Sanet Oberholzer reviews ‘God’s Pocket’ by Sven Axelrad

God’s Pocket ★★★★★
Sven Axelrad
Umuzi

When I interviewed Sven Axelrad about his debut novel, Buried Treasure, a year ago, he revealed he had three novels set in the fictional town of Vivo. He’d managed such an unusual feat in creating this quirky town as the setting for his unexpected novel dripping with magic realism that it was hard to imagine what would come next.

God’s Pocket is set some time after the events of Buried Treasure. We know this because the beginning of the novel briefly mentions a time when Vivo had its own Rat-Catcher and the town’s Treasury was full of ghosts because of administrative bungling by the old caretaker. That was a bit of a mess.

In this timeline, Vivo is inhabited by five friends, and one of them has a rather big problem — the greatest dilemma of his life thus far. Filo is an aspiring novelist whose father has entertained his reading habits for long enough and is now insisting he becomes an accountant. Rather than abandon his literary dreams, dutifully obey his father, and join his friends in their first year at university where the rest of their lives wait to start a slow bloom, he hatches a plan with their help: one that, if successful, will change the course of his life.

We meet Liv — the rebellious, headstrong friend Filo has always been destined to fall in love with; the incredibly beautiful, very smart, Lola; the strapping, football-playing Dio; and Quin — the “glue” that holds the five friends together. As fate would have it, Filo and Liv discover an abandoned quarry on the edge of town with a small cabin at the foot of a bitterly dark lake. The perfect setting, the friends decide, for Filo to seclude himself from the rest of the world for six months — just enough time to write his novel, prove his father wrong, and narrowly escape life as an accountant.

It’s a brilliant plan that comes together with the help of all four of Filos’s friends. Except, once carried out, he succumbs to the dreaded disease that’s been the undoing of many an author: writer’s block. Rather, Filo has no idea what to write about and is slowly verging on losing his sanity when he befriends Henry David Thoreau, who may or may not merely be a figment of his imagination.

One way or another, Filo’s book gets written — but at what cost? And, more importantly, to what end?

Joining the cast of unusual characters is the Investigator, who gets roped into this narrative by Filo’s parents, who enlists his help to track down their son. If they had known their son had visited Mariá de Luz — Mother of Mysteries — they could have consulted her, and met her companion, the fierce yorkie Mariá de Perra. There’s Gabriela, the owner of the finest coffee shop in town, and Sebastian, the town’s — uhm — masturbator. Each character plays a pivotal role in unexpected ways woven through the book in a menagerie of narratives.

Parts of this story can be triggering and violent. But Axelrad manages to “narrate” even these parts with a softness, an apology, even, for humanity’s ugliness. There are also parts of immense sadness, of pure joy, and parts that remind you to soak up what you have when you have it.

“You’re too young to know this, but memories surface like champagne bubbles in the blood stream,” an old man says to the Investigator during a moment’s pause outside Gabriela’s.

“I had no idea,” the Investigator replies.

“Are memories really powerful enough to do this to a man?”

“Of course,” he says.

“That is why, when you’re young, you must do everything you can to make good ones.”

Much like he did in Buried Treasure, Axelrad takes the opportunity to explore the vastness of life between the pages of this book. Finding one’s passion in life. Being overcome with your newfound passion. The meaning of friendship. Young love. Dark forces. Good deeds. Desolation. Lust. Triumph. Loss.

This is the thing about Axelrad: he will surprise you, shock you, fill you with nostalgia, and then bring you to the verge of bursting, filled with the raw emotions of life. The talent to translate life onto the pages of a book is one of the most beautiful ways any writer can stir your soul and I think he is merely getting started.