SOURCE: Chettle, Judith. “Writing in a State of Transition.” World and I 18, no. 7 (July 2003): 219.

In the following mixed review, Chettle maintains that the theme of transition is central to the stories collected in Loot.

Writers from South Africa, like all artists, naturally hope to transcend the zeitgeist, the mood of the moment, and reach that heady region where universal values endure. Sometimes, however, circumstances conspire, as they did in South Africa with apartheid and in eastern Europe with communism, to trap them in a public square that requires a political response, obligating them to protest as well as bear witness to the conditions they observe. Paradoxically, while the end of apartheid and communism were two of the most redemptive events in recent history and celebrated by writers in these countries, as artists they now faced new challenges.

According to novelist Andre Brink, South Africans felt compelled by conscience...