Damon Galgut

A masterpiece of a family in crisis from twice Booker-shortlisted author Damon Galgut- 'one of the world's great writers' (Edmund White) and 'the bold, fresh voice of South African fiction' (Observer) A masterpiece of a family in crisis from twice Booker-shortlisted author Damon Galgut 'Emotionally powerful and thrilling,' Gabriel Byrne 'A literary masterpiece' Sarah Hall The Promise charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria. The Swarts are gathering for Ma's funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for -- not least the failed promise to the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. After years of service, Salome was promised her own house, her own land... yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled. The narrator's eye shifts and blinks- moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams; deliciously lethal in its observation. And as the country moves from old deep divisions to its new so-called fairer society, the lost promise of more than just one family hovers behind the novel's title. In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home. Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest. 'Gorgeous and pleasurable' Tessa Hadley 'The most important book of the last ten years' Edmund White 'Simply- you must read it' Claire Messud

The Promise

Chris Dailey

Phenomenal prose and literary techniques comprise the foundation of this wonderful novel. Set over the course of about forty years, the story follows the Swarts: a South African family navigating four untimely deaths and a changing country. Told through an ever changing perspective that moves from one character to the next, exposing their internal thoughts along with their conversations. The movement happens paragraph by paragraph, sometimes from one sentence to the next. Somehow, the story still feels cohesive and the narrative has merit on its own. While dealing with death, racism, politics, family strife, betrayal, religion and self-worth, the book stills feel intimate. Ultimately it's a story about a family and the bonds, or lack thereof, between kin - a tale as old as time.

Hager Elkhidir

Core Summary: Galgut sets out to construct a portrait of a threadbare family, contextualized in a bygone milieu: the height of the South African apartheid, its turbulent demise and the typical ails of social transformation. The book was often pulsing with themes of death, combative religiosity (or lack thereof), and – as ever – the dynamic duo of guilt and grief. At the core of all this, a broken promise continues to tear through the Swart family, one by one.

 

Thoughts:

 Let’s start with the setting. I wished the South African experience (particularly the black experience) wasn’t so peripheral, always overshadowed by a need to sympathize with a mercenary white family. Also, part of me wonders if Galgut deliberately avoided this because he felt it was out of his remit (you know, growing up a yt man in apartheid SA and all). Overall, that’s not to say the setting wasn’t welcomed, it was just rarely additive. 

On to the plot, which was my biggest choke point. The book’s fatal flaw is not that it managed to escape the roundabouts of drama – it was actually so cuttingly matter-of-fact – but its lack of plot to sustain 296 pages. To compensate for the absence of real provocative events, (apart from the nonstarter, cheap, and predictable plot “shocks”) the narrative frantically jumps around in time and essence. It was an interesting read but it was almost oxygenless, lacking the rigor, the spark of emotion/passion (not sure why that's a qualifier for a good book, but it somehow is – a topic to contemplate later). At most, this book pulled me into full complicity, which is not something I hoped for.

The style was probably the book’s saving grace. I appreciated Galgut's writing, though it was sometimes needlessly avant-gardist.  I especially liked the narrator’s tone – which was sometimes empathetic but also verged on undue mockery of each character, giving the book a nice touch of comedic relief. Lastly, I genuinely wish the dialogue hadn’t been so confusing lol, my brain took a while to get used to the missing quotation marks.

This was a very grueling read in the sense that it felt like watching paint dry for the first 100 pages. I felt like there were lots of weird, unnecessary plot points that didn’t bring anything to the story. Even the fulfillment of “the promise” didn’t feel particularly gratifying. (Also, truthfully I didn’t like that I was meant to feel empathetic towards rich white people in apartheid South Africa). 

Rana Sulieman

kyra

The book' s structure is interesting and the satire is brought out well in a few characters. 

The way women were described (even Amor as a kid) and a focus on their bodies being 'past their prime' put me off.

Very insightful and meaningful book to read as a South African. May not resonate with people from a different background though. Still a beautiful and heartbreaking read. 

Amy Joubert

Siya S

3.5 stars, round up to 4

I love the flow of this novel. How the narration seems to float aimlessly like a wandering spirit, describing lives and scenes through the eyes of its temporary hosts. Nothing much happened throughout, but the ending made it feel like a full circle — a completion of some sort. 

I couldn't actually pinpoint a word to describe this saga even if I tried. But it's like a long-take shot documenting a slow, sureness, gradual avalanching trainwreck of the Swarts through the decades. With South African history blaring in the background, paralelling changes and political dynamics between Blacks and Whites in a pretigious, privilege household.

There is nothing unusual or remarkable about the Swart family, oh no, they resemble the family from the next farm and the one beyond that, just an ordinary bunch of white South Africans, and if you don’t believe it then listen to us speak . . .

The many voices of The Promise tell a story in four snapshots, each one centered on a family funeral, each one happening in a different decade. In the background, a different president is in power, and a different spirit hangs over the country, while in the foreground the family fights over what they call their farm, on a worthless piece of land outside Pretoria.

Fraser Simons

Gave it 50 pages and bailed. My brain does not like this perspective or style. It’s like water off a duck’s back. Nothing sticks with the infodump right off the bat. Too much of the wrong kind of information and the prose is interested in everything about a scene or person or situation that I am not. It’s certainly different, so I can see why people were engaged by it. But, for me, it made everything feel less rendered and sketchy.

Marion R

Vivian

Superb and masterful writing. Fluid transition between first and third person narratives. I can see how it won the Booker Prize. Every character is so passive, struggling and lost. So much are unsaid yet overflowing from underneath. Perhaps due to a lack of knowledge for South African history as well as an indifference towards the writing style, the story failed to engage me, hence 3 stars.

Nadine 

A book greedily consumed in one afternoon’s sitting of horrified “nostalgia “ - or whatever the correct phrase is for negative nostalgia- the people, place so familiar and yet so alien seen from my 30 years removed eyes. 
Powerfully written and worth a read and the prizes - yet could anyone without SA soil in their past really “get” it?

I thought it was fantastic. A book following a family through important parts of history and jumping many years and places between parts. The omniscient point of view is great and flows as easy as a river. You just jump everywhere and get bits and pieces of everything.

julia

Discover the Booker Prize longlisted literary masterpiece of a family in crisis. 'Astonishing' Colm Tóibín The Promise charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria. The Swarts are gathering for Ma's funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for - not least the failed promise to the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. After years of service, Salome was promised her own house, her own land... yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled. The narrator's eye shifts and blinks: moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams; deliciously lethal in its observation. And as the country moves from old deep divisions to its new so-called fairer society, the lost promise of more than just one family hovers behind the novel's title. In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home. Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest. 'Gorgeous and pleasurable' Tessa Hadley 'The most important book of the last ten years' Edmund White 'Simply: you must read it' Claire Messud

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021

Francine Corry

James Haliburton

There is nothing unusual or remarkable about the Swart family, oh no, they resemble the family from the next farm and the one beyond that, just an ordinary bunch of white South Africans, and if you don’t believe it then listen to us speak ... The many voices of The Promise tell a story in four snapshots, each one centered on a family funeral, each one happening in a different decade. In the background, a different president is in power, and a different spirit hangs over the country, while in the foreground the family fights over what they call their farm, on a worthless piece of land outside Pretoria. Over large jumps in time, people get older, faces and laws and lives all change, while a brother and sister circle around a promise made long ago, and never kept ...

The Promise

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