Robert M. (shotokanchef) reviewed on + 813 more book reviews
I was intrigued by the title: Get a Life. At age 35, an ecologist is stricken with thyroid cancer: a malignant tumor, naturally. Post-op he needs iodine therapy that will leave him radioactive for some time: a threat to his wife and young child. Enter his parents and former "nanny" who will take him in and care for him during his quarantine period until he is considered safe. As an ecologist he is fighting, among other environmental issues, the building of a nuclear power plant. Thus begins the first of several ironies in this novel that is both about the tribulations faced by these families and the environment within which they work, live, and interact. The opening chapters explore the psychology of the recuperation period and its impact upon the families. Then it becomes more abstract. In many ways, the authors style and structure remind me of that of Alan Paton. Crisp, sentences. Often merely phrases. No quotation marks. Who is speaking? Is someone speaking? Often up to a page of narrative expires before, by assumption, the reader becomes aware of which character it concerns. A South African trait, or style? Prose imitating poetry! Finally a shift to affairs sexual. Mother has had an affair. Dad does not seem to care. He will have his later. Transcending all of this are current issues in post-apartheid South Africa: the damming of a watershed, mining of minerals that will cause the destruction of shoreline sand dunes, building of a nuclear power plant, a toll road (to service the mines and the power plant) that will run through tribal lands and displace the inhabitants, and AIDS.
