Cousins

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY MAR 31, 1997

Eminent South African playwright Fugard acknowledges at the start that this childhood memoir is only partial--it scants his parents and his relationship with black workers--yet it remains resonant nonetheless. Fugard, whose father is of English descent and whose mother is Afrikaner, has long captured his country's Afrikaner strain with a practiced ear. "I have often described myself as an Afrikaner writing in English, and the older I get the more that seems to be the truth: that my English tongue is speaking for an Afrikaner psyche." The Afrikaner-English dichotomy is echoed by the two main sections, named for a cousin from each side. His piano-playing Afrikaner cousin, Johnnie, collaborated with Athol on musical sketches that nurtured the author's future dramatic career. And in a single confidence, his troubled English cousin, Garth, disclosed his homosexuality and gave Fugard a sense of secrets, "my first empowerment as a writer." "I could work back through every play I have written," says Fugard, "and find in it a resonance, an echo of Garth's voice that night up there on the Donkin Street." Despite the title, this book is not confined to the cousins. Some memories lead Fugard to moments in his plays, acknowledgment of his former dependence on alcohol, or even how Faulkner gave him courage to embrace his identity as a regional writer. For Fugard fans, this slim volume makes an excellent complement to his plays. Photos.