The Promise - Damon Galgut - 3.5 rounded up

[Booknblues]

The Promise is a much talked about book with its nomination for the Booker Prize Longlist. I've read and watched reviewers wax poetic about it. The premise is quite interesting a family, gatherings at funeral and a promise of a house for a loyal servant. The writing is fluid, a stream of consciousness flowing from one point a view to the next, from paragraph to paragraph from one detached, unconnected member of the family to the next. This is the kind of writing that catches the attention of the Booker judges.

We so love dysfunctional families. They help us recognize our own and feel superior, but I don't know that I feel superior to the Swart family, I just don't recognize them. They all exist so separate and disconnected from each other and yes, from the reader.

Here is Astrid the middle child, the beautiful daughter, sitting on a pew at her mother's funeral:

Astrid shifts on the hard pew, feeling moist and restless. She had sex yesterday with Dean de Wet in one of the stalls down at the stables, and it was beautiful, despite the smell of fresh dung. The horse stamped and huffed in a neighbouring stall, rustling the straw with his hooves.

So yes, let's talk about the beauty of the writing.