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BOOK TALK: MARGIE ORFORD
During Margie Orford’s studies under JM
Coetzee, the renowned author commented on one of her assignments that
there were “glimmers of intelligence”. On 31 October 2013 the attendees
at a Book Talk in the JS Gericke Library staff room had the pleasure of
being exposed to more than just “glimmers” of her intelligence. Orford
is not just intelligent, she is sharp-witted, open-minded and a lovely
speaker who hardly needs any prompting to open up to the audience.
The conversation was led by Jonathan
Amid, a PhD student in the Department of English, whose topic of
research is crime fiction in South Africa. In response to some
interesting questions from a very capable Jonathan, Margie shared the
following with the audience: She started reading at a very young age and
has fond memories of her grandfather telling her stories and even
reciting Shakespeare to her. On her grandparents’ farm where the family
spent their holidays, she discovered books and devoured anything that
she could find on their endless bookshelves. Her first experience of
crime fiction came through Tintin and Sherlock Holmes.
According to her father, Margie was
“perfect till 12”, but then started to unravel a bit. This unravelling
she illustrates by telling how she used to sneak out of her high school
dorm at night, snitching the communion wine on her way out through the
chapel. In her final year at UCT (1985) she took part in a protest march
against the state of emergency and was detained and charged with
treason. She wrote her final exams in Pollsmoor prison. Her experience
at the time remains with her even today. (Margie’s essay about this
experience can be found at
http://www.sapen.co.za/news/sa-news/81-once-upon-a-life-margie-orford).
The characters in her books are usually
based on real people, sometimes she combines characteristics of two or
more people to create one character. Riedwaan Faisal, for example, was
created in response to a very bad experience that she had with builders
at her house. She realized that it was illegal to murder them, so she
used their names and created a character that she liked so much that it
took her mind off killing the builders.
In high school , Margie’s Afrikaans
teacher told her and her classmates (she was in a private girls’ school)
that they were lucky that their parents were rich, because “julle is dom
en julle is lelik” (you are stupid and ugly). Comments like this and
Coetzee’s “glimmers of intelligence” do not get her down, she responds
with resilience and courage.
Margie Orford is the author of five
fiction novels: Like Clockwork, Blood Rose, Daddy’s
Girl, Gallows Hill and Water Music, all of which are
available in the JS Gericke Library.
Naomi Visser
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Margie Orford in
conversation with Jonathan Amid, JS Gericke Library.
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