Venture to the Interior (1952)

I am no fan of Laurens van der Post. I suspect that some of his fame as a writer is due to his taking up the cause of equality among races, and his horific wartime experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese. But his writing - so far - had struck me as polemic and pedestrian; a master of the pedagogic travelogue and no more. But there is a hint in this book of what I have perhaps missed so far. In the middle of this book, which otherwise entirely lives up to my opinion of the author as a very average writer, is a story that stunning, both in the sense of the events and the telling. It could be said that the events described are so extraordinary that no writer could tell it badly, but van der Post's writing here is unsurpassed anywhere, by anyone. I can not think of any writer who has ever told of death and grief with such pure white heat. So for that, I recommend this book - very highly - to any reader of stories of Africa in the 1950's, and any reader who wishes to rehabilitate their opinion of the author. ( )