The Persistence of Memory
by Tony Eprile
reviewed by Ben Oswest.
From the United States, an unexpected literary challenge has landed on South Africa’s doorstep, in the form of Tony Eprile’s novel, The Persistence of Memory. It was published in 2003 by WW Norton, and here by Double Storey in 2004. Eprile is an expatriate South African who now lives in the US state of Vermont, and it might be said that, as a future writer, he had one of the most auspicious upbringings South Africa could have bestowed: his father was an editor of Drum; he grew up in the company of the roisterous Matshikizas, Thembas and Nakasas; he can tell authentic stories about seeing Nelson Mandela during the furtive “Black Pimpernel” days. His novel’s title is thus something of a double entendre, referring not only to the “poisoned gift” of photographic memory which torments its main character, but also to the feelings of its author for the land of his birth.
