Author Interview
Despite the fragility of her years, at 95 award-winning
writer Elsa Joubert has penned a powerful book
about the uncharted ‘continent of old age’
WORDS NANCY RICHARDS PICTURES SUPPLIED
“I
learned how precarious
every day is in an old-
person’s life.” Elsa Joubert
is disarmingly honest.
A person’s winter season
may be a time for rest and reflection, but it’s
no easy subject matter. Elsa has nonetheless
tackled it as she has all her writing, with
commitment and insight.
The precariousness was not the only lesson
she learned in writing this book. “They say
you fall back on your roots when the winds of
time start buckling your body and your spirit,”
she says, and that “the only road that can be
ventured upon with a minimum of anxiety is
the road to the past.”
Understandably, she’s not up to giving
a face-to-face interview, and sends written
answers to questions instead.
What prompted her to write this book, she
says, while her son, Nico encouraged her, was
“feeling the need to write down the experiences
I had been having as an old lady... to evaluate
my new experiences, especially as they shifted
the parameters of my life.”
And shift they do. “You need to learn to
submit, graciously, to being helped.” She
describes how her daily walk from her home
at Berghof Retirement Village around the
Molteno reservoir in Cape Town has to be
curtailed. “Wherever I turn to explore, there
are obstacles.”
But the act of writing is, in itself, a solace.
“Every morning I spend time in my study
among my books and papers. It not only gives
me a sense of peace, but some little thought
always reveals itself. I sit at my computer andponder over whatever has been woken in my
mind.” But she insists that she did not “plan
the writing of my memories. They came
of their own impetus and, strangely, at that
moment they fulfilled some need of which
I wasn’t yet aware.” But, she felt, that gave
the book its structure and shape.
Books her own and those of others
have played an important role all her life,
and continue to do so, but for different reasons.
“Books fill the place of friends. When most
of your dearest friends, your soulmates, have
passed away, it is pleasant to be reminded of
their thoughts, or your conversations with
them, by revisiting favourite books.”
Returning to books is also a trigger,
“I recently reread the work of Katherine
Mansfield, a New Zealand author I liked very
much in my younger days, and realised how
deeply her style had influenced me. Although
I changed the meaning of her words to suit
myself.”
The influence of Joubert’s own writing on
the literary landscape locally, internationally,
and in Afrikaans especially has been massive
and enduring. Her multi-award winning 1979
novel The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena,
about the relentless struggle of a humble, black
woman under apartheid, was groundbreaking.
It earned acclaim as one of the most important
books to have come out of Africa in the
20th century. It was translated into no fewer
than 13 languages and turned both into
a successful play and more recently a movie.
Part of the appeal of Poppie was the simple
but detailed style in which this woman’s story
was told, a testimony to Joubert’s attentivelistening skills. “I think I listen carefully to
what people say. Only afterwards can I distil
the essence of what moved me, what I want to
write. I am cautious not to create what I want,
not to put words into people’s mouths.” This
skill, still with her, is what she uses in this, her
third autobiographical work, to bring friends
and family, living and passed, so vividly to life.
But the character she portrays most beautifully
is herself, her new, old self. ■Cul-de-sac (R310) is published
by Tafelberg. tafelberg.comhttp://www.countrylife.co.za 087 September 2019GIVEAWAYS
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