Review of CROOKED SEEDS by Karen Jennings (New Release)

 3. 5 Stars

A couple of years ago I read Karen Jennings’ novel entitled An Island which was nominated for the 2021 Booker Prize.  I loved it (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/2022/01/review-of-island-by-karen-jennings.html) so I was anxious to read her next offering.

Crooked Seeds is set in near-future Cape Town, South Africa, which is experiencing a years-long drought and wildfires.  Fifty-three-year-old Deidre van Deventer lives in a dilapidated public housing complex after her family home was reclaimed by the government.  She is contacted by the police when several bodies, including those of children, are found on the property formerly owned by her family.  In particular, she is questioned about her brother Ross’s associations with a 1990s pro-apartheid group with terrorist leanings.  When she was eighteen, Deidre herself suffered life-altering injuries as a result of a bomb believed to have been built by Ross.  She claims to know nothing, but she is forced to uncover family secrets and question responsibility for the past. 

Deidre is a totally unlikeable character.  She believes she has been denied the life she deserves so is angry, bitter and resentful.  She is both physically and psychologically damaged, but she has options which she chooses not to take, preferring to wallow in self-pity.  She is determined to be seen as a victim in need of sympathy.  She believes the world owes her and so constantly manipulates people to do things for her.  A neighbour mockingly mimics Deidre:  “’”Do this for me, do that for me, help me, help me, I’m a fucking cripple and I can’t do anything for myself.” . . . you are the most selfish person I’ve ever met.’”  When another acquaintance suggests Deidre help out at a charity, she responds with, “’Why would I help anyone else?  I’m the one that needs help,’ she said, poking her chest with a finger.  ‘Me.  Look at me.  I’m the one!’”  Though she does nothing to deserve the help of others, some people do come to her aid but then she shows no genuine gratitude.  In fact, she abuses both herself and others.  Her neighbour questions, “’Are you trying to be unpleasant, tell me?  Is that your plan, to be unpleasant and make everyone dislike you?’”  Because of her choices and unwillingness to take any responsibility for herself, it’s difficult to have sympathy for Deidre.

Of course Deidre’s upbringing, when she was overshadowed by her brother, affected her.  Trudy, Deidre’s mother, always saw Ross as the golden child so her daughter was sidelined:  “He was the one they spoke of.  He the one they returned to again and again, throughout her life.  Even when he had left, even when it should have been her, there he was.”  Trudy tells Deidre, “’It’s just that there are people, like your brother . . . [who] can be just a bit more’” and “’Ross is special, that’s the thing.  He’s special.’”   After the bombing, Ross fled and though some people feel “’he should have been brought back and forced to see what he had done,’” Trudy’s version is different:  “He had been no more than a boy when he was forced to go away.”  Rather than blame Ross, Trudy says, “’I chased away my boy and he never got to have the life he was meant to have.  He never got to live as he should have.’”  Some more attention to her daughter might have meant that an accusation against Deidre wouldn’t be true:  “’She lives across the fucking street and you can’t walk a hundred meters to see your own fucking mother.’” 

The novel is really an allegory.  Just as Deidre is forced to reckon with her family’s past, South Africa must reckon with its history of colonialism and apartheid and address its national and generational trauma and collective guilt.  A policeman tells Deidre, “’the truth has to come out.  To leave the thing alone would have been to deny it and cover it up.’”  The first step to moving forward and making positive change is acknowledging and taking responsibility for the wrongs of the past.  At the end, Deidre feels diseased and wants to remove “all that was rotten within her.”  Fire destroys Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town, leaving “slopes of black and ruin,” but fire can promote seed germination.  The book ends with a glimmer of hope:  “If only the rain would come, just a little bit of rain, to wet the soil, feed the seeds, so that something might grow again.”  Perhaps something better can emerge from what remains. 

The novel is not an easy read.  At times, it is a grinding read because there is little to alleviate its bleakness; in fact, at times I didn’t want to continue.  Its message, however, is worthwhile.  Though the book’s setting is South Africa, its theme applies to other countries; it certainly made me think of my country’s need for truth and reconciliation with our First Nations people. 

Note:  I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.