I Struggled With This Book and Disliked a Lot of Things About It

This book is a pastiche of events, old letters, newer letters, and carer notes. I think including the latter is iffy. Yes, we keep notes about confused mental states, bowel movements, and bed wettings, so that when one carer hands over to another, they know what the patient's condition is. I don't think these notes should be published. There's also quite a focus on the Boer War and women's experiences in the conflict zone. War is never nice, but this exhumation of history was disturbing on many levels. It also reminded me of the conflicts - even among Afrikaners, that I grew up with: whose grandparents were "Hanskakies" (Afrikaans supporters of the English) in the Boer War, Verwoerd lovers and haters, who supported Hitler in the Second World War and who didn't, who talked to whom, who didn't, and so on. Perhaps people with more distance from the subject matter might enjoy it more. I found the jumping around confusing, the focus on the Boer War unnecessary, and the reverence for Verwoerd, plus the publication of care worker notes, distasteful. I gave up halfway. Yes, both Krog and her mother are accomplished women, but I don't like the book. I respected it and didn't throw it against the wall, but that's as far as it goes.