An inner life of Johannesburg that turns on the author's fascination with maps, boundaries, and transgressions
Lost and Found in Johannesburg begins with a transgression--the armed invasion of a private home in the South African city of Mark Gevisser's birth. But far more than the riveting account of a break-in, this is a daring exploration of place and the boundaries upon which identities are mapped.
As a child growing up in apartheid South Africa, Gevisser becomes obsessed with a street guide called Holmden's Register of Johannesburg, which literally erases entire black townships. Johannesburg, he realizes, is full of divisions between black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight; a place that "draws its energy precisely from its atomization and its edge, its stacking of boundaries against one another." Here, Gevisser embarks on a quest to understand the inner life of his city.
Gevisser uses maps, family photographs, shards of memory, newspaper clippings, and courtroom testimony to chart his intimate history of Johannesburg. He begins by tracing his family's journey from the Orthodox world of a Lithuanian shtetl to the white suburban neighborhoods where separate servants' quarters were legally required at every house. Gevisser, who eventually marries a black man, tells stories of others who have learned to define themselves "within, and across, and against," the city's boundaries. He recalls the double lives of gay men like Phil and Edgar, the ever-present housekeepers and gardeners, and the private swimming pools where blacks and whites could be discreetly intimate, even though the laws of apartheid strictly prohibited sex between people of different races. And he explores physical barriers like The Wilds, a large park that divides Johannesburg's affluent Northern Suburbs from two of its poorest neighborhoods. It is this park that the three men who held Gevisser at gunpoint crossed the night of their crime.
An ode to both the marked and unmarked landscape of Gevisser's past, Lost and Found in Johannesburg is an existential guide to one of the most complex cities on earth. As Gevisser writes, "Maps would have no purchase on us, no currency at all, if we were not in danger of running aground, of getting lost, of dislocation and even death without them. All maps awaken in me a desire to be lost and to be found . . . [They force] me to remember something I must never allow myself to forget: Johannesburg, my hometown, is not the city I think I know."
An inner life of Johannesburg that turns on the author's fascination with maps, boundaries, and transgressions
Lost and Found in Johannesburg begins with a transgression--the armed invasion of a private home in the South African city of Mark Gevisser's birth. But far more than the riveting account of a break-in, this is a daring exploration of place and the boundaries upon which identities are mapped.
As a child growing up in apartheid South Africa, Gevisser becomes obsessed with a street guide called Holmden's Register of Johannesburg, which literally erases entire black townships. Johannesburg, he realizes, is full of divisions between black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight; a place that "draws its energy precisely from its atomization and its edge, its stacking of boundaries against one another." Here, Gevisser embarks on a quest to understand the inner life of his city.
Gevisser uses maps, family photographs, shards of memory, newspaper clippings, and courtroom testimony to chart his intimate history of Johannesburg. He begins by tracing his family's journey from the Orthodox world of a Lithuanian shtetl to the white suburban neighborhoods where separate servants' quarters were legally required at every house. Gevisser, who eventually marries a black man, tells stories of others who have learned to define themselves "within, and across, and against," the city's boundaries. He recalls the double lives of gay men like Phil and Edgar, the ever-present housekeepers and gardeners, and the private swimming pools where blacks and whites could be discreetly intimate, even though the laws of apartheid strictly prohibited sex between people of different races. And he explores physical barriers like The Wilds, a large park that divides Johannesburg's affluent Northern Suburbs from two of its poorest neighborhoods. It is this park that the three men who held Gevisser at gunpoint crossed the night of their crime.
An ode to both the marked and unmarked landscape of Gevisser's past, Lost and Found in Johannesburg is an existential guide to one of the most complex cities on earth. As Gevisser writes, "Maps would have no purchase on us, no currency at all, if we were not in danger of running aground, of getting lost, of dislocation and even death without them. All maps awaken in me a desire to be lost and to be found . . . [They force] me to remember something I must never allow myself to forget: Johannesburg, my hometown, is not the city I think I know."
Mark Gevisser is the author of the prizewinning A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream and Portraits of Power: Profiles in a Changing South Africa. He is the coeditor of Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa. His journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, Granta, and other publications. He is the writer of the award-winning documentary film The Man Who Drove with Mandela. Born in Johannesburg in 1964, he lives in France and South Africa. Gevisser was a Writing Fellow at the University of Pretoria from 2009 to 2012 and an Open Society Fellow from 2012 to 2013.
