'In A Strange Room' by Damon Galgut
You might be forgiven for thinking In A Strange Room is something of a strange book. It certainly provokes plenty of questions. Firstly, is it a novel, or a series of stories, which may or may not be connected? And are they stories, or actually travelogues? And hang on, if the narrator is called Damon, surely we're talking about autobiography here?
I'm not sure how worthwhile it is getting hung up on questions of genre though. In A Strange Room is a great book, whatever you call it. It's divided into three sections, each detailing a journey taken by the narrator. As readers of Galgut won't be surprised to find, each journey is shot through with uneasiness, awkwardness and unspoken tension. In the first of these, it's sexual tension, as the narrator travels round Namibia with a muscular and strangely driven German. In the second, it's more like romantic awkwardness, as he meets, parts from, meets again, and never really spends much time alone with a sensitive Swiss youth. And in the third, the tension is literally life-threatening, as he holidays with a depressed friend, effectively acting as suicide watch.
The quality of writing is first class: spare, considered, unembellished. Descriptive writing about place and landscape is one of Galgut's strengths. He manages to capture not just the beauty and novelty of travelling to new lands, but the strangeness of meeting new people, reinventing yourself, being away from home, and that curious sense of disconnection from the things we usually feel around us, anchoring us. It might be hard to describe, and not all that comfortable to read, but In A Strange Room taps into something vital about ourselves and our journeys.
Susan Tranter
Published 02/08/2010 |
