Pieces of a Man

Somewhere between antihero and antichrist, Tsotsi is a man without a history, a man who never dreams and has cut himself off from emotions, creating a stone-cold doppelgänger of himself in order to survive and leading a gang of violent criminals through a series of chilling crimes. Before the end of the first chapter, you realise the author Athol Fugard is a true master of the art, namely through his depiction of a brutal murder that the gang carry out in a packed train. They are like doctors harnessing their anatomical knowledge to destroy life rather than save it. And he also demonstrates how the simplest decisions (smiling, wearing a tie, buying a ticket with cash) can condemn or absolve a man, setting off a chain of events that will end in death or salvation. We are at the mercy not simply of fate but the infinite resonance of every insignificant decision.

Reviewing Athol Fugard's township gangster classic over @ 3:AM Magazine