"[Mark Gevisser] is unflinching in his account of the complex
contradictions that still haunt his country." --Andrea Denhoed, The
New Yorker"Gevisser . . . is acutely aware of the historical
ironies in his story. . . . Part memoir, part psychogeography, his
book is concerned with life as it's lived in these liminal spaces,
which, in Gevisser's fine handling, take on both physical and
symbolic dimensions." --Emma Brockes, The Guardian"Mark Gevisser
asks profound questions--about race, sexuality, faith, and
politics--while examining both his own history and that of his
beloved Johannesburg. The result, Lost and Found in Johannesburg,
is unlike any other book I know. It is illuminating, unsettling,
engrossing, often funny, and, in a word, brilliant." --Claire
Messud, author of The Woman Upstairs"Outstanding. A genuinely
strange, marvelous, and complex account of a self and a city. Mark
Gevisser does for Johannesburg what Orhan Pamuk did for Istanbul.
Gevisser is as intimate and sophisticated a guide as one would wish
for to this great, troubled metropolis." --Teju Cole, author of
Open City"Mark Gevisser brilliantly maps out multiple worlds
fractured by race, class, and history in a story as complex and
beautiful as any memoir I've ever read." --Dinaw Mengestu, author
of All Our Names"Apartheid is a phenomenal teacher, and Mark
Gevisser has converted its untold lessons about geography and
gender into a fascinating memoir about the making of a
cosmopolitan." --Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the
Civil Rights Revolution
-[Mark Gevisser] is unflinching in his account of the complex
contradictions that still haunt his country.- --Andrea Denhoed, The
New Yorker-Gevisser . . . is acutely aware of the historical
ironies in his story. . . . Part memoir, part psychogeography, his
book is concerned with life as it's lived in these liminal spaces,
which, in Gevisser's fine handling, take on both physical and
symbolic dimensions.- --Emma Brockes, The Guardian-Mark Gevisser
asks profound questions--about race, sexuality, faith, and
politics--while examining both his own history and that of his
beloved Johannesburg. The result, Lost and Found in Johannesburg,
is unlike any other book I know. It is illuminating, unsettling,
engrossing, often funny, and, in a word, brilliant.- --Claire
Messud, author of The Woman Upstairs-Outstanding. A genuinely
strange, marvelous, and complex account of a self and a city. Mark
Gevisser does for Johannesburg what Orhan Pamuk did for Istanbul.
Gevisser is as intimate and sophisticated a guide as one would wish
for to this great, troubled metropolis.- --Teju Cole, author of
Open City-Mark Gevisser brilliantly maps out multiple worlds
fractured by race, class, and history in a story as complex and
beautiful as any memoir I've ever read.- --Dinaw Mengestu, author
of All Our Names-Apartheid is a phenomenal teacher, and Mark
Gevisser has converted its untold lessons about geography and
gender into a fascinating memoir about the making of a
cosmopolitan.- --Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the
Civil Rights Revolution
[Mark Gevisser] is unflinching in his account of the complex
contradictions that still haunt his country. "Andrea Denhoed, The
New Yorker" Gevisser . . . is acutely aware of the historical
ironies in his story. . . . Part memoir, part psychogeography, his
book is concerned with life as it's lived in these liminal spaces,
which, in Gevisser's fine handling, take on both physical and
symbolic dimensions. "Emma Brockes, The Guardian" Mark Gevisser
asks profound questions--about race, sexuality, faith, and
politics--while examining both his own history and that of his
beloved Johannesburg. The result, " Lost and Found in
Johannesburg," is unlike any other book I know. It is illuminating,
unsettling, engrossing, often funny, and, in a word, brilliant.
