Big Dan’s Sofie
Keith Cornelis-Britz
Jacana Media (2010)
This tale about a wood-cutting community in Olifantshoek, in the foothills of the Outeniqua mountains, struggling with life’s complexities during the pre-World War II years, is gripping and moving without sentimentality.
The fact that the original manuscript (in Afrikaans) of this novel was rejected in 1986 because there was “another writer about the Knysna foresters”, is a bad reflection on the local publishing industry.
Until this book was short-listed for the 2008/2009 European Literary Award prize, Cornelis-Britz was relatively unknown – unjustly so. The writer did the translation into English, which is a bonus, because none of the idiom is lost. Certain words are not translated and it keeps the drift in place.
Sofie is a poor, unattractive girl from the wrong side of town (even in such a small community) with little prospect of finding a husband. Her only solution is servitude. She goes to work for forester Big Dan, whose ill wife cannot care for their children. After the straying Miets’s death, Sofie unselfishly brings tenderness into the lives of the neglected Dan and his children.
The simple wisdom with which she steers the children to move on, out of the limiting village and its small-minded people, is poignant. Without any ulterior motive, in the end Sofie becomes a leader in the community and guides people to accept an uncomfortable situation, despite the dramatic effect gossip has on her family.
Cornelis-Britz paints the people with a gentle hand and it is clear he has first-hand knowledge of his topic – he stayed in that area for several years.
Normal human situations and reactions arising from this small under-developed group of people (all related in some way) are addressed, but with such gentleness that it it can only be described as a gem. As one might expect, issues tend to be even more fragile in a small group of foresters who are outsiders in the 1930s and 1940s.
The book might be set in the same greater area as Circles in the Forest of Dalene Matthee, but comparisons would be odious.
The story of the simple, strong Sofie who married Big Dan, successfully raises his children (and one of their own) and changes attitudes in her community, is a softly-spoken page-turner and highly recommended. – Renée Rautenbach