Mafeking Road

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I'm sure I would have enjoyed it even more if this edition included an introduction with a summary of South Africa's early history and the Boer Wars, which feature prominently in several of the tales. It seemed a long way, now, from the kitchen to the voorhuis, and I had to lean against the wall several times to think. I could go on lying there under the withaak and looking for the cattle like that all day, if necessary.

We strongly recommend that all the information we provide be verified by you on inspection, and by your Surveyor and Conveyancer. Bosman subverts the impact of his profound insights into human nature by constructing stories and characters as sweet as any cup of coffee Oom Schalk consumes, and as idiosyncratic as any character that one can find in the writings of Mark Twain. These stories are beautiful fruit from a difficult, problematic, worn and wise, humorous and tragic landscape.Comprising of; two reception rooms, extended kitchen/diner, south facing garden and no onward chain. It happened about mid-day, when I was out on the far end of my farm, behind a koppie, looking for some strayed cattle. Growing up in Apartheid era white schools I guess this was as subversive as our English teacher could get.

Some of his stories have a wistful, sad beauty; others, like the Oom Schalk Lourens ones, are robustly funny. The property comes part furnished with sofas and TV to the living room and double beds, mattresses, wardrobes and desks with chairs to the bedrooms.

Despite the very local setting, and being very much of their time (the 1920-s) these stories still have a strong appeal. The stories are set in the early 20th century, after the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902 and well before the nationalist governments that implemented the system of Apartheid from the late 1940s. However, spend some time getting lost in their books and you will féél and understand things you never fathomed.

It was wonderful to meet Oom Schalk Lourens, my first unreliable narrator, again after all these years. Figures for relationship status do not include those aged under 16, or those family members aged 16-18 who are in full-time education. Mafeking Road is the first published collection of Herman Charles Bosman's Oom Schalk Lourens stories.

His first novel, Jacaranda in the Night , appeared the same year while his prison memoir, Cold Stone Jug , was published two years later. Through Oom Schalk, Bosman was able to make social commentary on South African race issues, on Afrikaners and on South Africa's curious history. Oom Schalk is at times the wise old man of the Bosveld, the village idiot, a racist, a thoughtful voice on race relations, a bumbling romantic and a skilled match-maker. The kitchen is modern and fully equipped with appliances, plus enough storage for sharers, and the shower room is fresh in white white. Spun by the plainclothes local visionary and storyteller Oom Shalk Lourens, these moving and satirical glimpses of lethargic herdsmen, ambitious concertina players, legendary leopards and mambas, and love-struck dreamers lay bare immense emotions, contradictions, and mysteries within the smallest movements and unadorned talk of the Groot Marico District of the Transvaal province.