FROM WHERE I STAND. By George Rampai
From where I stand is an award winning novel written by a South African (George Rampai). Here, the author has created a thrilling novel based on his home town, Ladybrand (one of the many towns in the Free State, SA) The flowing story with plenty of action, is weaved around a gentleman called Danny, a controversial hero. Critic O. Bolaji eg has described him as "a memorably absurd, infuriating protagonist". Yet warts and all, the author can surely hold his head high among eminent African writers in this genre over the decades. This is an authentic story and the author is true to his town (Ladybrand) and the teeming people in the township there. He also reproduces the flow of the varied speeches, with the occasional melodrama. But how well Mr Rampai writes! Some critics have seriously laid into the character of Danny the sleuth in this work, even dubbing him "morally bankrupt". But such judgments are essentially subjective in the world of literature...