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I finally started reading one of your books (the dialogue with God), and it is really intimately oral, a voicing perhaps. I can hear the tone of your voice, the understatements, I can hear the small gestures. I am also enormously impressed by people like you who dare to write novels, which is what I deep down would like to do myself (and there I am not alone of course…). In that sense I guess it is true what they say about academics, that they are all failed artists…

/Maria

great book!

I have been planning to write to you for quite some time now, since I
finished reading your book some months back. I enjoyed Uselessly. This book
is not just funny. It is also poignant and wise; smartly oxymoronic and
brilliantly moronic! Best of all, it is iconoclastic, not only in content
but in form. I truly love this book!
Zakes Mda

Uselessly / Aryan Kaganof. – Johannesburg : Jacana Media, 2006. – 192 p. – ISBN 978-1-77009-100-9

De kaft geeft als toelichting op de titel de volgende hint: “A very funny book about me, my dad, the Devil and God”. En Koos Kombuis zegt over Uselessly het volgende: “Ek is nie seker presies hoekom ek in die loop van die 192 bladsye verlief geraak het op Kaganof se manier van werk nie. Ek weet ook dis nie enige leser se koppie tee nie. Maar daar is iets in sy prosa – die soort varsgeid wat mens laas ervaar het met die vroeë werk van Kurt Vonnegut, gemengd met die kinderlike sinisme van Darrel Bristow-Bovey, wat jou eenvoudig om die hart gryp en meesleur, meesleur. Aan die einde van ‘n boek soos hierdie is jy of ‘n Kaganof-fan vir altyd, of jy wil jou polse sny. Of beide.”

**

this article originally appeared here

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June 22, 2006
By Gary Cummiskey
Place: Jacana
Price: R135

The multitalented Aryan Kaganof has previously produced novels such as Hectic!, Stones Again and Laduma (as AK Thembeka). Kaganof’s fiction tends to be drawn directly from his own life, but most especially so in his latest novel, Uselessly, which focuses on his relationship, and reconciliation, with his once-estranged father.

Constructed as a series of letters to God by the male narrator JJ Uselessly, the novel constantly shifts between past and present. Back in the early 1960s, Harry Uselessly, JJ’s father, who prefers to arrange abortions for his pregnant lovers than use a condom, makes Daphne Nobody pregnant.

Though Harry gives Daphne money to have an abortion, she decides to have the child instead. JJ grows up in with his mother in a flat in Joubert Park, slowly beginning to despise her for her constant complaints about blacks and Jews, and will eventually regard the most irritating thing about her as being that she never realised how stupid she was.

Years later, as an adult filmmaker and poet in Holland, JJ receives a letter from Harry’s current girlfriend, telling him that Harry has been very ill, and that it would be a good time for JJ to return to SA, as his father wants to see him.

The novel thus focuses mainly on the reconciliation between ageing father and near-middle-aged son, and the scenes move from JJ’s interaction with his father in Cape Town and his own life in Joburg, having his car stolen, living off his girlfriend, spending almost every spare moment writing, and refusing to work for a living.

Indeed, the bond that seems to connect father and son is their mutual unconventional attitude to society, their refusal to be tied to commitments, a need for independence, and an admitted misogynist attitude towards women. To show allegiance to his father, JJ changes his surname from Nobody to Uselessly.

The tone of the novel is generally humourous, biting, irreverent and satirical. Yet beneath the humour there is sadness, tenderness, nostalgia and regret.

Some of the warmest scenes involve JJ’s recollections as a child playing the role of DJ during parties in his mother’s flat, and his walks with the family maid to visit her husband in prison
.

There is an early indication of his disdain for material possessions as he throws his toys over the balcony into the street below. There is also a silent scream of emotional pain as JJ recalls how his mom would verbally abuse him, saying that she should have used a knitting needle on herself and flushed him down the toilet.

