The Garden of the Fugative - Ceridwen Dovey

"Almost twenty years after forbidding him to contact her, Vita receives a letter from a man who has long stalked her from a distance. Once, Royce was her benefactor and she was one of his brightest protégées. Now Royce is ailing and Vita’s career as a filmmaker has stalled, and both have reasons for wanting to settle accounts. They enter into an intimate game of words, played according to shifting rules of engagement."

Through Royce’s confession, we learn about Pompeii from an anthropological perspective, and through Vita’s perspective, we learn about South Africa post apartheid. From both, we learn about guilt, its manifestation and destructive qualities, both on the individual and on those surrounding them. 

As a white South African having immigrated to the UK at a young age, and moved about a lot since, this book was closer to home then I was expecting it to be. However while it was wonderful to read about my country I found trying to relate to Vita's white guilt plot line difficult. She is just drowning in self pity, doing  nothing to help the people that she feels guilty for oppressing, even though she nor her family has actually oppressed anyone but did the exact opposite. Of course South Africa has a bad racial history, but the way to move forward isn't to become lethargic from guilt. I would have preferred if Dovey had focused more on the unsettled, non-belonging feelings that come from being an immigrant which is something far more South Africans I have spoken to suffer from than white guilt. (No South African I have ever spoken to suffers from white guilt.)

As I read, I enjoyed the book, it felt beautiful, tense and there where some very meaningful passages. The parts taking place in Pompeii where interesting and I actually learnt quite a bit. It was a slow build. However there was no pay off. No dramatic ending, just a meaningless fizzle out. It was so disappointing. All the drama built up and hinted at, Royce's stalker tendencies and him kidnapping Vita for a night are all brushed over. The emotional highlights are told in the most unemotional ways. It was so boring and such wasted potential. 

Told in letters relating stories from many years ago, this is historical rather than being in the story itself - it feels stale. The narrators are so unlikeable I didn’t care if they lived or died (he’s a stalker; she’s an amateur artist wallowing in self-pity). Interesting themes where drowned in stale action & factual download.

Age Rating 14+. Some more adult themes discussed but not in depth.