Aanspreeklikheid

Reminiscent in some ways of Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full, the novel explores the spatial, racial and conceptual divides that continue to pervade Cape Town via the lives of men. [...]it exposes some mythologies of manhood through its narration of an ageing white man endeavouring, on the surface, to save his literary career, but really attempting to save himself, all the while becoming more exposed and, as the title suggests, more accountable-answerable. The peaceful image of a literary life near the ocean is soon disrupted, however, as a number of unexpected events occur, leading to an assault on Diehl and culminating in the killing of the assailant, Theo, whom the reader is also led to believe recently murdered Diehl's girlfriend, Soraya. [...]as J. Aaron Simmons (86) argues: "If Butler is right, then the basis for morality is not self-identity, but the exposure to others; not self-recursion, but constitutive incompleteness; not a final subjective narrative, but the continual desire and attempt to not close down the task of narrative itself".