Harry generally comes across as a somewhat selfish, hedonistic and miserly character, and his chuckling remark that he had sold what was to become the notorious Vlakplaas torture farm to the Nationalist government in the 1970s, seems callous (in fact he says he should have charged them more).

But in a scene, set towards the end of his life, when he phones JJ and weeps, saying he feels terrible that he left JJ to be raised alone with his crazed mother, there is a momentary insight into a vulnerable and guilt-ridden man.

Fairly early in the novel, JJ is puzzled that God has never met Harry in Heaven, because, despite “the abortions and that Nazi stuff”, he was essentially a very good man.

Like Nietzsche (who also appears in the novel) Kaganof questions conventional notions of good and evil, and his making God the recipient of JJ’s letters, as well as the references to Harry as being The Devil and Daphne as The Fallen Woman, are not incidental.

To conventional thinking, Harry is a selfish villain and Daphne a discarded victim, but in Daphne’s embittered and abusive attitude towards JJ, and Harry’s later warm reconciliation with him, we are forced to reassess such surface attitudes. But irrespective of parents’ intentions, the bottom line is, as Harry quotes from Philip Larkin: “They f**k you up your mom and dad, they may not mean to but they do.”

Uselessly is an enjoyable, engrossing and sometimes disturbing novel, which throughout its almost 200 pages never loses momentum. Written in a casual, colloquial style, it is a definite “must read”.

this review first published in The Star

Dionysos ANDRONIS

Editions Jacana , Johannesburg, 2006

Ce cinquième roman de Aryan Kaganof est le plus métaphorique de l’auteur mais son vocabulaire est le moins difficile. Il n’y a pas ici des phrases en afrikaans, comme dans le premier roman «Hectic / Agité », ni des termes techniques comme dans le roman précédent «Citizen Cohen » qui est une bonne parodie du milieu cinématographique à travers les vécus autobiographiques du cinéaste. Sur la couverture du premier recueil de poèmes de Kaganof «Drive thru funeral », publié en 2003, il y a la référence d’un roman «James Joyce Uselessly » qui devrait sortir en 2003 mais qui est sorti finalement en 2006 avec le titre allégé «Uselessly . En espérant qu’il sera vite traduit en français, je vais vous le présenter brièvement.
James Joyce Uselessly est le héros du roman, c’est à dire Kaganof lui-même. La temporalité est facile aussi, pas très enchevêtrée. Le point de départ se trouve deux ans après la mort du père biologique de l’héros, Harry Uselessly, qui souffre d’un cancer en phase terminale. Tout le roman qui suit est un retour en arrière sur les derniers mois de la vie de Harry. Son fils l’avait rencontré seulement une fois dans la passé mais cette fois est évoquée en mise en abîme surnaturelle avec, comme personnages, Nietzsche et Mishima, deux auteurs chers à Kaganof. Nous avons lu vraiment très vite le roman «Uselessly » parce que la fluidité de l’histoire est significative, comme la valeur symbolique des personnages. Les derniers mois de la vie de Harry Uselessly sont évoqués par le biais de plusieurs lettres écrites par son fils J.J. (James Joyce). Chaque lettre commence par la phrase «Dear God / Cher Dieu…Thank you for your reply / Merci pour ta réponse » et nous décrit les vécus récents du fils J.J. Lors de notre dernière rencontre parisienne du 6-2-7 avec Aryan Kaganof, nous lui avons posé cette question sur l’origine de ce commencement et il nous a donné la confirmation que ça vient de nos anciennes lettres. Nous commencions toujours ainsi et nous continuions avec nos nouvelles récentes.
Il ne faut pas vous raconter la fin entièrement mais nous allons vous raconter seulement la moitié. L’avant dernière page 189 contient un parallélisme étrange qui peut servir comme la clé du mystère de cette quête du père. Ce parallélisme peut se résumer ainsi : DEVIL – GOD – DAD. La rencontre avec le père inconnu a été une rencontre très significative qui résume toute l’esthétique ambiguë Kaganovienne, comme nous l’avons plusieurs fois remarqué à travers nos textes. Une esthétique de l’équivoque centrée sur les facettes trompeuses du Mauvais et du Bon. Kaganof est un véritable adepte de Kenneth Anger. Ce dernier avait imaginé poétiquement l’Ascension du Diable («Lucifer Rising » est le titre d’un ancien film à lui) par le biais de la personnalité de son père spirituel, le «sataniste » anglais Aleister Crowley, qui figure plusieurs fois dans ce KagaBlog.
La dernière page du roman « Uselessly » nous décrit à travers un poème la chute des Twin Towers à New York en 2001, après la mort du père Harry.
Dans ce dernier roman de Kaganof, les citations homophobes indirectes sont discrètes et correctes : « I’m sitting with my old pals Gordon’s and Schweppes when a truckload of lesbos pours in….Then the lesbian babble takes hold. » (op.cit.page 118) Nous vous invitons à lire aussi le poème «a PC poem (not) » (voir ma rubrique personnelle du KagaBlog), traduit en français par nous. Ses allusions sont similaires mais sa brièveté voulue et intentionnelle nous laisse supposer qu’il a des non-dits, comme dans tous les poèmes métaphoriques.
Les non-dits du roman de Kaganof concernent surtout la condition artistique à affronter des imprévus, à s’inspirer par ces derniers et à les envisager comme des tours du sort qui visent à nous familiariser avec l’inconnu (ici il s’agit du père biologique). C’est la quête de l’inconnu la véritable nature de la quête artistique !

