T A B L E+T A L K From ennui to wanker: Share your favorite foreign words in the Books area of Table Talk R E C E N T L Y P.D. James By Jennifer Reese (02/26/98) Stanley Crouch By Jonathan Broder (02/25/98) Martin Amis By Laura Miller (02/10/98) Toni Morrison By Zia Jaffrey (02/02/98) Gore Vidal By Chris Haines (01/14/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - INTERVIEW ARCHIVE R E V I E W S Cave Dweller By Dorothy Allison From the author of "Bastard Out of Carolina," a novel about a rock singer who returns to her Bible Belt hometown (03/09/98)		_________[ T H E _S A L O N_ I N T E R V I E W ] ____________________________N A D I N E_G O R D I M E R The conscience of South Africa talks about her country's new racial order BY DWIGHT GARNER "I shall never write an autobiography," South African novelist Nadine Gordimer has said. "I'm much too jealous of my privacy for that." Yet it is impossible to read Gordimer's 12 novels and 15 short story collections without feeling that, to some degree, her autobiography has already been composed. In all of the 75-year-old novelist's work, her strong political and moral views -- she was an ardent opponent of apartheid for nearly half a century -- are interwoven with a keen sense of how South Africans, both black and white, move through their daily lives. Her eye for small, personal, telling detail is unerring. Gordimer's new novel, "The House Gun," is no exception. Set in contemporary, post-apartheid South African, the book is about an elite white couple whose lives are turned upside down when their son is accused of murder. While they turn to a talented black lawyer for help with their son's legal problems, their emotional problems run much deeper -- both are submerged in a genuine crisis of faith. Some reviewers, including a critic for this magazine, have found "The House Gun" dry and static; I respectfully disagree. Gordimer's gift for tense moral drama is apparent on every page, as are her remarkable observational skills, even when she's describing something as pedestrian as a man taking a sip of liquor. ("Motsamai drew at his tongue to savour the after-taste of the brandy; here is a man who enjoys his mouth, has managed to retain the avidity with which the new-born attacks the first nourishment at the breast.") "The House Gun" may rank just below her finest work, but it evidences a firm but casual brilliance that most younger novelists can only dream of emulating. The book may also become the first of Gordimer's novel to become a feature film; "The House Gun" was recently sold to Granada Productions (which made "My Left Foot") for around $200,000. The New York Post reported last week that Forrest Whitaker is interested in directing. Nadine Gordimer was born in 1923 in the small mining town of Spring, South Africa. She attended private schools and, later, the University of the Witwatersrand. She published her first book, a collection of short stories titled "Face to Face," in 1949. Among her most notable novels are "A Sport of Nature" (1987), "My Son's Story" (1990) and "None to Accompany Me" (1994). Gordimer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. I spoke with her in New York at her son's apartment -- Gordimer has two children, one from each of her two marriages -- on the Upper West Side. She spoke not just about her new novel, but about the current social and political climate in South Africa. Here and there, this intensely private woman even offered up a slice or two of autobiography. One of the main characters in "The House Gun" is a talented black lawyer, to whom a wealthy white couple turns for help when their son is accused of murder. You are clearly writing about the new South Africa. Absolutely. How likely is this scenario today? These kinds of changes are proceeding apace. When you think -- I just can't believe it, I laugh when I think about it -- that our former president, P.W. Botha, has had to appear in court before a black judge, a black magistrate. This is an unthinkable reversal. Botha is rebelling, isn't he? He's trying to have the black judge tossed out. [The former president is accused of refusing to cooperate with South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.] Well, but on a technicality. The issue is whether the black judge understands Afrikaans sufficiently well to follow his testimony. Which, of course, is nonsense. Because anybody who becomes a magistrate or a judge in South Africa of any color -- since Afrikaans and English were the two official languages -- is fluent in both languages. But the irony of this is just unbelievable. That P.W. Botha appeared under the judgment of a black man! Botha said something threatening, too, something like "the tiger is awakening," meaning white rage. But I think there were only 30 tigers, rather timid tigers, who came to support him. And there were thousands of blacks, young blacks and other blacks outside, singing and enjoying that this man was being treated now like everybody else. That he had to account for what he did. Do you know Botha? Did you ever meet him? No. It would be very unlikely. He's a very complicated figure, isn't he? The old crocodile, we call him. He did crack open the door, at least, to change. Yes, he did. It was a back door, as usual. That he actually sent for Mr. Mandela to come out of prison, and had tea with him. And this was before the advent of F.W. de Klerk taking over and actually beginning to negotiate the changes. It was initiated in some sort of way with Mandela. But this doesn't really weigh in the scale of justice when you think of all the things that P.W. Botha did during the time he was president. What kind of justice do you expect for him? Well, apparently there is a way in which he can simply pay a fine. So I imagine that if he is found guilty -- and how can he not be? -- then he has an option of a fine. He's not hard up, I assure you. N E X T+P A G E +| They're out to get us - - - - - - - - - - - - ILLUSTRATION BY CHARLIE POWELL