Pieter-Dirk Uys publishes first novel
Uys's first novel is described as a story of South Africa's yesterday and today.
At the launch of his debut novel in Blackheath, Cape Town playwright and satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys said to write a novel is novel to him.
“People know me as a performer,” Uys said, at the launch of his book, Panorama, at the Indulgence Café on Beyers Naudé. “But today I am Pieter-Dirk; Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout is in my car’s boot,” referring to his alter ego of three decades. Panorama grew out of a play of the same name he performed in the 1980s. “The book now tells the story further, some 20-odd years later. I like books. Reading brings about imagination and imagination is far above any Hollywood studios,” Uys said.
“To be a narrator with an opinion is quite a discipline. I normally write non-fiction, and I have written biographies on fictitious people, like Evita and another book about her sister Bambi Kellermann.”
Uys’s novel begins with a diary entry in 1980 and then jumps to 2009, and it tells the story of Sibi Makhale, whose father was a political prisoner on Robben Island. In the 1980s she comes face to face with two white teachers – Karen and Rosa – who teach at a primary school on the island. In 2009 she returns to the island accompanied by her two sons who grew up in a democratic South Africa.
“The play challenged audiences and it went to the UK but then came 1994 which was almost like George Orwell’s 1984. And years later I wondered what happened to Rosa and Sibi. In the play there is this moment where Rosa and Sibi spend a lot time together and Rosa realises Sibi has the same goals as she does. There is this moment of realisation for Rosa.” The novel is described as the story of South Africa’s yesterday and today. Uys thanked the audience for being readers.
“Every time I drive past this restaurant I get the reassurance of new books that see the light and readers interested in them. Fiction is fun. It is like having a holiday in your head.”
