 In this issue, our man
from England, Tony Heyes, reviews Mark Behr's Embrace. Contact Tony to let him know what you think of the review. I am also told that we will be getting more essays from him in the coming issues, so stay tuned. |
 Embrace by Mark Behr Abacus (March 2003 724 pages, trade paper ISBN 0 349 11300 9 Mark Behr’s novel “Embrace” is a difficult book, in both subject matter and technique. It is the story of a boy on the brink of adolescence, trying to make sense of life and of himself, in surroundings far from conducive to the living of an examined life. Karl De Van, the central character, is sent to the Drakensberg Boy’s Music School because he has an exceptional voice. It is an all boys’ boarding school with the usual single-sex boarding school’s hothouse atmosphere. Children deprived of daily emotional support from their family will find it where they may. In Karl’s case he receives it unbidden from his best friend, Dominic Webster, an effeminate and gifted musician, and from his music teacher, Jacques Cilliers, whom he seduces. Subsequently we learn that Cilliers didn’t need much seducing; he is a paedophile who has relationships with other boys. The situation in which Karl finds himself is that of a doubly-closed society – a boarding school in which corporal punishment is mercilessly meted out, within South Africa under the Apartheid regime. Karl’s are the problems of every gay person writ large. The norms of the school are relentlessly heterosexual, masculine and puritanical. Clearly the authorities are fighting a losing battle considering that the boys are artistic types, yet it doesn’t deter them from straining every sinew to maintain the appearance of respectability and preserve the reputation of the school. The boys are expected to be rough, sporty types dedicated to their art – a contradiction in terms to most people. The school unquestioningly accepts the values of the society in which it is situated. The homophobic attitudes are what one would expect, given the time and place, but the political and racial bigotry pull up with a jolt anyone brought up in a pluralist democracy. “Socialism” and “liberalism” are pejorative terms and “kaffirs” are spoken of, and to, as if they were a lower form of life. Only Karl’s friend has the courage to challenge the mindless acceptance of his school’s and society’s beliefs. Karl, on the other hand, whilst knowing deep down that he is probably gay lacks the courage to swim against the tide. His father is a bully, determined that Karl will be “a man”. Karl feels keenly that he is not the son his father wanted. His great-uncle’s question “are they the parents you wanted?” comes as an epiphany to him. Despite this, he betrays Jacques, rejects Dominic’s love and does violence to his own nature by insisting in the final chapter that he intends never to see Dominic again or to sing. He has put away childish things, resolving to be a respectable member of society. This is a brief and somewhat simplified summary of the plot. Having read the book only once, so far, it is more than likely that many of its subtleties have eluded me. Besides being a very long book by modern standards, it is also complex and difficult to follow. The difficulties are created by the book’s organisation and style. It is not plot-driven, neither can it be described as a stream of consciousness novel. Rather, it presents a mosaic of consciousness in a bewildering series of flashbacks. These occur every three or four pages and relate episodes from different periods in Karl’s life. Sorting out which is which or in what order they happened holds up the narrative flow and is quite confusing. I thought seriously at one point of cutting the book up and re-arranging it the better to follow it! The author also lapses into Afrikaans from time to time without giving a translation. (Karl says in the novel that if he ever writes a book he will include chunks of untranslated Afrikaans in revenge against English writers who include passages of untranslated French. He seems not to realise that most English-speaking readers find this form of cultural snobbery as irritating as he does. Presumably Karl’s views on this are also Behr’s.) Behr leaves the reader in ignorance of the relationship of Karl to many of the other characters for long periods. People are named and discussed without us knowing until much later the role that they play in his life. It is not until we are thirty pages or so into the book that we realise that “Bok” and “Bokkie” are his parents. Only by the end of over seven hundred pages do we begin to put everything together. Despite the difficulties the book presents, it is a fascinating and truthful insight into the mind of a child’s unresolved conflict with society, his family and his sexuality and well worth reading. Its almost Proustian retrieval of the past and selection of telling incidents results in a rich and rounded, if troubling, creation. Behr is said to be planning two sequels and I eagerly look forward to seeing if and how Karl restores his integrity. |
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