If you haven’t yet tried a Deon Meyer thriller, get thee out there and have some fun with this local writer who has developed into one of the best and certainly most-loved local authors.
There’s a reason for that.
The former journalist has street savvy, he writes a darn good story but he also reflects a country and its people and gives a balanced view of exactly what is out there.
You only have to listen to Meyer talk to know that he is proudly South African – and not cloyingly so.
He doesn’t wear rose-tinted spectacles but neither does he see the world in the black and white/gloom and doom terms so common to a certain sector of the South African community. He has embraced this new world, and with his books he has loads of fun showing us where it is at.
At a seminar on crime books held at Unisa recently, new crime novelist and former publisher Kerneels Breytenbach remarked that because Meyer was so popular internationally, translated into so many different languages, his picture of South Africa was how many foreigners would be introduced to the country. That’s an amazing responsibility to carry but one that Meyer deserves and possibly carries proudly.
In his latest translated novel Tracked (Spoor), you have to keep focused to follow exactly who is doing what to whom and when.
Meyer says when he’s writing, he keeps a spreadsheet of all the different characters to know exactly where they’re at and what they’re doing at certain times. And when people point to his writing and remark that this isn’t serious literature, it has no effect on him.
“I know what I do is tell stories, nothing more, nothing less,” he says without any rancour.
That’s the thing that is so appealing about Meyer – he seems like a man very comfortable in his own skin, someone who loves the fact that his writing has allowed him to do exactly what he likes most – writing more. And readers keep applauding.
“I don’t think about the genre at all, I think about the story.”
From the early days he knew he had to build a brand if he wanted any future. And if he ever had a reader in mind when writing, there was only one, the reader in himself.
He started writing quite late in his career and one of the reasons was precisely because of our past. “It would have been problematic to have a policeman hero with our past political system,” he notes.
Talking stories, he reflects on writers and the way they’re constantly searching for new stories. “That’s the way we look at the world,” he says. Wherever he is, or whoever he speaks to or reads, he always has his radar switched on – just in case.
“I ask questions, listen to conversations at tables close to me, but until there’s an explosion in my head that really grabs my attention, I don’t budge.”
The questions he asks are usually of the “what if” kind. For example, his latest Afrikaans novel 7 Dae deals with a real case which he didn’t want to pinpoint but merely to tell a story. He let his mind wander and play with the “what if” dilemma… and voila!
He doesn’t start with a synopsis of the story when he sits down, only a vague idea.
“The characters guide me,” he says. “If I knew it all, it would take the fun out of writing.”
There are a few guidelines for would-be thriller writers, though. Start the book as close to the action as possible.
“The first killing should happen pretty quickly,” he advises. Structure and tempo are very important and determine how the reader experiences a book. Anyone who has raced through a Meyer book will understand what he’s talking about.
His knowledge of the police, which plays a large part of every story, comes from the source. “I work very closely with them and have a few professionals check the facts to make sure I get it right,” he says.
Through the years, he has built a hardcore police following because of the way he treats and writes about these professionals. “They know I respect them.”
What fascinates him about the world he has created for himself is that he lives most of the time in that place that doesn’t exist – communicating with fictional people. He was responding to a question from the audience who wanted to know whether he’s sad to see a character go.
“My wife Anita is the only person who reads with me from the beginning so that she knows where my head is at,” he says.
As with his previous novels, Tracked will grab you from the start in Meyer’s latest world. It’s fun, the people seem real and the action is driven in a way that keeps you running at a very fast pace.
And when you close the book, it’s a long haul to the next. But this one is just in time for all those leisure hours.
Tracker
by Deon Meyer
(Hodder and Stoughton, R195)
The thing I probably like most about Deon Meyer is that he creates a world I believe in. As a South African, that’s important because he’s writing about this country, and if you don’t like what he sees he’ll lose you.
He also tells a whopping story which keeps you paging without taking a breath. In fact, if you could do it in one go, you probably would. He starts in Afrikaans then the books appear a while later in English, but the trans-lations are seam-less.
Usually it is ideal to read a book in its original language but I’ve never done that with Meyer and it hasn’t really bothered me. What I also like is that he takes his people on a journey and in between all the action he adds moral lessons that he feels readers should take on board.
Meyer says he’s triggered by real events and then he asks “what if”. That’s the other thing that’s appealing to local readers. Much of what he writes has that familiarity as if we know the stories, the people and where he’s coming from.
It’s good to recognise the landscape, the faces and the accents as he travels from north to south of his much-loved Karoo and everywhere in between.
He’s got the recipe down pat, and I know that will feel like a slap in the face to this writer.
But here’s the thing: he is experimenting all the time. He loves writing, so his recipe is simply that there shouldn’t be a formula – and that’s obvious as you rush from one book to the next.