Just getting back to your book Uselessly – it really resonates with me
Thanks for writing it
rehad desai

A Review by Omoseye Bolaji

Uselessly is a very interesting book, readable, irreverent, witty, iconoclastic, zany, reflective, spontaneous, brimful of earnest affections. Or otherwise!

There is a hoary argument that works like these are essentially autobiographical, perhaps what respected African literary doyen, Es’kia Mphahlele suggested as “fictional autobiography, or autobiographical fiction”. It scarcely matters. There is a tendency for many “pundits” to assume that once a work is written in the first person,, it smacks of autobiography. It is a theory that can be pure balderdash, tosh. Dick Francis’ and his dozens of thrilling, convincing novels written in the first person – what fool would suggest such works are strongly autobiographical?

Uselessly is a humorous book, but not as funny as it is touted to be. But there are dollops of wit or humour scattered throughout the work alright. From the beginning we are told how the protagonist “used all the furniture for firewood. Damn these Jo’burg winters!” Also “the coke dealer who became a politician…his slogan was POWDER to the people!” “my girl’s bald, but not because of chemo” The humour is often irreverent. “God, why did you divide the year into four seasons? Couldn’t you have…left out the winter altogether?” Also “God, do you have a dad? And a mum?”; and “Goodnight (God), and God bless you”!

The attention to detail, or minutiae, is sometimes quite jarring. The obvious example is the warren of details on cancer/its treatment. But consider this too: “I vomited from 4.14 am to 5.03 am”

For those of us who relish African black literature, when we read in Uselessly, “dry shit caked on my arsehole” our mind goes to Ayi Kwei Armah’s classic, The beautyful ones are not yet born, where human manure is an integral part of the whole novel. Who can forget the latter part of the work when Koomson “the fat party man” is reduced to a cowering, flatulent mess, escaping via horrific, disgusting, soiled, caked toilets?

In Uselessly, there are many examples of frank, disarming honesty. “I was secretly glad (that the husband of Dorothy, his then nanny) was in jail for two years, because it meant that Dorothy and I would be going for our weekly walk for a long time still,” Also “Aunt Nelly’s…never had a maid because she doesn’t trust blacks”

The protagonist muses on the new South Africa intermittently; “It began to dawn on me that the so-called liberation had made SA a cheap and attractive holiday destination for the Europeans and Americans. Democracy meant that the masses could service the tourist industry. The freshly liberated slaves had been freed only to become slaves once again,” An exaggeration no doubt, but point taken!

