THE PROMISE by Damon Galgut

A more appropriate title for this book would be Broken Promises.  Wedding vows are broken.  A priest divulges the details of a woman’s confession to her husband.  A man promises to marry his girlfriend but never does.  A woman promises to end her affair but doesn’t.  Of course, the word “promise” has at least one more meaning, such as when we say that a student shows a lot of promise.  In this novel, Anton, the oldest son in the Swart family, shows promise, but goes off the rails after he shoots a South African Black woman during apartheid.  Anton’s youngest sister, Amor, overhears their father’s promise to grant their mother’s dying wish to give their maid ownership of the house in which she resides.  However, the father denies that such a promise was ever made, and this unfulfilled promise hovers over the entire novel.  Anton and Amor’s middle sister, Astrid, is shallow, stringent, and bulimic, and sides with their father.  The maid herself has no say in the matter, as she did not witness the promise being made.  I would say that this novel is enjoyable but not riveting.  The Swart saga covers about forty years, and the family undergoes a lot of changes, as does South Africa.  There are several sudden and unusual deaths, but these characters are hard to care about.  Struck by lightning as a child, Amor has the most heart, but she is aloof and estranged from the family for most of her adult life.  In the case of this family, though, I can see why.  The writing is a little quirky in a good way.  For example, a homeless man appears in the story, for what purpose I’m not sure, and the author suggests to the reader that we call him Bob.  Quirks such as this are a welcome contrast with the overall gloom that settles over this family.