Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 27, 1994 TAG: 9403200178
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by MARIE S. BEAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Breyten Breytenbach, poet and artist, is the son of a prominent African farmer. In the 1960s he was exiled, first for participating in antiaparteid activities and then for marrying Yolande Golondrina Sonrisa of Vietnam, thus stepping over the line of immorality into an illegal mixed union. In his words, "Twice doomed and twice blessed."
Once when Yolande saw him writing, she said, "If you must write, keep it short and readable." But he cannot. He writes with the exposed nerves and seared vision of one who has suffered too much and seen too much. Prosaic literary devices will not do. In 1975 he made a secret visit to South
Africa from his home in Paris. He was arrested, charged with treason and imprisoned for seven years. In 1991 he and Yolande returned to a South Africa that was changing with the release of Nelson Mandela. Apartheid was on its way out. Breytenbach had become a respected figure. He traveled about Africa, visiting old friends, speaking, reading his poetry in universities. "Return To Paradise" is a memoir of that experience.
It is not easy reading, and not just because of unfamiliar names, places, terms (for which he provides a helpful glossary). In a stream-of-consciousness mode, Breytenbach has constructed a literary collage that at once attracts and repels. Nothing escapes his vision and he wants to reveal it all: the incredible beauty of Africa's skies and landscapes, the birds, the beasts, the sordid deaths, the spiritual ironies, the moral contradictions, the nobility of rare courage and soaring idealism, the meanness of bureaucratic regulations. And more.
"Return To Paradise" adds to our understanding of Africa because Breytenbach helps us feel the feelings of one who loves it, paradoxes and all.
\ Marie S. Bean is a retired pastor.
by CNB