Title: Shark
Author: Carel van der Merwe
Publisher: Umuzi
ISBN: 9781415200766
Publication date: May 2009
Pages: 256
A few months ago I reviewed Dora Taylor’s novel Rage of Life. Set in 1950s Sophiatown, it depicts a country governed by political and economic systems which are characterised in terms of cannibalism. In Carel van der Merwe’s most recent novel, Shark (also available in Afrikaans as Geldwolf), it is evident that very little has changed in the intervening decades:
The new pack of politicos is just as useless as the previous lot: venal second-raters who wouldn’t make the grade in any other sphere of life, and who, in most cases, have never held down jobs not funded by taxpayers’ money, donor grants or union and party dues.
In fact the protagonist, Stephen Winter (previously Stefan Winterbach), is advised that the government should be viewed not in terms of the traditional sense of a government, but rather as “a crime syndicate, or rather, a collection of crime syndicates”. This is due to the fact that “the struggle is over; the only reason people are interested in a Government position these days is to make money, as much as possible, with the least amount of effort.” It is this overt hunger for money, this ability to deny all ethics in the quest for riches, which Stephen believes has resulted in a South Africa “of caricatures: corrupt politicians, rapacious lawyers, ambitious underlings, wannabe black tycoons; a gallery of grotesques”. Furthermore, the desire for money turns men into sharks – fierce, hungry, ready to attack.
Yet it is Stephen himself who personifies the shark of the title. For he maintains (as much as those around him) that “money [gives] you the ability to shape your environment and events, not be shaped by them.” This aspect of money is most appealing to Stephen. When we meet Stephen Winter he is middle-aged, divorced. He is worth millions, has a new, beautiful wife only a few years older than his daughter, and is on the brink of landing a massive deal with the government, a deal which will make him a billionaire. However, as the novel progresses the reader discovers that Stephen did not always have such a charmed life. As you might guess, he grew up poor, was abandoned by his parents, was bullied at school, and was raised as a penniless orphan. This tragic background, I suppose, is aimed at explaining, even excusing, Stephen’s subsequent transformation into a money-hungry shark. However, can having suffered in the past really justify a life of corruption, bribery and general abuse of those around one?
Feeling wholly satisfied with his life (we are told he feels “an indefinable emotion, something akin to contentment, but something deeper and richer, an indefinable sense of belonging and attachment”), Stephen is oblivious to the needs of those around him – his new wife who is having an affair, his daughter who is depressed, his son who doesn’t want a job in his father’s company. In fact, throughout the novel Carel van der Merwe is at great pains to underline as clearly as possible that Stephen Winter is not a nice man. When his daughter commits suicide, Stephen attempts to hush up the scandal, lest it influence his pending deal, and chooses, rather than attending her memorial service, to spend the night with a prostitute.
Unfortunately this heavy-handedness does nothing for a plot which is already repackaged and reheated – we have all met these characters numerous times before in movies and in novels; they offer us nothing new. Furthermore, with the abundant tedious and lengthy descriptions of investments, mergers and the stock exchange, Van der Merwe is in danger of boring all but a very limited readership. In short, while Shark’s particular engagement with the political and economic climate in South Africa is relevant, the truth of the matter is that on any day of the week you can buy a newspaper and take your pick from a number of articles containing just as many cases, if not more, of intrigue, corruption and general ill-behaviour – without having to pay R195!