Naomi reviewed The Promise by Damon Galgut
None
3 stars
This story is all about the intimate connections between family - what binds people together, what pushes people apart - and how these dramas are dwarfed by the huge social and political changes taking place around the characters in 1970s South Africa. In the midst of all the chaos and across the decades, there is one small, fragile connection that persists and manages to weather the storms.
Most of the characters in this are intensely dislikeable, and yet there are moments when you feel little sparks of empathy for them. Although it’s quite a heavy-going book the writing is so lovely that you kind of just get lost in it. It felt very cinematic and I felt like I was there among the characters, watching everything unfold. Also, it’s frequently hilarious, which is not something I was expecting but was very welcome!
This story is all about the intimate connections between family - what binds people together, what pushes people apart - and how these dramas are dwarfed by the huge social and political changes taking place around the characters in 1970s South Africa. In the midst of all the chaos and across the decades, there is one small, fragile connection that persists and manages to weather the storms.
Most of the characters in this are intensely dislikeable, and yet there are moments when you feel little sparks of empathy for them. Although it’s quite a heavy-going book the writing is so lovely that you kind of just get lost in it. It felt very cinematic and I felt like I was there among the characters, watching everything unfold. Also, it’s frequently hilarious, which is not something I was expecting but was very welcome!
