June: The House of Hunger

The novel All the Saints by Wesley Roodt initially comes off as an interview for a film project which then organically morphs into a long-winded confessional-like confabulation between two people, an initially unintroduced subject (who is also the narrator) and a comically long-suffering filmmaker who never says anything throughout the story. We later come to know the subject and narrator as Isaac Kingston or Izzy, as his grandmother and friends affectionately call him.

In the story, we find Izzy reflecting on his childhood, growing up being “different”, trying to figure himself out and make sense of his feelings for close buddy Devon Edwards, who he describes as having blonde hair, “big blue eyes and beautiful long eyelashes”. The sheepish innocence with which the author attempts to describe his feelings to the reader, as well as his confusion and uncertainty about what to do with and about them, as well as, how his ‘being in the closet’ suffocates and makes him feel awkward is what draws us deeper into this engaging story of forbidden boyhood crushes and wet dreams.
The easy camaraderie between Izzy and his okes, and how he navigates his relationships his teachers, parents and other members of his seemingly close-knit community whom he encounters allows the reader to have an unromanticised yet candid view of his world.

The colloquiality of the language used with references to words such as “okes” (guys), “kotching”/ “blowing chunks”– (slang for vomiting), “doos” and even “kak”, all Afrikaans-language originating words, make the story rich and relatable as through their usage readers get a glimpse of the kind of community Izzy grows up in which in turn influences his worldview.

References to films such as The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, Full Metal Jacket, Police Academy, Titanic, Jurassic Park, The Lion King, The Lord of the Rings, Fast and Furious, Seven, The Blind Side, Ice Age and other brings an even greater sense of relatability to this story.

As a novel, All the Saints comes off as a filmic-confessional-of-sorts, a decision which allows for the narrator to relate the story without interruption or having to digress when other characters enter or exit parts of the story. Whereas this makes for an interesting albeit unusual way of telling the story, at times it does make remaining engaged in the story laborious and at times annoying, but that does not take away too much from the story itself.

In the end, All the Saints is a book that every boy who feels “different” should read, that everyone who feels they don’t belong for whatever reason should own. I could not help but shed a tear of joy for Izzy, who finally accepts himself and ‘comes out’ to his parents who in turn embrace him with love and offer him their full support. It does not always end so well for many “othered” people in this rabidly homophobic society we live in, so it is refreshing even if it may be too fairy-tale-ish.