The Big Stick: Ndumiso Ngcobo Keeps Richard de Nooy on a Short Leash in Johannesburg
Richard de Nooy completed the South African tour for his new book, The Big Stick, with a stop at Love Books in Johannesburg, where he was joined by funnyman Ndumiso Ngcobo, author of Some of My Best Friends are White and Is It Coz I’m Black?.
Ngcobo kept de Nooy on a short leash with the sharp crack of his wit, joking that he “hated” de Nooy when he first read the book because his fiction was “too good”, and asking him whether or not he had to watch a lot of gay porn in order to write the scenes that he did. De Nooy proved the force of his imagination by saying that he made it all up.
On the topic of characterisation and the diffculty of inhabiting different perspectives, de Nooy noted that relying chiefly on dialogue allowed him to present varying views without endorsing a particular one. He said that the character Staal could easily have been him if he were a gay man. He is quite methodical in his approach – emphasising what he calls “the three S’s” – “structure, structure, structure”. He explained that having three different storylines and eight different character perspectives demands a very tight structure.
De Nooy and Ngcobo also spoke about his popular walk tweets, which de Nooy said enable him to make sense of the world through a poetic lense. He argued that, by describing an experience, you lend it importance. Hamilton Wende was in the audience that evening and asked de Nooy about coming back and experiencing the new South Africa after he left during apartheid – to which de Nooy responded that he felt he couldn’t start publishing books until South Africa had been freed.
Fiona Snyckers tweeted from the launch using the hashtag livebooks. Unfortunately, her tweets are locked so you will have to find her on Twitter to view them.
Snaps from the Joburg launch
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Arja Salafranca, Sipho Hlongwane and ATKV also fired off some tweets from the launch:
@ launch of @RicharddeNooy‘s The Big Stick – horrifying to hear about gay aversion techniques used in the South African apartheid army
Arja Salafranca
ArjaSalafranca
& equally fascinating to hear that @RicharddeNooy wrote the book in Dutch 1st & then rewrote another version in English.Arja Salafranca
ArjaSalafranca
#livebooks @RicharddeNooy and @NdumisoNgcobo “in conversation”. http://t.co/3zCBMc2B
Sipho Hlongwane
comradesipho
#livebooks @RicharddeNooy Didn’t “research” the gay porn in his book. Made it all up. Caveat Emptor.Sipho Hlongwane
comradesipho
Richard De Nooy (regs) in gesprek by Love Books #bigstick http://t.co/mbbZaITF
ATKV
ATKVSA
@DanniTwiet Richard De Nooy is ongelooflik interessant. #bigstickATKV
ATKVSA
Book details
- The Big Stick by Richard de Nooy
Book homepage
EAN: 9781431402687
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Photo courtesy MVZPhoto
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