Chris van Wyk – Irascible Genius: A Son’s Memoir
Kevin van Wyk
Pan Macmillan
Kevin van Wyk is the elder son of Chris van Wyk, who is probably best remembered for his wonderful memoir, Shirley, Goodness & Mercy. But he was also a poet, a writer of short stories and children’s books, a political activist and a major literary figure in South Africa, and here his son pays a warm, affectionate tribute to him and to his wife, Kathy.
There is not a huge amount about Van Wyk’s early years — they are covered in his own memoir, and Kevin wisely leaves that to his father’s voice. But he traces Van Wyk’s rise as a writer from his earliest poetry, written when he was a schoolboy, to being mentored by Stephen Gray and winning the Olive Schreiner Prize for Poetry at the age of 22. His later writing mainly moved away from poetry, but to this day some of his work is on the school curriculum.
Kevin mixes his father’s story with his own. The book is his memoir: a personal tale of his own upbringing in Riverlea in a close and lively family of mother, father and two sons. The telling is not entirely chronological but moves around s incidents which illustrate aspects of Van Wyk’s character. He was a warm, enthusiastic, often funny man, and his son dwells on the kinds of genius he remembers his father being.
One aspect that stands out is that Van Wyk was first and foremost a man of principle. Though he was a political activist through the troubled years of the 1970s and 1980s, according to the author he never voted for the ANC once democracy was established. This is something that will surprise many readers, but Van Wyk was always perturbed by the greed and corruption the party exhibited from 1994. It was Van Wyk’s principled stand on many subjects that led his son to refer to him as the “irascible genius”. Once he was fired up, he was unstoppable.
It must be said Kevin’s writing is somewhat pedestrian compared with that of his father, but despite that, the book is an eminently readable and touching portrait of one of South Africa’s finest literary figures.
‘Chris van Wyk — Irascible Genius’ is a touching portrait of one of SA’s finest literary figures
Image: Supplied
Chris van Wyk – Irascible Genius: A Son’s Memoir
Kevin van Wyk
Pan Macmillan
Kevin van Wyk is the elder son of Chris van Wyk, who is probably best remembered for his wonderful memoir, Shirley, Goodness & Mercy. But he was also a poet, a writer of short stories and children’s books, a political activist and a major literary figure in South Africa, and here his son pays a warm, affectionate tribute to him and to his wife, Kathy.
There is not a huge amount about Van Wyk’s early years — they are covered in his own memoir, and Kevin wisely leaves that to his father’s voice. But he traces Van Wyk’s rise as a writer from his earliest poetry, written when he was a schoolboy, to being mentored by Stephen Gray and winning the Olive Schreiner Prize for Poetry at the age of 22. His later writing mainly moved away from poetry, but to this day some of his work is on the school curriculum.
Kevin mixes his father’s story with his own. The book is his memoir: a personal tale of his own upbringing in Riverlea in a close and lively family of mother, father and two sons. The telling is not entirely chronological but moves around s incidents which illustrate aspects of Van Wyk’s character. He was a warm, enthusiastic, often funny man, and his son dwells on the kinds of genius he remembers his father being.
One aspect that stands out is that Van Wyk was first and foremost a man of principle. Though he was a political activist through the troubled years of the 1970s and 1980s, according to the author he never voted for the ANC once democracy was established. This is something that will surprise many readers, but Van Wyk was always perturbed by the greed and corruption the party exhibited from 1994. It was Van Wyk’s principled stand on many subjects that led his son to refer to him as the “irascible genius”. Once he was fired up, he was unstoppable.
It must be said Kevin’s writing is somewhat pedestrian compared with that of his father, but despite that, the book is an eminently readable and touching portrait of one of South Africa’s finest literary figures.
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