"Dostoevsky says that everyone remembers things he would only confide to his friends, and other things he would only reveal to himself...But there are other things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself." In [b:Absolution|13073575|Absolution|Patrick Flanery|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327952526s/13073575.jpg|16080744] a first novel about memory and guilt and censorship, the author has produced a stunning, compelling tale of an aging South African author, Clare, and her biographer, Sam, told in multiple points of view. [b:Absolution|13073575|Absolution|Patrick Flanery|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327952526s/13073575.jpg|16080744] brought the country and its tragic past to life as much as anything I've read by classic authors such as[a:COETZEE JOHN M.|5496667|COETZEE JOHN M.|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] and [a:Nadine Gordimer|55397|Nadine Gordimer|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1328615990p2/55397.jpg]. The characters were well-drawn and the plot moved forward sometimes at rapid pace as I flipped ahead, unable to await the resolution of an incident, the clues to a possible future. The writing is very good and Clare's voice rings true. I closed the book with satisfaction that reading this book was time well spent and sparked my interest in learning more about the country and people of South Africa (rueing a missed travel opportunity a few years ago). The author looms large on my radar for future works. He is a writer to watch. ( )

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so boring I had to DNF it. No stars.

So evidently, that moratorium on reading books with male academic protagonists isn't going so well. I have heard of the principle of "write what you know", but this is really boring and I think male academics need to get some imagination.

The book itself is an alright read; it's basically Atonement in South Africa, though. At least, from what I can recall of that book they have a lot in common. The title, obviously. The concentration on wealthy white people. (Although to be fair to McEwan, Atonement is the book of his I remember being less obsessed with wealthy white people than usual. At least, I don't remember getting frustrated by how much I didn't care about any of his eye-rolling self-absorbed walking moneybags the way I did with his other books…)

This novel centres on an elderly white South African author, Clare Wald, and her biographer Sam Leroux – also a white South African, but having been living in New York for a very long time. Their relationship goes back a long way before that, but to explain it would spoil the plot. It's a novel about history, truth, memory… but also a novel where the only black characters are domestic workers, thieves, and obnoxious police officers, which I found more than a little problematic. I mean sure, from what I've heard, white South Africans prefer to live in isolated communities and see as little of people of colour as possible (except as servants), and my complaint isn't that Flanery should have written white South Africans to be more inclusive than they really are. It's more that I don't understand how he expects me to care about anyone in this novel. I find it really hard to sympathise with these characters with more money than they know what to do with and domestic staff to do their chores. I found it especially hard to sympathise with Clare Wald feeling so guilty about (view spoiler). She did good! What the hell is she so upset about? Jeez…

There are some other aspects of the plot I didn't find very satisfying – the eventual explanation of what happened to Laura, Clare's daughter, for example. (view spoiler) You could describe this novel as a mystery novel, with Laura's fate being the matter under investigation, except that the denouement is hearsay, untrustworthy and unclear. I get that that happens a lot in real life, that real mysteries are never explained. But I don't read mystery novels to get the kind of lack of answers I can get in real life.

Despite all of this, I kind of enjoyed the novel, though. Lacking an emotional investment in any of the characters, I took it as a mystery and ended up disappointed, but until the disappointment it was hard to put down. The differing versions of the same events were intriguing. I wanted to get to the 'truth'. Alas… (Jun 2016) ( )

This book was tremendously well written! I loved the four-pronged narrative and the divergence in each story. South Africa itself felt like another character, the way it affected so many decisions and brought up such a host of emotions in the human characters. The themes of guilt, loss, and entrapment were thoroughly explored in Sam and Clare, and the relationship between the two of them felt genuine. How much do you let another person know that you know? When can you trust enough? Who will be the first to speak? I will be on the lookout for more books by Patrick Flanery.

* I received this book for free from Goodreads First Reads. ( )

Great writing by an exciting new voice. Multiple narratives tell the story about a well-known but reclusive writer Clare Wald and her official biographer Sam Leroux who has come back to Cape Town after many years in New York. There are ties that connect that these two and parts of the book reads like a literary thriller as we race to end, trying to figure out who remembers what about the other. But there are lots of big ideas - reconciliation, forgiveness, and the violence of post-Apartheid south Africa. Stunning debut. ( )