The Dubious Salvation of Jack V.: A Novel
“[Jacques] Strauss’s often-hilariousdebut captures a remarkable period of time without resorting to any heavy-handed political messaging. And in Jack he has createdan unlikely, and utterly believable, voice of a generation. [A] profane, brutally honest portrait of tween angst.” —Kirkus Reviews“Jack is a delight to follow, and despite his youth and his assertion that ‘I might have been precocious but I wasn't particularly smart,’ he proves himself to be a reliable narrator. Strauss uses the child to explore 1980s South Africa, aligning the changes the Viljee clan goes through with those their country is about to face . . .The strength of Strauss’s storytelling and the indelible impressions his creations make hijack the story in the best possible way. A well-crafted atmospheric debut.” —­Publishers Weekly“Yes, first novelist Strauss deliversa beautifully rendered coming-of-age story that simultaneously unfolds an understanding of life in apartheid South Africa, but what’s most remarkable here is the assured and fluid language. The ending is not melodrama but a quiet, brilliantly controlled bang. For all thoughtful readers.” —Barbara Hoffert,Library Journal“Funny, shrewd, unguarded, elegiac: the story of a boy’s and of a country’s coming of age,The Dubious Salvation of Jack V.isan astounding and indelible debut.” —André Aciman, author ofCall Me by Your Name“South Africa, 1989. Eleven-year-old Jack Viljee is white, grows up privileged. How can this book be very, very funny? It is.It is an utter delight, astute and knowing. Wonderful.” —Sarah Winman, author ofWhen God Was a Rabbit“A terrificread. It’s smart, charming, funny, highly astute, and subtly political. It’s set in Johannesburg, but the story could map onto life anywhere.” —Douglas Coupland, author ofGeneration X“Childhood innocence can be hilarious. And brutal. This searing debut by a young South African writer captures the grotesque horror of apartheid in daily life through the voice of Jack, 11, a nice white boy with an English mother and Afrikaans father in Johannesburg in 1989. For Jack, politics is not an issue. He hears his parents talking about change coming, but he knows they don’t really believe it. His relatives are racist but “nothing rampant or unseemly.” He loves the black family maid, Sophie, who lives in a room in the backyard. She is his second mother, and she nurtures him with a firm hand. He fights with his sisters, has fun with his friends, obsesses about girls, worries that he is gay. He feels ashamed when he masturbates (“God simply had no respect for anyone’s privacy”), especially when Sophie’s sullen teenage son spies on him. But being white, Jack knows he is the one with power. His move from bystander to oppressor breaks up everything.” —Hazel Rochman,Booklist