Is the world a dream and we just dreamers?

THE RAFT Fred Strydom

Umuzi

Review: Jennifer Crocker IT’S a pretty ordinary day the day that the world loses its memory. Day Zero as it comes to be known starts out for Kayle Jenner with him getting ready to go to work at his job at a university. His son Andy goes off to school. His wife goes off to her physiotherapy practice. It’s only when Kayle is stricken by what can really only be described as a pain in the head of note that he has an inkling that all is not well with his world. Then he realises that all those around him are suffering the same fate.

The memory bank of the world appears to have been wiped clean. Kayle finds himself on a commune, a beach where a sinister group of people have the power to call in anyone they think is stepping out of line to give an account of themselves. There are rules to be learnt, and transgressions are punished by being tied to a raft and left to drift at sea until the “guilty” person is deemed to have learnt their lesson.

So far so Dystopian – except, not really. The world that Kayle and his friend on the beach Gideon find themselves in is boring and monotonous. Most people appear to have no sense of the past, but Kayle knows he has a son somewhere out beyond the commune and his mission is to find him and be reunited with him.

It’s a book of journey and strange inexplicable things. Like why a space ship that left the planet came back so mysteriously? Who the daughter of one of the world’s most powerful men is and why she chooses to flee in a craft called the Silver Whisperer. And who and what are Shen and Quon, the only two survivors of the apparently doomed trip into space?

Kayle and Gideon escape from the commune and embark on a trip to find Andy. Through a complex set of stories, the reader is taken to meet the “nicest family ever made”, who just happen to be robots – but nice hospitable ones. There is an island that is filled with mystery. Or is there?

Fred Strydom has taken a dreamscape where reality mixes with mystery and where dreams can last a lifetime and a lifetime can last a minute.

The book is not merely a rollicking good dystopian novel because in Strydom’s exceedingly gifted hands it become a reflection of what humanity is, what divinity is. The philosophy of the collective subconscious is raised and then brilliantly twisted to make the reader doubt even the most outrageous propositions. We are asked to consider whether the world is a dream, whether we are just dreamers.

And how memory works and may be shared. Of course, it’s a novel and it is both tender and thrilling at the same time. When Kayle finds himself in a situation when he thinks that an epic journey has all been a dream and he is an old man close to death, it would be a hard-hearted person who would not weep for his loss. And then, just as quickly, the author flips a switch and we are in another place.

Part of the strength of The Raft lies in the author’s ability to write the hell out of his story, The Raft not only demands that the reader buy into and believe a complex plot, or series of realities, but also offers true reading pleasure.

This is not an overtly violent book, although violent things happen; and it is not a pretentious book, although it is very clever. Civilisation, as we conceive of it, might have been laid waste by Day Zero, but it would appear that for some, humanity still exists. The great project of life is still being questioned, even when the questers are not sure what it is they are looking for.

And throughout the story we are drawn with Kayle to find Andy, because somehow we are sold the idea that finding Andy will make everything okay. But will it?

The Raft is a book where every character, every leaf, every strange fruit, every odd island is magnificently described.

Filled with wonder, awe and dread, the story is worthy of the quality of the writing. A brilliant book, and one not to be missed.