Review: Redefining the standard for bleak.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 24, 2013
SACRIFICES is about injustice, Cape Town and South Africa. Roger Smith examines how it can be possible that life could be so cheap in that specific place. Through the ordeal of one rich, white family and one lesser fortunate black one, Smith illustrates how a social and political climate can get to you and smear your hands with blood.If you thought it couldn't get any bleaker than Roger Smith, SACRIFICES will show you he can redefine his own standards. It's a borderline hopeless novel, in a good way. In the Greek tragedy way. There is an omen of doom flying over the entire cast, who flock sheepishly towards the light, even in the deepest, darkest pits of despair. SACRIFICES is another great Roger Smith novel, maybe his best yet, but it's also ridiculously brutal. I was emotionally exhausted when I finished it. But it's both my blessing and my curse, for that I live to find novels that do just that.