TinPot Publishing
Full Circle by Pamela Williams.
Fiction, Short Stories
FULL CIRCLE a collection of South African short stories by Pamela Williams contains humour, pathos, irony, and compassion for the discerning reader. The stories vary from the sensitive exploration of a relationship to a glimpse into the mind of an engaging gambler, from prejudice which emerges in unexpected places to the triumphant celebration of loyalty.
The settings are as varied as the characters. The reader travels with the writer to a small country town which has just proudly acquired a hearse, to a Western Cape farm where twin brothers, unbeknown to each other, are grappling with the same life-threatening problem, to a township where a woman awaits the release from prison of her beloved grandson, to a retirement complex in the Free State where Boer and Brit are still in subtle conflict, to a city restaurant where a girl with a disfigurement finds the promise of love.
And the title? In the insights we gain into significant moments in people’s lives, we trace a recurring theme, that of fulfilment, of characters engaging in a re-appraisal of their values in order to find themselves. To come full circle.
How would avowed liberals view a marriage across the colour line within their own immediate family?
What would be the reaction of a conservative farmer to the revelation that his only son, the heir to the estate, was gay?
How did it happen that a domestic worker became the surrogate mother of a lonely child?
Who, in fact, pushed the ladder that tipped the man over the balcony to his death?
The answers to these and many other questions are to be found in: F U L L C I R C L E.