Mixing mirth with tragedy, this multi-layered novel investigates the eviscerating effect of trauma on a young boy's mind. Experimental in several ways, the book is set up as a bizarre and disturbing scrapbook belonging to Ace and Rem, two South African brothers. The reader of the scrapbook is a war correspondent who has traveled from Amsterdam to South Africa to talk to the boys, hoping to find their connection to events across two continents that have left a trail of shattered lives. Deft characterization shows the growing ties between the boys and the journalist, and, despite the horrors, the result is an engrossing story that is both cynical and tenderly hilarious.
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About the Author
Richard de Nooy is a cartoonist, a copywriter, an editor, and a translator.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Read This Book,
By Michelle M. (California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Six Fang Marks & a Tetanus Shot (Paperback)
This book is what I would imagine it would have been like to grow up as a boy with a younger brother rather than as a girl with a younger brother. Well, if both brothers were unnaturally accident-prone and/or possibly a bit insane. Maybe insane is too strong of a word. Was their story a result of some sort of psychological deficiency or just bad luck? In the case of Ace and his younger brother, Rem, I think it was just bad luck. Rotten luck.
When I first started reading, I thought the narrator (Ace) was completely reliable. Then I started to have an inkling of doubt, which soon became full-blown mistrust, especially when another narrator was introduced. That's when I had a hard time putting the book down. I had to find out what happened. I had to find out the truth. At times hilarious, but more often tragic, loving, and poignant, Six Fang Marks & a Tetanus Shot was quite a ride. Besides the story itself, I also liked the not always linear scrapbook/diary format that the novel was written in. I enjoyed the flashbacks to all of the various incidents that occurred while the boys were growing up, and how they ultimately helped tie the novel together in the end. If you've ever known boys, particularly two brothers, a lot of those stories will sound familiar. The competition...the fighting...the loyalty...the love.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastically enticing debut novel,
By
This review is from: Six Fang Marks & a Tetanus Shot (Paperback)
This is a very interesting read from a first-time author. More of a scrapbook compilation of a story than a standard novel, the author moves through many different voices as he relates the story of Ace and Rem De Heer, two brothers growing up in South Africa.
The brothers De Heer are plagued by accidents that variously incapacitate and harm them, related in short snapshots titled with the cause of the accident and the injuries sustained- from a jousting match with bamboo poles to impaling oneself on a car door handle. Woven among these stories is a mystery surrounding an event of their childhood that has far ranging consequences and haunts them into adulthood. When Rem shows up in Amsterdam and is subsequently smacked flat by a tram, Ace finds that the brothers' shared past of accidents and tragedy isn't as easy to leave behind as he'd thought. This is a story that teases you like a burlesque dancer, slowly dropping bits and pieces of its covering until the truth stands revealed. De Nooy's writing is quirky and written in a comfortable off-the-cuff manner that echoes the haphazard way his character's live their lives. His ability at writing dialect so that your mind hears it while reading is phenomenal. I particularly enjoyed a look at growing up in South Africa where the struggles of Apartheid were not the main focus, but rather events that intruded in upon the lives of the two brothers. I definitely look forward to the next work by this up-and-coming author
5.0 out of 5 stars
great book,
By
This review is from: Six Fang Marks & a Tetanus Shot (Paperback)
I thougt it was just a great book.
The writer is from South Africa and lives in Amsterdam, he knows what he is writing about.
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