CRIME AND POEMS
Gritty battle-axe Rebus and dreamy poetry
Our books editor read the 25th Rebus novel and a few collections of poetry, and tells you about it.
THIS week I read the new Rebus novel by Ian Rankin and a few books of poetry. Ian Rankin has been writing about Rebus for years now and I sometimes have to wonder if he's not going to run out of steam, like Rafa on the tennis court. Still, I read it to the end, for the love of an obstreperous and witty detective who is serving a jail sentence in this book.
Ian Rankin's Midnight and Blue is the 25th Rebus novel, if I've counted correctly. I've read them all and he continues to be my favourite detective, with his dry, offbeat sense of humour, his thirst, and his talent for deduction. My hero is now in jail for attempted murder, as a long-term prisoner. He had throttled arch-villain Big Ger Cafferty, and then Cafferty died of a heart attack.
Luckily, Cafferty's great rival, Darryl Christie, is in the same prison. He is in charge of affairs, feared by guards and prisoners alike. He still conducts all his business from prison and is grateful that Rebus has got rid of his opponent. So he undertakes to protect Rebus from the other prisoners. The atmosphere is tense. Murder and brutal attacks are the order of the day.
While Rebus is jailed (thankfully in a single cell) he tries to figure out the mysterious murder of a prisoner. Jackie Simpson was killed in his cell and two guards are the prime suspects, but Rebus's sixth sense disagrees. He works in the prison library, gets a cellphone from his protector Christie, is frequently visited by Siobhan Clarke, and becomes increasingly depressed.
His distinctive sense of humour still pops out now and then, but I prefer John Rebus on the loose, so he can sit in the bar, have romantic adventures, walk his dog, Brillo, or drink alone in his apartment while he thinks. Circumstances are extremely distressing in prison, for the reader too, and Rebus's legal team is nowhere to be found. Despite the protection, he's beaten up a few times and the tension builds: Is he going to survive, and for how long?
I have the feeling at times that Rankin might be a little tired of Rebus – he surely wants to tell other stories as well, but I imagine his publishers keep insisting on another Rebus novel, even though in the last few books he seems to be saying goodbye to his most famous character.
Rebus has turned 70. He can no longer run or fight. All he has left is his wits, cynicism, and willful sense of humour. I wouldn't begrudge him retirement. Still, the book picked up speed in the final third and I enjoyed it. It is always a special joy to read about corrupt police getting exposed. And if Rankin writes another Rebus novel, I'll read it, the same way I watched again this week as a much slower Rafa Nadal was beaten on the tennis court. Sometimes one needs to know when to throw in the towel and leave on a high.
Still, I recommend it to Rebus fans and crime freaks – Rankin can write. And weave intrigue.
Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin was published by Orion and costs R406 at Loot.
Cas de Villiers, if I remember correctly, was close to Eschel Roodie in the Information Scandal days. At least he was always very vocal against racial discrimination. He spent time abroad and now lives in Vlottenburg. His favourite quote is from Charles Bukowski: “Find what you love and let it kill you."
On the back cover of In Transit, he reveals his goal: To make moments shine for the reader beyond expectation and the dictates of the brain. He also admits that his crutches are all he can pass on, on the verge of 80. His ultimate advice is: Just be here, now, as you perform the dance with Paradox to the beat of the current tune.
The poems are in English and Afrikaans. The verses are reminiscent of song lyrics, very rhythmic and deceptively simple:
It's just the way of things
And never it was different
Regardless of your schemes
The ebb and flow
The come and go
The nightmares and the dreams
It's just the way of things
So said the Buddha
Nietzsche
and Thoreau
Verses that captivate and make you think.
In Transit by Cas de Villiers is self-published and costs $9.99 (~R180) at Amazon.
Siphokazi Jonas is a South African poet, playwright and actor with a master's degree in English literature. Her work has appeared in international publications. She moved between different worlds growing up, in an Afrikaans village, and in an English boarding school with an annual excursion to the village emaXhoseni, during the transitional years of our democracy.
In Weeping Becomes a River, she addresses the linguistic and cultural alienation faced by a black learner in the Model C schools of the 1990s and early 2000s.
She explores tradition, religion, intergenerational experiences of rural and urban spaces, and how family dynamics are reflected in the body.
Her poems grapple with the past, present, and possible futures. She has fashioned a voice for herself out of contradiction.
Two aunties gossip
like a pair of dice in the queue at Spar
one hand on the newspaper rack
the other on a sanitised trolley
“Bernice came out of ICU
had a fit and died"
“It's like that these days"
Bernice will make it into the Sunday Times!
a number in this week's Covid report
Had I not debated between two types of bleach
eavesdropping on death in transaction
I would have missed how grief wedged
into the six steps between them
Jonas is an exciting addition to the diverse mass choir of local voices bidding to make sense of our broken reality.
Weeping Becomes a River by Siphokazi Jonas is published by Penguin Poetry and costs R210 at Exclusive Books.
101 Poems About Things We Should Be Loud About by Lindokuhle Mathenjwa is a solid addition to said choir of voices, with sketches added to the verses.
The poems deal with topics ranging from personal struggle to issues of social justice. Through vivid imagery and vibrant, supple language, he gives sound to emotions and ideas.
Each poem reminds us that our voices can make a difference to the world and why it's important to be part of the conversation:
Because maybe,
That's all we have left.
Besides the dysfunctional wean
Drifting on our torn womb,
Breathing,
In spite of a throat filled with water
101 Poems About Things We Should Be Loud About by Lindokuhle Mathenjwa is published by Rock Hopper Books and costs R423 at Exclusive Books.
♦ VWB ♦
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Deborah Steinmair is an award-winning author and insatiable reader. She has been named twice as Rapport-kykNET book reviewer of the year.
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