The Mail & Guardian have published an exclusive excerpt from Windham Campbell prize winning South African author Ivan Vladislavic’s upcoming collection of short stories 101 Detectives; due to be released in June. In addition to his short stories, Vladislavic is noted for seminal writings on David Goldblatt and Willem Boshoff and for some fine prose on the city of Johannesburg.
He knew there were tricks – no – not tricks, techniques, there are techniques for getting to see what you’re not supposed to. Let’s say the register at reception in the hotel lobby. You drop the pen or you fake a cough and ask for a glass of water, and while the clerk is distracted you quickly turn the book your way and scan the page for what you’re after. Let’s say the room number of a particular person. Or let’s say the name of a particular person occupying a certain room the number of which is no mystery. He knew all that.
But as it happened, the counter was a slab of granite and there was no book to mar its smooth extension, not even a computer screen, which complicated things. Also there was nothing he needed to know. For now. He was simply waiting for the receptionist to give him his key and number so that he could go up to his room. This lack of knowing, or rather this lack of a need to know, made him feel less like a Detective. And the feeling rankled because he was unsure what kind of Detective he really was to begin with.
You can read the full excerpt at mg.co.za
