A SERIES OF UNDESIRABLE EVENTS

Book: A series of Undesirable Events
Author: Deon-Simphiwe Skade
Publisher: National Library of South Africa
Reviewer: Omoseye Bolaji

“This is a series of linked short stories with interesting characters and which deal with topics such as AIDS and infidelity. This author shows exceptional talent... “

So writes a perceptive reader from the Centre of the Book in Cape Town whilst warmly recommending the publication of this book by the sponsors. Those familiar with the lambent talent of the author, Deon-Simphiwe Skade would not be surprised in anyway.

This is the first published book of Deon-Simphiwe Skade, prolific and proficient blogger, reviewer, poet, philosopher, and intellectual. Here he not only confirms his awesome potential, but also whets the literary appetite of voracious readers.

This book is a collection of well-written short stories jostling alongside complementary poems. Titles are: An old flame that went out, My Epidemic, your Epidemic, Last Night, It’s a Secret, Class Act, Her Attitude, His Face.

Others are - A Broken Man, Matters of the Heart, In Need, Yesterday, Suspension, Time Keeps Its Own Time, It never rains but Pours, and Our Today, The Future.

The disparate stories here are essentially told in the first person, with the author showing astonishing skill and empathy with his characters, male and female. Arguably this reaches a peak in the story, Class Act.

The author is famed for his propensity to call himself a “dreamer” in real life, and dreams certainly loom large in this work. The pertinent question is: are they successfully integrated into the warp and weft of the stories?

Here, one might well be subjective, adumbrating the furore over the late Lenrie Peters work, The second round with its profusion of dream-like sequences...and of course Ayi Kwei Armah s early classic, The Beautyful ones are not yet born. Then there is the hilarious, finely written story, Last Night. It is also tinged with irony, and redolent with sexual undercurrents. And how’s this for a touch of the great D.H Lawrence:

“The moon watched us caress. It lit over the perfect world of perfect persons, a man and a beautiful woman under its unwinking stare and the stars who winked as if celebrating our glorious kiss. Table Mountain could have peeked over the balcony to witness us under the conspiratorial luminescence of the moon.”

(Page 28, A Series of undesirable events)

As one would expect from a grammarian like the author, and a fastidious craftsman to boot, the book is well edited and immensely readable, with fine descriptions. How about “the ping ping against the porcelain.” “the gulp I took snailed down my throat as if it was a hard bubble constrained by meagre space preventing it to move downwards,”…

For those who think this review is more like a panegyric, let me end by stating what I do NOT like about this book - its title. I really don’t know, but the title, though apt, just does not do it for me. So now you know!