It might well be that many of the ‘wisecracks” or even banalities in Uselessly are clichés; but as renowned African author Chinua Achebe comments in Anthills of the Savannah: “A cliché is a cliché only if you know it is a cliché!” Trumpeted ideals like “freshness and lucidity of language” mean little or nothing to 2nd, 3rd language users; or most non-academics if the truth be told.

The author of Uselessly, Kaganof, is often stated to be “a foremost counter culture revolutionary in SA” In Uselessly the mind boggles as the pupil protagonist tells his teacher: “Your parents and your teachers and your governments are murderers…ruthless assassins”

Not that the protagonist in Uselessly ever has a high opinion of himself: “My name is JJ Uselessly. Abuser of women, phoney artist, conman, liar, bum…my litany of crimes” But hardly any reader would believe his self-confessed “murders”

On a personal note I loved the succinct comment (page 145): “the brotherhood of chemotheraphy. Hallowed be Yul Brunner”. It immediately brought to my mind the magnificent old movie, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS where Charlton Heston starred as “Moses”, and Brunner as Moses’ half brother, Pharaoh Ramses.

i was going to write about some topic that would attempt to get some of you thinking like global warming or something like that but then…mmmm.
allow me to be a bit selfish this morning.
you see, i’ve been kissed (yes in that sweet-taste-of-love way)! woke up next to a beautiful man.
i refuse to let crappy imbalanced office karma get in the way of my high.
i had been playing, rewinding and playing again that moment over in my head while imagining it.
now that i’ve tasted and been tasted well, i’m blushing and being all coy cos…
i know i there’s nothing that beats..
i was going to write aboout something cliched like it felt like butterflies in my stomach but it’s a bit more than that.
there are no words to describe it truly.

my thoughts are a bit disjointed, i think it might have a lot to do with this book i’ve been reading, or because it’s friday or maybe it’s because i’ve been kissed (yes, i’m saying it again).
Uselessly by aryan kaganof.
great read, rather abstract at times, goes down well all the same.
i feel all girly and sixteen again.
it’s a liberating feeling, quite refreshing actually.
was almost disturbed by some homeless person outside my building…
i have a song in my head.
anyway, my love am glad we’re waiting (wink wink).
will work on that patience thing, i think.
i see what you meant though.
good looking out there.

this blog entry by miss me originally appeared here

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Great book. Funny stuff.

Thanks,
Hanneke Schutte

buy uselessly now (in south africa) (in united kingdom)

Hi Aryan

How great to hear from you. uselessly was fabulous. I have spent much of the last few months making my friends read it. I would love to read any more you had.

Regards

Justin Trefgarne

kagablog readers will be enthusiastically welcomed at this gala event that will include free booze and stand up side down comedy. it will be held at the barney siimon theatre upstairs at the market on sunday 19 november at 5:30pm. bring smelling salts cos you will need to be revived cos this is going to be a very funny event!

buy uselessly now (in south africa) (in united kingdom)

Hi darling,
just read your book and think it’s very good.
there’s a lot of emotion and wisdom in it meanwhile being very funny.
wendela scheltema

all our kagablog readers in france will be delighted to know that as of today they can order their copy of uselessly from amazon.fr

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hi aryan

i’m really glad you wrote because i’ve been meaning to write a gushy fan letter about how i totally got off on uselessly which, yes is very very funny but also broke my heart.

seriously big respect!
stacy hardy

buy uselessly now (in south africa) (in united kingdom)

Uselessly reminded me of this poem, maar dan omgekeerd.
In dit gedicht schrikt de dichter van de ontdekking.
It was written waaaaaaay before the Koyaanisqatsi-type imagery.

