The Promise - Damon Galgut

Damon Galgut is the third South African, and 'The Promise' is the fourth book written by a South Africanto win the Booker award. Of the four books, I am yet to read 'The Conservationist' by Nadine Gordimer.

I couldn't help, but see some similarities between Coetzee's Disgrace, and this book, based on their themes, broadly.  In 'Disgrace' the said disgrace could be traced to two sets of incidents - the protagonist's manipulations and seductions which bring him disgrace, as well as his inability to look after his own daughter, in a climate of changing political power in the country. It is a time of disgraces for those who held an unfair hand at power. Galgut too uses the term 'promise' to mean two things. A personal promise made by the husband to a dying woman's plea, which their youngest daughter overhear. A promise that is not kept for over thirty years, and then when met, its value irrelevant. A promise not kept, in other words. It also suggests the dampened promise in a post apartheid South Africa. For the potential for good things is slow to materialize.  The lives of those who have been at an advantage hitherto are threatened, and after a long period of being discriminated against the discriminated races too are yet to find a firmer footing. They are bitter at the people around them, and those who held power before them. It is clear that Anton lived in portal fear in his own farm, and his ownership and power, was dated and threatened.

The book as a whole discusses the fall  of the Swart family. But Galgut uses this average family to signify something much larger - of a promise coming undone. It signifies the fall of the power of the white South African family, and the country that the Black South African take over is ridden with corruption, challenges with infrastructure etc. The promise of a new day is bleak, although however bleak, nothing is permanent - not even the bad times.

Overall it is an excellent read, and Galgut's rather improvised narrator's tone, that of an omnivisible - the narrator for a small time can even see those who have passed - is clearly worthy of the global recognition that the book has achieved.

Rating: ****
Man Booker Award 2021
(photo credits: https://www.takeawayscripts.com)