poignant look at south africa
buy uselessly now (in south africa) (in united kingdom)
Uselessly is artist, film director and writer Aryan Kaganof’s fifth book and a gallop through South Africa’s post-apartheid counter-culture.
J.J.Uselessly narrates his experiences of encountering his father for the first time through a series of letters adressed to God. J.J. is 39 years old, he still doesn’t have a proper job and he has unresolved issues with his parents. An ex poet, he was living in Amsterdam when his father’s girlfriend, S. Cohen, wrote to tell him that his father has Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Will he come to stay with them?
From there, Kaganof casts a shrewd and often poignant eye on what it means to be South African as he trails J.J. through the emotional upheaval of finding a father and a country he is not yet ready to deal with. It is a look that is highly irreverent, outwardly cynical but yet infused with the idealism that only the true cynic is capable of.
The book is especially poignant as Kaganof has drawn from his own experiences of his relationship with and reconciliation to his formerly estranged father.
Uselessly is, unfortunately, my first encounter with Kaganof and his seemingly shotgun delivery that gets uncannily to the point. I loved this book and as soon as I can, I am going to read it again.
Laura Melville
Natal Witness, 19 july 2006
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