Careless Human Acts

de Bruyn, Pippa

Careless Human Acts

Master Thesis

2019

Abstract

The novel is divided into three sections, a few days at a three times in an 18-year relationship. Part One is set in June 1976. A dissolute couple is flying home from Europe to Johannesburg. Elsa, who has concealed sexual contraband, is nervous. Her irascible husband, Derk, is drunk; plagued by impotence, shortness of breath, existential angst and a creeping sense of failure. Despite his success as a creative director for an international advertising agency, his overweening ambition – to become an immortal poet – will at best be realised posthumously. Home is an apartment in the tallest residential building in the world. The couple has a 16-year-old son, Paul whose daily routine and whereabouts go largely unnoticed by his parents. Each of the characters is essentially lonely. The discovery of a long-lost uncle produces a period of self-reflection for Derk. He briefly pauses his dogged search for sexual gratification, but any realisation is distorted through the prism of his narcissism. Elsa, seeking companionship and a home, is increasingly reluctant to service Derk’s voyeuristic demands; the barrenness of life in the concrete jungle of Hillbrow is mirrored in their relationship. Paul’s ability to develop deep or loyal relationships is stunted by their emotional neglect. Within the myopia of this dysfunctional white South African family, the catastrophic events unfolding in South Africa are incidental. In Part Two, set in more sedate 1960, we meet recently wedded Elsa and Derk. Derk is deeply in love with Elsa, and both are ecstatic with the promise of life together. They fly to Cape Town for a reunion dinner with Derk’s brother, Gabriel, his wife, Alice and Elsa’s parents. The weekend is an unmitigated disaster; the seeds of their future discontent sown within the same time period in which the Sharpeville massacre took place. In the final section, set in 1978, Elsa has finally found the courage to leave Derk and started her own business venture. A chronically angry Paul is enrolled in the army that is making cross-border raids into Angola. Having cynically destroyed all the relationships that were dear to him, Derk tries one last time to salvage the one he feels is worth living for. The insidious nature of abuse that leaves no physical trace is a central theme. The cycle that allows it to take root and how it flourishes in isolation – of a nation, a community, a family – and leads to dysfunction. The dawning economic emancipation of women in the second half of the 20th century, as seen in the growing independence of the main character, Elsa, is another trope. Set within times of historic change in South Africa to which the characters – so wrapped up in their personal dramas – seem bizarrely inured, it seeks to show that an oppressive society harms even those individuals it prefers and privileges. And that love and hope, as always, redeem

Keywords

Creative Writing

Reference:

Collections

Masters

Full item page