South Africa is highly politicised; even small issues become politicised, and it becomes quite bitter.
From Damon Galgut
I long for a South African society that's free of ideological forces - no society can ever really be free of ideological forces - but I wish it was free of power.
I think the impulse took shape in early childhood when I was very ill with lymphoma for a number of years. I spent a lot of time in hospitals and sick-rooms, being read to by various relatives, and I learned to associate books with love and attention.
Any radical change or trauma always makes for interesting subject matter, but then all stories deal, to some extent, with the disjuncture between past and present.
Rian Malan was one of the first younger writers to perceive and write about a darkness in the South African psyche that goes deeper than mere politics. To some extent, that's my territory, too.
I wrote large chunks of 'The Impostor' and 'The Good Doctor' on a beach in Goa.
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