Enjoy The Quiet Violence Of Dreams Penned By K. Sello Duiker Contained In Copy

am not one for repeating books but this is a book I would read over and over again, this is one writer I would have loved to meet.
A must read!!! I enjoyed the book, it took my three days to finish it, which is very fast for myself considering how huge this book is.
I enjoyed the Tshepo character, I could relate to him a lot, The lastpages or so, after the guy accidentally ejaculated in him when he started his last confused spell was quite long and leading nowhere, I thought certain things in earlier part of the book will start coming together like his fathers death and what dad said on his death bed, what caused him to go crazy, what his purpose for going to Joburg was, maybe getting a boyfriend/lover, etc.
There are a few loose ends that doesnt add anything to the narrative of the book, Wow! Wow! Wow! This is one of those books that makes you wonder, when you finish it, "What do I do with my life now" Duiker took me for one hell of a ride, I'm thoroughly schooled.
I'll review this later but for now, consider the words of Franz Kafka who famously said, "I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us.
If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for"

"We need

to read books," he added, "that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide.
A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us, "

This is such a book, Bound to make waves. In this daring novel, the author gives a startling account of the inner workings of contemporary South African urban culture, In doing so, he ventures into unexplored areas and takes local writing in English to places it hasn't been before,

The Quiet Violence of Dreams is set in Cape Town's cosmopolitan neighbourhoods Observatory, Mowbray and Sea Point where subcultures thrive and alternative lifestyles are tolerated.
The plot revolves around Tshepo, a student at Rhodes, who gets confined to a Cape Town mental institution after an episode of 'cannabisinduced psychosis', He escapes but is returned to the hospital and completes his rehabilitation, earns his release and promptly terminates his studies, He now works as a waiter and shares an apartment with a newly released prisoner, The relationship with his flatmate deteriorates and Tshepo loses his job at the Waterfront, Desperate for an income, he finds work at a male massage parlour, using the pseudonym Angelo,

The novel explores TshepoAngelo's coming to consciousness of his sexuality, sexual orientation, and place in the world, lifestyle and set of experiences are explored that of a young black woman who gets involved with a disabled German student who does not want to commit to marriage, despite Mmabatho's unplanned pregnancy.
One of the best young South African writers there was, Gone to soon, but these stories will forever remain,.Awesomely written dark book, it pushed a lot of boundaries and addressed a lot of societal questions like how we view gays, how and why people hate other Africans yet accept European immigrants.

I think the writer sacrificed some of the credibility to make a point, like how Tsepho was raped, it makes no sense at all, the attack was unprovoked and so random, i felt like the writer wanted to include that rape scene but just couldnt find a proper opening so he just threw it in there.
And also Tsepos fathers death, and the mysterious envelope that wasnt opened in the end, i still want to know what the Father meant by saying he would understand how they sacrificed.
THE MOST CHALLENGING TEXT I'VE EVER READ,
“You must go where love leads you, even when you are going towards trouble”
, This novel is, at its core, a South African coming of age story that tackles several issues most American texts of the same genre dont dare to address.
Duiker took his own life inafter suffering a type of psychotic break amd I can't help but see this text as partly autobiographical, This story is that of Tshepo, like Duiker, a journalism student at Rhodes who comes to encounter mental illness,
sexual assault, racism, sex work, hegemony, and hybridity of prejudice.


This lengthy novel opens on Tshepo in a mental facility undergoing treatments
that could be lightly called questionable, Mostly, he and other patients are drugged into sedation and left alone, His backstory of being a black university student at a
predominantly white institution is revealed through his memories, His reason for being in this Faulkneresk madhouse is originally described as “cannabis induced psychosis” while later is it revealed that his trauma and subsequent use of marijuana stems from
his mothers violent rape and murder, an event he revisits in his dreams.
Much of the first half of the novel is stuck in this facility called Valkenberg German for falcon hill,
Tshepo does manage to escape once, but gets apprehended and brought back only to learn that he must work his way through the process to earn his freedom.


Upon release, Tshepo quits school and moves in to a flat in Cape Town with
several transient roommates including his best friend Mmabatho, an independent black girl who only dates white men, and Chris, an uneducated black young man who detests Tshepo for his privileged upbringing, but whom Tshepo lusts after.
Tshepo quickly finds himself without the money to survive and takes up a job at “Steamy Windows,” a male massage parlor that services the queer, white elite of Cape Town.
Tshepo is encouraged to choose a more European name in order to be more desirable to white clients, He chooses Angelo. Still coming to terms with his own sexuality and place in the world, the
majority of the second half of the novel is set inside the walls of this massage parlor.


South African race relations are at the forefront of this text, and seen mostly
through the lens of sex, Mmabatho, black herself, is prejudice against nonwhite Africans, She uses local derogatory slurs like “makwerekwere” to refer to Africans outside the metropolitan areas of the continent, She chooses to only date white men, and prides herself on the number of them she can seduce,

Tshepos sexual awakening is directly tied to race, He sees Chris as an wild creature, even though they are both urban citizens, Describing Chris, Tshepo states “There is a determination about his eyes, like someone madly chasing the sun even though it only want to set peacefully”, This infatuation comes to a violent halt one night in the flat when Tshepo is raped by Chris, The significance of this event echoes through the text asTshepo does not see sex as an act of love or affection, but as an act of power.
“There is a do or die resolve about him” Tshepo explains Chris, This idea continues into the massage parlor where Tshepo, now Angelo, is chosen by these affluent white men, He learns that his sex appeal is an asset and his route to financial stability, Being a young, slim, wellmannered and almost naïve man, Tshepo quickly learns it is his virginlike appearance that makes him stand out from the other “boys” and he becomes popular fast, despite his blackness.
He asks one of his clients “Why did you pick me You could
have chosen one of the white boys, ” The middle aged businessman with wife and
children answers “You were anonymous”, This is the first in a list of instances where white men see Tshepo as being inhuman, voiceless, a venue for their shameful acts, Its as if his blackness is an excuse, an idea that these acts are not cheating on their wives because hes just a black boy, one that can be used and cast aside without guilt.


The sexual dynamics of gay men also comes into play with Tshepos identity, The
labeling of “top” and “bottom” as signifiers of the sexually giving and receiving partners leads to his belief as being inferior to the white tops.
He is literally being fucked by symbols of hegemonic, racial masculinity, The gay community of Cape Town becomes a microcosm for postcolonial oppression as members of the elite continue to enforce power dynamics over natives even after liberation.
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