The Assassin

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #69

by Ian Jack (Editor)

In a powerful piece of imagination, Henk van Woerden reconstructs the strange, affecting history of Demetrios Tsafendas -- the man who assassinated Hendrik Verwoerd, South African premier and architect of apartheid. Also in this issue: Diana Athill on the need to like V. S. Naipaul; Richard Williams on the search for a long-lost jazz trumpeter; and stories by Graham Swift, Hanif Kurieshi, and Paul Theroux.

Genres: Anthologies

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Ian Jack is a British journalist and writer who has edited the Independent on Sunday and the literary magazine Granta and now writes regularly for The Guardian.

Reviews

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Granta's compilations are always enjoyable. No exception here. Hard to rate as a whole since some pieces were more successful than others. The title work, a look at Demetrios Tsafendas' assassination of Hendrik Verwoerd was compelling and well-presented, though the language was occasionally a bit awkward, likely owing to translation issues between Dutch and English. Richard Williams' look at obscure jazz trumpeter Dupree Bolton was excellent and turned me onto a great musician I'd otherwise never heard of. The bits of Paul Theroux's short fiction were entertaining, though it's hard for me to imagine going through a whole book's worth.

Some weren't quite as compelling to me, though they weren't necessarily bad. Diana Athill's retrospective look at V.S. Naipaul would be more interesting had I actually read any of Naipaul's work. Kent Klich's photo essay on children living with AIDS in Romanian orphanages was disturbing and affecting, but I wish there had been more background information.

[E. Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reinstate Ian Jack! Granta was so much better under his editorship.