Downhill Without Brakes

Set in South Africa as the shine wears off the halo of the ANC once Nelson Mandela has stepped down as president, Val Binney deftly weaves a tale of cracks appearing in the lives of her characters. Some of these occur gradually and others with brutal immediacy but all have life altering consequences. This is a compelling read with characters one cares about and I couldn’t put it down. Here’s hoping Val has a sequel planned as I did not want to story to end.

It’s a rare experience for me these days to be gripped by a novel from beginning to end. Yet I sped through Val Binney’s Downhill Without Brakes anxious to know at the end of each chapter what was going to happen next. Her novel is set in the new South Africa, a country of which I I have only a slight acquaintance but which I feel should have much to teach the world. In this context two men have a traumatic encounter which changes not only their individual lives but affects those in their black and white – still separate – communities in unexpected ways. Binney combines taut storytelling with psychological and social characterisation to leave the reader enlivened and thoughtful.

Perhaps the greatest victory for the progressive Left in the last century was the defeat of apartheid in South Africa. It was a victory in which all could share. But how quickly the euphoria began to evaporate after Mandela’s death, with the continuing economic inequalities, and the sleaze and corruption we see today. What a terrible disappointment, and who could feel it more acutely than those at the bottom of the heap, the township residents who supply the necessary workforce, as well as the handful of white ex-ANC activists who form the other dimension of Val Binney’s story. Binney sets her novel in the latter years of Mbeki’s presidency. Much of the action takes place in the city of Durban and its rural hinterland which the author evokes in colourful and pungent detail. As we follow the fortunes of Ezekiel Mabuza, doorman at Durban’s City Hall, work which involves an exhausting commute by bus to his township Umlazi, we are brought face to face with the conditions of life in the streets, the institutions, the prisons and hospitals of the new South Africa. These scenes are cleverly contrasted with the quiet suburban experience of Mabuza’s manager, Ben Gallagher, and his circle of affluent professionals who represent a microcosm of trends in white South African society at this time. From the very start of the novel, the reader is drawn into the lives of these characters, their likes and dislikes, their fears and aspirations, and the tensions that emerge in their various relationships as the action unfolds. The two main protagonists, Mabuza and Gallagher, are both in their different ways, warmly sympathetic personalities, so that we cannot but care deeply for what happens to them, and this sustains the reader’s interest and enjoyment to the novel’s satisfying conclusion. A superb read which I have no hesitation in recommending to those with an interest in South African politics or who just enjoy a good story.

I enjoyed Downhill Without Brakes enormously, and read it quickly finding ot to be a page turner. I have not lived in, or visited, South Africa and am unfamiliar with the impact of the political circumstances on everyday lives. Reading this book gave me a better understanding of the challenges, injustices, and disillusionment people experience living in the current political climate. I was able to relate to the characters who I found to be well rounded and credible. I formed a liking for some more than others. All were nuanced, all rooted in reality and life experience showing how circumstances test character in different ways, understandably so. I found the way the novel span out from the hasty, and later regretted decision, to deny Ezekiel leave a really interesting structure and one which allowed unintended implications to be explored via individuals representing different cultures and beliefs. A great read, Thank you Val.

An apposite title for a compelling story of two men whose worlds are falling apart. It follows the lives of the middle aged protagonists in the wake of an unexpected encounter in an all too public setting. The tale takes the reader into the world of post apartheid South Africa and is told from the perspective of each; Ben, white and living an apparently comfortable life in the suburbs of Durban; and Ezekiel, black and commuting into the city from his township. We meet their families and become familiar with their circles, and as their situations deteriorate, a black woman, Nomsa Silongo, forms an heroic bridge between their worlds. Val Binney’s novel is beautifully observed and written, and like the title, never loses momentum.