The Restless Supermarket, by Ivan Vladislavic

The Restless Supermarket, by Ivan Vladislavic. Random House Struik Umuzi. Cape Town, South Africa 2012. ISBN 9781415201695 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0169-5

The Restless Supermarket, by Ivan Vladislavic. Random House Struik Umuzi. Cape Town, South Africa 2012. ISBN 9781415201695 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0169-5

In his novel "The Restless Supermarket", Ivan Vladislavic continues to demonstrate his talent as he explores the age-old theme of how individuals respond when 'things fall apart', and what can occur when language itself is in a state of flux.

Ivan Vladislavić  

A SALESMAN BUGGERING A PINK ELEPHANT (EXCUSE MY BULGARIAN). Not a sight one sees every day, even on the streets of Johannesburg - the Golden City as it were, Egoli as it are, to quote my pal Wessels, the last of the barnacles. As the century declines to a conclusion one has come to expect undignified behaviour as a matter of course, but this was an 'all-time low' (as the newspapers would put it). I see it before me now as if it were yesterday. I say he was a salesman because of the pinstriped suit, the shirt-tails hanging out behind, the tie drooping on his chest like a slice of pizza. Old-fashioned associations on my part. He might just as well have been a popular star, or a lawyer with a passing interest in human rights, or the head of a syndicate for stealing motor cars. These days, the men in lounge suits are good-for-nothings more often than not, while the real businessmen are waltzing around in Bermuda shorts and espadrilles. Whoever he was, he had hold of the elephant on the pavement outside the Jumbo Liquor Market in Kotze Street, gripping its shocking pink buttocks in his paws and grinding his groin against its unyielding fibre-glass tail. I stopped to stare. A lifetime of practice has turned me into one of the world's most shameless scrutineers. The joker's eyes were screwed shut in rapture, but the elephant's were like saucers, with painted pupils as black as draughtsmen rattling in them. The beast's pointed ears stood on end like wistful wings and its trunk curled an outraged question mark over its little gasping mouth. Its eyes met mine without blinking. 'Hey, Arch! Check what Darryls doing.' Spoken by another ill-suited 12 entrepreneur fumbling for a wallet while the cashier rang up a carton of Camel cigarettes and a bottle of Red Heart rum. The Jumbo Liquor Market, as its name suggests, is a 'convenience store' in the American mould. Sliding glass doors open directly onto the pavement so that the passing trade can totter in and out with a minimum of effort. From till to gutter in three easy steps.  Arch came out to see what Darryl was up to. Arch, Darryl and the Third Man. A little triumvirate, unholy and unwise, but citizens nevertheless of the conurbation in which I find myself. Bump and grind from the rear. Arch said, Ag, stop it man Darr. You making your name tawty.' (Just who or what 'tawty' is, I cannot say: it's in none of the reference works and no one will enlighten me. Perhaps a South African counterpart of that scoundrel Mudd?) Darr slumped down on the elephant's back and spoke passionately into one outflung ear: 'Suffer, baby, suffer.' Snorts of laughter from Arch and the Third Man. What would his name be? Some monosyllabic chunk no doubt, some unfeeling stump like Gav or Ern or Gord. People were starting to gather. Shoppers from the supermarket on the next corner, drinkers from the verandah of the Chelsea Hotel across the way, the twilight children, drawn out in broad daylight by the spectacle, a couple of continental gentlemen in open-neck shirts. As representative a cross-section of conurbanites as you could wish to find. Suffer, baby, suffer. It was the punchline of a Wessels joke, I'm sure, entertained reluctantly like all the rest. [...]

This is an excerpt from the novel: The Restless Supermarket, by Ivan Vladislavic.

Title: The Restless Supermarket
Author: Ivan Vladislavic
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Random House Struik
Imprint: Umuzi
Cape Town, South Africa 2012
ISBN 9781415201695 / ISBN 978-1-4152-0169-5
Softcover, 15 x 22 cm, 304 pages

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