gabrielle provaas

Tijd

Ik droomde, dat ik langzaam leefde ….
langzamer dan de oudste steen.
Het was verschrikkelijk: om mij heen
schoot alles op, schokte of beefde,
wat stil lijkt. ‘k Zag de drang waarmee
de bomen zich uit de aarde wrongen
terwijl ze hees en hortend zongen;
terwijl de jaargetijden vlogen
verkleurende als regenbogen …..
Ik zag de tremor van de zee,
zijn zwellen en weer haastig slinken,
zoals een grote keel kan drinken.
En dag en nacht van korte duur
vlammen en doven: flakkrend vuur.
- De wanhoop en welsprekendheid
in de gebaren van de dingen,
die anders star zijn, en hun dringen,
hun ademloze, wrede strijd ….
Hoe kón ik dat niet eerder weten,
niet beter zien in vroeger tijd ?
Hoe moet ik het weer ooit vergeten ?

Maria Vasalis (1940)

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Oct 02 2006 07:21:40:540AM - (SA)

Salomé Snyman

Uselessly deur Aryan Kaganof. Jacana Media (sagteband), R138. ISBN 1-77009-100-9

Bestel hierdie boek deur kalahari.net deur hier te kliek

Die postmodernistiese skrywer John Barth het dié skryfvorm ’n “literature of exhaustion” – gebore uit die uitputting van tradisionele letterkundige vorme – genoem.

As jy meen dat niks anders as letterkundige anargisme uit dié “dilemma” kan voortspruit nie, moet liefs nie kosbare tyd verkwis met die lees van Aryan Kaganof se Uselessly nie.

Diegene wat egter hou van tekstuele speelsheid, stilistiese nie-konformiteit en die uitdaag van die tradisionele, sal waarskynlik dol wees op die boek. (Dit sal ook help as jy ’n stywe dosis toilethumor kan verduur wat sterk herinner aan dié in oorsese televisiereekse soos Beavis and Butthead (vgl. die karikatuur op die voorblad) en Little Britain.)

Die persona “Aryan Kaganof” is die “reïnkarnasie” (te Randburg in 2001) van ene Ian Kerkhof ná sy terugkeer uit Nederland waarheen hy tydens die apartheidsjare geëmigreer het. Daar het hy hom as rolprentregisseur bekwaam en vele toekennings ingeoes.

Sy geesteskinders Wasted! en SMS Sugarman, die eerste vollengte rolprente onderskeidelik geskiet op ’n digitale videokamera en ’n selfoonkamera, prosawerke met titels soos Hectic! en digbundels (Post-mortemist poems, Jou ma se poems en so meer), verklap iets van dié kreatiewe gees wat ook ’n “kulturele terroris” en enfant terrible genoem is.

J.J. (James Joyce!) Uselessly, die verteller-protagonis in Uselessly, is in 1964 in Johannesburg gebore, “the illegitimate son of my mother The Sinner Lady and my daddy The Devil”. (Daar is inderdaad heelwat intertekstuele names dropping – Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Burroughs, Kierkegaard, ens. in Uselessly, ’n parodiese weergawe van Joyce se Ulysses.)

Die roman is in epistelvorm geskryf. In briewe aan God eis Uselessly antwoorde op persoonlike eksistensiële vraagstukke soos waarom sterflinge hul brood in die sweet des aanskyns moet verdien en of winter God se idee van ’n wrede poets is. (Dit noop die hoofkarakter om sy meubels as vuurmaakhout te gebruik!)

Uselessly – 39 jaar oud, werkloos en onderhou deur sy vriendin, ’n kroegmeisie – verduidelik sy lewensfilosofie só: “I was sent here in order to contribute to the slowing down of the universe, . . . I was forever re-moved from the grim social disease that unites most people: the sickness of ambition. Slowness is the alchemical formula for getting ahead through the medium of time and back to where it all began, the ultimate destination, which is You.”

God, reken hy, het die duiwel geskep as teenvoeter vir die saaiheid van alwetendheid en voorsienigheid.

