messes up but is forgiven by his friends whom he genuinely loves.

How they were able to survive and grow remains a miracle. Most beautiful of all is that in the meantime Francois has become sober, clean and a good husband and father.

His summary of their career: “Met roekelose ambisie het ons eenvoudig voortgefok.” (In reckless ambition we simply fucked forth.) Extremely readable.

Hoe ek dit onthou by Francois van Coke and Annie Klopper was published by Queillerie and costs R270 at Graffiti.

Another captivating autobiography is Ian Roberts's. He's a born storyteller. His childhood was idyllic on a farm in the Eastern Cape, where he was mostly in the veld with the Xhosa boys. School years were a different world among rich boys from Johannesburg, at St Andrew's College in Grahamstown.

Roberts is authentic and unique with an offbeat sense of humour. You read how he ended up on stage and about the colourful people he has worked with. Like Francois van Coke's autobiography, it is a document about an era we have experienced; from beloved series like Arende to the Castrol commercials. Now you can have a look behind the scenes.

Roberts has been making music since childhood and was a founding member of Die Radio Kalahari Orkes. His voice is irresistible. One of his sayings is: “Geluk hou van harde werk.” (“Fortune loves hard work.")

Nomad Heart by Ian Roberts is published by Jonathan Ball and costs R340 at Exclusive Books.

Erla Diedericks is carving out a niche for herself in both the suspense and erotic genres. She is hardworking and brilliant with story lines. Swyg is captivating. In 2009, a Matie student is murdered by her flatmate, Vanessa, who keeps mum about the incident. She has a lot of drugs in her system and can't remember anything. She has since been institutionalised. Now she wants to talk to Dr Ann Marais, who has been the salvation of many defendants. Her memory begins to come back.

It is also the story of the writer Louis Donkermann, serial conqueror and alcoholic, and his complicated relationship with his mother, the poet Didi Donkermann. She was a colourful figure; seductive and destructive. She used to catch students on her web, play with them, then turn her back on them. One was the young writer Brand de Wyn, who was soon to publish a book, like Louis. Didi seemed to have committed suicide by riding off a cliff, but all is not as it seems.

Everything happens in the greenhouse atmosphere of affluent Stellenbosch. Murder, obsession and literature reign supreme in this suspenseful cocktail. It's truly evocative and teasing. At the back of the book, Diedericks refers to her ex-husband's aunt whom they often visited in Stellenbosch when they were newly married and I sniff hints of autobiography in the air.

I would like to read something to that effect. I used to know Diedericks's ex-husband when we were young and eccentric: a boy from a brilliant, old Afrikaans family, Boer nobility. He was weird and looked like a visitor from outer space. I know she had been damaged in that marriage. Such a story would make headlines, a kind of Eyes Wide Shut in the Eikestad, decadent and damaged, the story of a beautiful, vulnerable woman and the people who wanted to clip her wings.

I highly recommend Swyg.

Swyg by Erla Diedericks was published by Lapa and costs R255 at Graffiti.

Finally, the kind of noir that is my sustenance, in sickness or health: Now you Suffer by South African author Gareth Crocker. I will urgently be getting hold of all of his books. I see this one is the first in a series about detective Ruben Ellis: devastated, damaged and touching. His daughter had been murdered and all that keeps him alive is the desire to avenge himself on her killer. Now another girl has been kidnapped and is being held underground.

His partner, Zander Malan, is a delightfully homegrown character too. He's older and his marriage is on the rocks. Ruben and Zander's therapist is a breath of fresh air. The beautiful Melissa had long since discarded the rulebook. She drinks too much and follows her own lead. She is recklessly honest and confrontational. Are they going to unravel the mystery of Thing, the monstrous creature in the basement? It's all nail-biting tension dished up with memorable characters. We have great writers.

Now You Suffer by Gareth Crocker was published by Penguin and costs R252 at Graffiti.

What are we listening to?

Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova plays Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.

♦ VWB ♦

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