Joan Hambridge het Nuwe Stories 2012 geresenseer. Lees haar resensie hier.
LitNet Akademies-resensie-essay: Joan Hambidge oor Nuwe Stories
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Monthly Archives: March 2013
The vase had been whole moments ago, now it lay shattered at her feet. Just like her marriage, she thought.
She didn’t even know the neighbor’s name.
The woman stared back at her, wrapped in a sheet. Their sheet.
“I’m sorry” he mumbled, as stunned as she.
“We never meant…” their neighbor added.
That made it worse. We? Surely we and us had been reserved for them.
She kneeled to collect the broken pieces. She would glue them back together again; build a new vase. The pieces would fit, but the cracks would always show.
Just like her marriage.
Two hounds sat at the bottom of the staircase. They followed obediently when he stepped past them towards the kitchen. They stared as he ate breakfast. They watched as he walked past the cookie tin, past the snack jar, past her empty seat. Sally whimpered then.
They’d been quiet since Friday. He had assumed they understood.
They’d been fed, walked, played with, but he couldn’t look them in the eyes.
“I can’t bring her back.”
The phone beckoned, but he did not answer.
Her voice rang bell-like on the answering machine.
“I’m sorry” he whispered and the dogs howled.
Posafleweraars hou van lees. Who knew?
My posman hou homself met my leesgoed besig in die middae wanneer hy onder die boom by die skool in ons straat leegle. Dis die waarheid, ek het hom al daar gesien met my Reader’s Digest! Die ding is, ek wil hom nou nie juis keer om te lees nie, maar dit maak my baie ongelukkig as ek nie my maandelikse kopie kry nie, want ek het ‘n onverklaarbare verslawing aan die swart-op-wit. Die laaste RD wat ek ontvang het was in Desember en Posman het hom duidelik alreeds gelees gehad. As daar nou een ding is wat my nog meer horries gee as om Posman onder ‘n boom te sien met MY tydskrif, is dit om ‘n nuwe boek te koop en iemand anders het reeds daardie vars bladsye versteur! Ek kon seker lankal my subskripsie verander het na ‘n elektroniese een, maar waar is die genot daarin? Ek geniet dit om vir die volgende uitgawe te wag, om die sakkie oop te skeur en om my vars tydskrif uit te haal en die ink daaraan te ruik en die glans-bladsye onder my vingers te voel gly. Ek hou van die klank wat nuwe tydskrifte se bladsye maak as jy hulle die eerste keer deurblaai en ek hou daarvan dat daar nog nie vingerafdrukke op die voorblad is nie. Is dit te veel gevra om my tydskrif nuut en vars te kry en hom EERSTE te lees? Ek sal deel sodra ek klaar is. BELOWE!