Uselessly deel sy veelbewoë lewensverhaal met God en die leser (dié gedeeltes, “a tear-jerker, a melodrama with echoes of Euripides . . . ”, wek empatie vir die verteller!).

Sy enkelma het hom grootgemaak in Yeoville, Johannesburg. Die hoogtepunt van sy voorskoolse jare was weeklikse wandelings saam met die huishulp Dorothy na die Ou Fort-tronk waar haar man toegesluit was vir ’n pasboekoortreding.

Naweke het hy en sy ma deurgebring by sy tannie Nelly, oom Sam (wat sy goue Valiant elke naweek, die hele naweek lank, gepoets het) en niggies Moira en Myrna. Saam het hulle na Springbokradio se treffersparade – die ander hoogtepunt in sy lewe – geluister.

Heelwat later in sy lewe maak sy biologiese pa sy opwagting. Uselessly word per brief verwittig dat sy pa, Harry, aan kanker ly en graag met hom herenig wil word. Sy verblyf in Seepunt saam met dié eksentrieke karakter (wat onder meer ’n jokkie en ’n aandelemakelaar was) is die gelukkigste in sy lewe: “There was no process. No complicated session, no therapy, no discourse. I was healed. I had my Dad.”

Intussen begin Uselessly sy lewensverhaal Uselessly skryf. Dié metafiksionele aspek van die verhaal is kenmerkend postmodernisties. Die skrywerkarakter verduidelik: “The Dutch word “staart” means tail. The start is the tail end of this tale. This is a tale that keeps on starting over. It doesn’t have a surprise ending. It doesn’t have an ending at all. Just when you think that it’s finally ended, it simply starts up again. It starts with a “start”. It’s startling.”

Aryan Kaganof is slim (slinks?). Hy is terdeë bewus van die paradokse wat, soos Pandora, deur hom en sy alter ego-karakter losgelaat word. Hy spot trouens daarmee. In ’n onderhoud het hy gebieg dat mense soos hy wat, terwyl hulle voorgee om anti-establishment te wees, agter ’n sekuriteitsheining woon, skynheilig is.

Op s˘ beurt bieg die skrywerkarakter, Uselessly: “The problem with most books is that they’re written by and for people who read books. I want to write books for people who consider the very idea of reading a book absurd.”

Na aanleiding hiervan tree die verknorsing van die postmodernisme ook op die voorgrond: Wanneer hegemoniese strukture, literêr of andersins, gedekonstrueer word, word ander nie noodwendig in die proses geskep nie? Uselessly som dié ironie raak op wanneer hy lakonies opmerk: “subversion is my version”.

# Salomé Snyman is ’n doktorale student, departement Engels, Universiteit van Pretoria.

this review was first published by beeld, sunday 2 ocotber 2006

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Uselessly by Aryan Kaganof (Jacana) ISBN 1 -77009-100-9

Uselessly, Aryan Kaganof’s third novel, is exceptionally funny and brilliantly crafted through a collection of letters addressed ‘Dear God, thank you for your reply’ and signed ‘Your friend, J.J. Uselessly’. The letters explain the predicament J.J. Uselessly finds himself in and recounts the story of his childhood, though he concedes that God probably knows all this anyway. Born ‘out of wedlock’ and brought up by his nanny Dorothy he recalls her love of Marie biscuits, days in the sun with other nannies and their visits to the prison. Kaganof’s wit weaves the memories with ongoing dialogue with God, such as Uselessly wanting to know why God structured ‘the physical world so that us humans would have to work for a living’. Despite diversion into Nietzsche and Jung that may lose the uniformed reader, the tragic story of Uselessly finding his father – then watching him undergo chemotherapy – is riveting. This is a caustically funny, seriously sober read.

Terry Ellen
Ranking: 4/5

this review first appeared on the write co.

buy uselessly now (in south africa) (in united kingdom)

beautiful brother…

about 2 weeks ago i bought (after many years of saying ” I really must read
that stuff, heard so much about it”) Neil Donald Walsh’s Conversations with
God….