"Claire Messud, author of The Woman Upstairs" Outstanding. A
genuinely strange, marvelous, and complex account of a self and a
city. Mark Gevisser does for Johannesburg what Orhan Pamuk did for
Istanbul. Gevisser is as intimate and sophisticated a guide as one
would wish for to this great, troubled metropolis. "Teju Cole,
author of Open City" Mark Gevisser brilliantly maps out multiple
worlds fractured by race, class, and history in a story as complex
and beautiful as any memoir I've ever read. "Dinaw Mengestu, author
of All Our Names" Apartheid is a phenomenal teacher, and Mark
Gevisser has converted its untold lessons about geography and
gender into a fascinating memoir about the making of a
cosmopolitan. "Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the
Civil Rights Revolution""
"[Mark Gevisser] is unflinching in his account of the complex
contradictions that still haunt his country." --"Andrea Denhoed,
The New Yorker""Gevisser . . . is acutely aware of the historical
ironies in his story. . . . Part memoir, part psychogeography, his
book is concerned with life as it's lived in these liminal spaces,
which, in Gevisser's fine handling, take on both physical and
symbolic dimensions." --"Emma Brockes, The Guardian""Mark Gevisser
asks profound questions--about race, sexuality, faith, and
politics--while examining both his own history and that of his
beloved Johannesburg. The result, " Lost and Found in
Johannesburg," is unlike any other book I know. It is illuminating,
unsettling, engrossing, often funny, and, in a word, brilliant."
--"Claire Messud, author of The Woman Upstairs""Outstanding. A
genuinely strange, marvelous, and complex account of a self and a
city. Mark Gevisser does for Johannesburg what Orhan Pamuk did for
Istanbul. Gevisser is as intimate and sophisticated a guide as one
would wish for to this great, troubled metropolis." --"Teju Cole,
author of Open City""Mark Gevisser brilliantly maps out multiple
worlds fractured by race, class, and history in a story as complex
and beautiful as any memoir I've ever read." --"Dinaw Mengestu,
author of All Our Names""Apartheid is a phenomenal teacher, and
Mark Gevisser has converted its untold lessons about geography and
gender into a fascinating memoir about the making of a
cosmopolitan." --"Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the
Civil Rights Revolution"
"[Mark Gevisser] is unflinching in his account of the complex
contradictions that still haunt his country." --Andrea Denhoed,
"The New Yorker""Gevisser . . . is acutely aware of the historical
ironies in his story. . . . Part memoir, part psychogeography, his
book is concerned with life as it's lived in these liminal spaces,
which, in Gevisser's fine handling, take on both physical and
symbolic dimensions." --Emma Brockes, "The Guardian""Mark Gevisser
asks profound questions--about race, sexuality, faith, and
politics--while examining both his own history and that of his
beloved Johannesburg. The result, "Lost and Found in Johannesburg,"
is unlike any other book I know. It is illuminating, unsettling,
engrossing, often funny, and, in a word, brilliant." --Claire
Messud, author of "The Woman Upstairs
""Outstanding. A genuinely strange, marvelous, and complex account
of a self and a city. Mark Gevisser does for Johannesburg what
Orhan Pamuk did for Istanbul. Gevisser is as intimate and
sophisticated a guide as one would wish for to this great, troubled
metropolis." --Teju Cole, author of "Open City
""Mark Gevisser brilliantly maps out multiple worlds fractured by
race, class, and history in a story as complex and beautiful as any
memoir I've ever read." --Dinaw Mengestu, author of "All Our
Names
""Apartheid is a phenomenal teacher, and Mark Gevisser has
converted its untold lessons about geography and gender into a
fascinating memoir about the making of a cosmopolitan." --Diane
McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Carry Me Home:
Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights
Revolution"
"Mark Gevisser asks profound questions--about race, sexuality,
faith, and politics--while examining both his own history and that
of his beloved Johannesburg. The result, "Lost and Found in
Johannesburg", is unlike any other book I know. It is illuminating,
unsettling, engrossing, often funny, and, in a word, brilliant."
--Claire Messud, author of "The Woman Upstairs
""Outstanding. A genuinely strange, marvelous, and complex account
of a self and a city. Mark Gevisser does for Johannesburg what
Orhan Pamuk did for Istanbul. Gevisser is as intimate and
sophisticated a guide as one would wish for to this great, troubled
metropolis." --Teju Cole, author of "Open City
""Mark Gevisser brilliantly maps out multiple worlds fractured by
race, class, and history in a story as complex and beautiful as any
memoir I've ever read." --Dinaw Mengestu, author of "All Our
Names
""Apartheid is a phenomenal teacher, and Mark Gevisser has
converted its untold lessons about geography and gender into a
fascinating memoir about the making of a cosmopolitan." --Diane
McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Carry Me Home:
Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights
Revolution"
Praise for "A Legacy of Liberation"
"Probably the finest piece of non-fiction to come out of South
Africa since the end of apartheid." --"The Times Literary
Supplement"
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
