Crooked Seeds
Karen Jennings
Karavan Press
Review: Karen Watkins
We learn from an early age to be considerate to people with disabilities, however, when it comes to the heroine in this novel, it’s challenging.
Deidre van Deventer is a revolting character: a middle-aged, single, childless, bitter woman. She uses people wherever she can: a cigarette here, a drink or two there, even the kindness of her neighbour.
The story begins with Deidre waking up to crouch over a mixing bowl by her bed to pee. The action is painful because she only has one leg. She is aware of the smell of her three-day-old underwear. She doesn’t care. All she wants is to quench her thirst. She’s so thirsty she cannot fit her false teeth into her dry mouth.
The story is set in the near future and Cape Town is living under drought conditions. This is possibly why Deidre is lazy in not washing and her selfishness in using money sent by her estranged daughter, not for water but for “takeaways and booze”.
With no water in her dilapidated apartment, she drinks a jar of pickle brine and eats some dangerously old Vienna sausages.
Surrounded by the pain of others, her cry is: “What about me?” When challenged on her behaviour – “It’s just the way I am” – and asked why she doesn’t help others, her response is: “Why would I help anyone else? I’m the one that needs help. Me. Look at me. I’m the one!”
In a sense she is right. Deidre is, in her own words, a “cripple”, having lost one leg in an explosion when she was 18. How that happened is unclear.
Diep River author Karen Jennings expertly releases information as she delves into a sub-plot where Deidre receives a call from the police. The remains of several small bodies have been unearthed from her family’s former home, after decades underground.
Her other characters are fabulous. Deidre’s mother, Trudy, worships Ross, the prodigal son of the family, “a dickhead” in Deidre’s estimation.
Without spoilers this is not a feel-good book but it did make me feel good. The story does have very dark humour that surfaces with perfect timing.
It is no wonder that Jennings was deservedly long-listed for the Booker prize for The Island in 2021. She is a master at writing with compassion and honesty about broken people. And this book is thoroughly recommended.