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Portrait with Keys

Portrait with Keys

Author(s): Ivan Vladislavic

Location(s): Johannesburg

Genre(s): Travelogue

Era(s): Modern

Location

Content

(The Author)…..has evidently spent much of his time walking round and round, up and down, above and under, in and out of the city’s not very beautiful streets…..He needs no cathedrals for his art, no victorious monuments. To him this place on the high bitter veldt, with its heartless skyscrapers and its jagged contrasts of rich and poor, is no less than an exhibition of humanity. He does not deal in grand allegory, though. He is, so to speak, a detailist, and as he wanders the streets he registers mostly small, apparently irrelevant things, peripherals, suggestions, snatches of news from the day’s papers, like a scavenger picking up rubbish.
(Jan Morris)

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Book Reviews

Lead Review

‘Vladislavic’s acute intelligence and unfussy style make this quite a find’ (Metro UK)

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