THE CREST: By Flaxman Qoopane
Reviewer: Rebaone Motsalane
Flaxman Qoopane got me again, so to speak! He is one writer who time and again stretches his talent and comes up with something totally different and unpredictable. He can do novels, poetry, drama and any other genre of writing.
As witness the time he took all his correspondence and turned it into a book. How does he come up with such ideas?
As a result of this, I fail, perhaps when classifying his books, and I cannot put him into a box. “The Crest” is about a friend of his, Omoseye Bolaji, who was honoured outside South Africa (in Nigeria) and he (Qoopane) was invited as one of the guests of honour to make a speech and celebrate the giant steps they have taken together in the literary world.
He cleverly takes the reader through the whole process, starting with the duo being invited to this world class event until Bolaji makes the acceptance speech which he termed “The Crest”.
Indeed it is a sort of “crest”, as one writer takes his time and resources to write about the success of another writer without a sense of jealousy or a need for recognition; but just paying tribute to him in his lifetime.
This is not very common, as before embarking on such a big project you have to evaluate your readership very carefully. Who would want to praise another writer to high heavens? At least if it was a biographer then it could be justified.
On the positive side, I guess being an established writer (Qoopane), you can more or less get away with anything because you already enjoy a remarkable support base and it would not be so hard to convince avid readers about your credibility - as they are already familiar with your writing.
Yet again, Qoopane raises the bar higher and gives aspiring writers a run for their money in this industry. He is indeed on top of his game. Indeed it is a Crest!
The book is available at (Free State) local libraries…
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