Frankie and Stankie [Paperback]

Barbara Trapido (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 2003

Dinah and her sister Lisa are growing up in South Africa in the fifties - a time of dreadful changes. Dinah is weedy and doesn't much like eating. Lisa is an angel-face who likes chocolate sprinkles on bread. It is at school that Dinah first learns about racism. 'What would you rather have - a native girl or a koelie to make your sandwiches?' a little girl asks. Dinah doesn't know what she's talking about, because it's her dad who makes her sandwiches. As we follow Dinah from childhood, through adolescence and marriage, to voluntary exile in London, we get a vivid glimpse of one of the darker passages of twentieth century history. Barbara Trapido's writing has always possessed a painful edge beneath a dazzling surface of style and wit and in this, her new novel, she breathtakingly juggles light and shadow as only she knows how. Seductive, funny, heartbreaking - this is pure Trapido.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'This is a gorgeous book about growing up ... it also manages to convey, with admirable lightness of touch, the dawning of a political consciousness ...A wonderful read' Observer 'A beautifully written slice of both personal and political history ... by the end of the novel, you are immersed in her world and simply never want to leave it' Guardian 'A blissfully funny sequence of portraits, family upon family, vignette upon vignette' Daily Telegraph 'I love Barbara Trapido and I adore her books' Carole Shields --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Barbara Trapido was born in South Africa and is the author of five novels - BROTHER OF THE MORE FAMOUS JACK (winner of a Whitbread special prize for fiction), NOAH'S ARK, TEMPLES OF DELIGHT(shortlisted for the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award), JUGGLING and THE TRAVELING HORNPLAYER (shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Novel Award). She lives in Oxford.

Product Details

• Paperback: 307 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub.; Export ed edition (April 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747564329
• ISBN-13: 978-0747564324
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,975,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trapido's Best So Far, September 13, 2004

By 

melianthusmajor (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frankie and Stankie (Paperback)

This is the book Barbara Trapido fans have been waiting for. For all those who have almost enjoyed her books but felt that sometimes style triumphed over substance, Trapido's (one suspects) highly biographical novel of growing up in South Africa in the 1950s has the meat that has been previously lacking. At times the tale she tells is almost too awful to contemplate, but deftly woven into the story of oppression and an unthinkable lack of human rights is the brilliantly remembered childhood and adolescence. Dinah, the main character, is a sickly brainbox who hates sport and has a weakness for fashion and silliness. Her mother is a German immigrant whose well-off family fall on hard times in South Africa. Her father is a Dutch mathematics professor with some dour 50s Spartan influences, but liberal tendencies. Dinah is a mix of them both and it is her take on the situation that makes the book. Maybe toward the end, Trapido seems to be throwing information at the reader in order to finish up, but by then I'd had a really good read and was prepared to forgive. If this sounds like the sort of thing you like, give it a go.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from Barbara Trapido, August 27, 2004

By 

K. L. Cotugno (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Frankie and Stankie (Hardcover)

It is so unfortunate that this wonderful writer is not recognized in America. Every one of her books resonates with wonderful plots and characters, yet I find I have to special order many of them from the UK. This one, possibly her most personal, follows the young life of a girl in Durban, South Africa, during the implementation of apartheid. Being blessed by having enlightened parents and, as her father puts it, strong abstract reasoning, Dinah is appalled at the injustices imposed by the apartheid system. This shameful history is documented here in prose that is understandable, warm and sometimes humorous. Her experiences at her different schools, relationships with the various girlfriends and (later) men she meets, and her truly original family are presented with three-dimensional clarity. When as an adult she leaves for England, she finds she loves her new home, can remember with affection but not longing the positives of her childhood home, but is especially glad that "public holidays are called bank holidays because they aren't commemorating an endless succession of brutal events in which white persons w/gunpowder have laid waste to brown persons w/spears."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good and Bad, August 13, 2006

By 

Happeeface "Happee" (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Frankie and Stankie (Paperback)

I read Barbara Trapido's Temples of Delight before reading this book. I like nothing more than "discovering" an author I enjoy and finding more books by that author to read.

Probably, like most Americans, I didn't know as much as I should have about the terrible history of South African apartheid. Because of this book I know I need to learn more.

Unfortunately, the only character I found interesting was the mother. The growing up years of Dinah and her sister seemed unremarkable and boring. I didn't care about them. It was what was going on around them that kept my interest.

The first maybe 100 pages or so gave me a headache. It was as though the sentences were so long I didn't know where to take a breath. Possibly, the author was trying to mimic the way a child might talk or think. I was constantly backtracking to see if I had missed the end of the sentence or paragraph. Eventually, the breathlessness of the paragraphs ended and my brain felt more comfortable.

I was on vacation when I read this book. If I had been at home with a multitude of books to choose from, I might not have finished it.

Oh, and something else that made me grumpy was how--or maybe I should say when it ended. I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone, but would be curious to know if anyone else feels the book ended abruptly.

What you learn from reading FRANKIE AND STANKIE is much more important than the story. Please read it for that and if you like the story too, you can write a much nicer review than this one.