A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

A Beautiful Place to Die is a mystery novel set in 1950s South Africa. I really enjoyed just about everything about it. It's an interesting look at the race and political realities of apartheid, as well as relatively gripping whodunit.

The writing is pretty good, and while I feel like the author frequently lands hard on stereotypes of characters, I also kind of wonder if they actually are stereotypes with a purpose and maybe even a bit of reality.  I think calling it a "mystery novel" makes it seem like it's a typical genre piece, but it really isn't. I guess I can't think of many novels I've actually read that take place in South Africa, outside of post-apartheid stories, so maybe that's why the novelty of this book seems so great to me.

It was interesting to read the settings, the houses, the segregated businesses, the leftover trauma from World War II, and the political machinations of the police and national security agencies.  It was fascinating to read the thoughts of characters who were in positions of power (namely the white police officers) as they grappled (or didn't grapple) with questions of consent in relation to physical contact between people with vastly different power dynamics.

In this moment in 2017 when Congressmen are dropping like flies because of claims of sexual assault and sexual harassment, Bill Cosby, Louis CK, and Kevin Spacey are blacklisted because of their own terribly sexist histories, and there is a really creepy entitled sexually amoral white man in the White House, the role that power plays in the sexual relationships in this novel really stood out to me.  Yes, the setting is a different time and in a different place, but I found myself wondering how different from the here and now the issues around consent and who has it and how they have it really are. The black woman doesn't say no and doesn't resist because she knows that because of potential retaliation to her and her family, she doesn't actually have a choice. The white man doesn't actually even consider consent because the contact is his due, his entitlement, his power.

Anyway, there are some graphic scenes in the book, so that's something that might turn people off, but I thought this was smart and interesting and thought provoking, so I'm going to recommend it to everyone to read.