Democratic Dawn: The Nineties

ISBN-13: 9781466229167 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 514 str.

Pat Stevens

Opis

Democratic Dawn is the last of a four book anthology, counterpointing the lives of four main characters against a transforming South Africa, moving toward 1994 democratic elections. The first book is titled The Greatest Game, it introduces you to a zany schoolboy named Rupertheimer, and his friends called the Pack. There is the Englishman Nick Jarvis and Peter Khumalo the Zulu, along with an engimatic Afrikaner named Hofmeyr. The first book describes their sixties schooldays where Rupertheimer scores a rugby penalty with a piano, then comes military service where Rupertheimer manages to sink a ship, and makes a lifelong enemy in navy Killick Vokop. Despite the misfortunes that often befall him, Rupertheimer shows early signs of the remarkable prescience, he'd one day employ to guide his country to an embryonic democracy. The liberal press have covered this historic event extensively, but if you prefer your fiction laced with a semblance of historical truth, the works of Pat Stevens are certainly worth a read. The second book is titled Ballad of Steve Biker and it recounts a seventies overseas holiday by the Pack, where they meet their future wives and also come under the influence, of a mysterious motorcyclist named Steve Biker. He is the alter ego of Steve Biko and he has a profound impact on the Pack, especially on Peter Khumalo who returns home to join the Struggle, which lands him in a fierce standoff at Rupertheimer's wedding. This bizarre event seems to eerily echo, the pivotal role Rupertheimer must play in future negotiations, the wedding ends with a message of hope that negotiations will come about. Book three is titled Sons and Daughters and it describes Peter Khumalo's incarceration on Robber Island Prison, but life must go on for the rest of the Pack, so they struggle through the turbulent decade of the eighties. Rupertheimer battles valiantly with the liberal Green Freaks, while his Afrikaner friend Hofmeyr grapples with technical problems at decrepit Hospital Hill, but their luckless pal Nick Jarvis is unfortunately experiencing marital blues. Peter Khumalo is released from Robber Island Prison in 1988, so he joins the Rupertheimer Corporation as a labour lawyer, which he comes to bitterly regret when Rupertheimer involves him in labour pains. Then comes the last book Democratic Dawn where Rupertheimer steers his country through the nineties transition, by outwitting his right-wing Afrikaner uncle Barefoot Battelle, who has being joined by Rupertheimer's arch-enemy Killick Vokop. Yet Rupertheimer wins through with the help of tough police General Kokkenbull, to finally arrive at the first South African fully democratic election in 1994, a glorious achievement unparalleled in history. Never before had a ruling elite willingly given up power, and nowhere had a single bold individual achieved it, this book reveals who that remarkable individual was. Who steered his country through a turbulent transition, while keeping the interfering liberal press at bay. Throughout the book Rupertheimer is hampered by the liberal media, personified by two immoral liberal sprouting journalists, named Thorn Thompson and Dick Clott. They write for a newspaper called Liberal Times, so they believe passionately in individual rights, specifically their own individual rights. The newspaper is owned by an Australian media mogul named Croc Hack, who is too weak to restrain his out of control journalists. Rupertheimer's uncle is famous industrialist Randlord Rupertheimer, he remonstrates with his friend Croc Hack but to no avail, until the shocking Jimmy Savile scandal breaks overseas. This motivates Croc Hack to sell his newspaper chain, for he also owns British newspapers and their cowardly silence has shamed him, as a last act of courage Croc Hack fires Thorn Thompson and Dick Clott. Yet the liberal press are not finished with Rupertheimer, his journalist foes stage a raid on Hotazel Diamond Mine, where Rupertheimer again thwarts

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