South Africa in fiction

Press, 26 May 1979, Page 17

South Africa in fiction

Gold Foil. By Rupert Pennant-Rea. Bodley Head. 222 pp. $11.40. The Insurrectionist By Andrew McCoy. Seeker and Warburg. 249 pp. $11.25. South Africa’s misfortunes are becoming a popular theme for espionage thrillers. Of recent publications, lain Finlay’s “Azanian Assignment” remains the best, although all have been overtaken by the South African Department of Information scandal which is showing that real events can still transcend the ingenuity of fiction. Still, “Gold Foil” by a Rhodesian turned economic journalist, is a diverting tale of manipulation in the world’s gold markets. It has the courage to make strongly a point easily overlooked

outside southern Africa: that in the face of widespread foreign interference, South Africa’s races might still have the ability to unite in their own common interests. “The Insurrecticmists,” in contrast, is a strident, violent book whose author insists his work must be banned in South Africa. Perhaps it will be, but that will be no great loss to anyone. McCoy seems to love human blood for its own sake, and to believe all things can be manipulated if clever men are paid enough. As a South African, McCoy writes convincingly of the political attitudes in that unhappy country. The great pity is that he chose to use a vast and implausible “plot” theory of political violence on which to hang his fantasy of a revolution that fails.