Canvas under the Sky
By Robin Binckes
(3Odeg South, R180)
In 1932, the author of a book called War, Wine and Women was abducted by four young men who tarred and feathered him for maligning the Voortrekkers by suggesting that their lives were not as staid and dour as generally imagined.
He also lost his job at the University of Pretoria, while his assailants were hailed as heroes. Poor Henry Lamont; he paid a heavy price, but, as far as the Voortrekkers are concerned, he prepared the ground for Robin Binckes.
Canvas under the Sky tells the story of the Great Trek. It is an epic tale and it luxuriates in all the stereotypes of frontier historiography. There are vast planes to be traversed, massive mountains to be scaled, bloody battles to be fought and fierce tribes to be subdued and the cast of thousands includes the marauding Xhosa, the perfidious British, the interfering mission-aries and the freedom-loving Trekkers.
In the dull moments in between, the hero engages in sex on an epic scale with multiple partners of varying race, class, age and marital status, and again the stereotypes abound.
For those who enjoy the depic-tion of voyeuristic macho sex against an epic background, this is as good as it gets. – John Boje