By fabulous fate, i bought the set of 3books, started reading then got
busy…so didn’t get past the first chapter yet.

Yesterday i did a small gig and have a rule to buy myself something juicy
when new dough from my flow comes in….your Uselessly…was that juicy
somethin and how juicy it is!!! I am munching my way through it at a rapid
pace and thoroughly enjoying the feast. I can hear your voice (one of the
many I am sure) so cleary and see those eyes shining as I think of you
telling this story…or being JJ to what ever extent.

I am so proud to know you…have you on my path!
You are a deliciously unpious nowadays guru and i love the SLOW DOWN…TRUE
MOVEMENT/TIME gospel/philosofeeee you are delivering through this book.
Your eyes and soul have surely seen a lot brother!
Thank you for sharing your “conversations with God” with me. Your honesty,
humility, humanity , HEART (seems to be an H vibration going on here) and
“lightness of being” amidst some of the “darker” sides of life…is
AWE…some….worthy of AWE. It makes your writing deep soul/cell
nourishment for readers who are ready to hear, to receive.

Con amore luce! (Italian: Muchlove & light)
Humming Planet M
aka Malika Ndlovu

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Hey JJ!!!

I’ve just read Uselessly and loved it! It struck me as truthful, and I laughed a lot! It was terribly sad, too. Congratulations,
Franki Hills

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Herr Kaganof!!
 
Just so that you know- this marketing campaign of yours via the www. works- well for me anyway- I went out and bought your wonderful novel. The marketing aside- It was a beautiful and heartfelt story about a son and his father. I shed a tear when he died, when you held his hand so tight, and he yours so tight. He reminded me so much of my father, especially with regards to the rich, the beige bourgeoisies, the uneducated, the over-educated, the pseudo intellectuals, the glum, the ambitious, the regular-  ALL PEASANTS!!! -  AS FAR AS WOMEN ARE CONCERNED- My father’s appetite and attitude about women and sex was legendary- he had ONE WIFE, (48 YEARS OF HELL, FOR ALL CONCERNED) eleven kids, many girlfriends and a dreadful way of treating them once he has got what he wanted through his intellectual and gentlemanly charm offensive- which was diametrically opposed to his absolute lack of charm and callous behaviour (schizophrenic) when drunk!
 
But not so much about me and my father, more about your great insights and novel/book- Your disguised structure and narrative flowing from your free form was totally engaging, which as you know is the point of narrative. Your anecdotes made me home sick- and simultaneously sick of being South African! The tomato sauce thing had me laughing aloud, as did your Prozac nation and your consistent naïve logic. It’s a great insight into growing up in South Africa without the usual sentiment- just hard core and charged memory (as difficult as that can be)
 
In a very weird way, it gave me the same kind of feeling about South Africa and my father as Sean Johnson’s novel, the Native Commissioner, which is diametrically opposed in form and structure to yours- He is Mr. Traditional, and very good at it too. Nee, mooi man, fokken mooi. I think that the position that you took on the writing of the novel was brilliant, as it absconds you from any criticism- you are after all, JJ Uselessy.
 
Anycases (as my auntie Dawn used to say) that’s my ten cents worth. My most sincere congratulations on your work- vot can I shay-you are an original!!!-one of the very few in South Africa.
 
Best, Garth Holmes.
 
By the way, what happened to the waitress in Alberton?

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a South African cross between Brett Easton Ellis and Irvine Welsh -
where the hell do you find the time for all of this?

Craig Cuyler

buy uselessly now (in south africa) (in united kingdom)

Dear Mr. Kaganof,

I seriously enjoyed your novel Uselessly. Judging from a synopsis I
read, Hectic! also sounds like my cup of tequila. Disappointingly, I’ve
been unable to purchase the title anywhere. Presumably it’s out of
print. Will it be available again anytime soon?

Regards

Brent Davis