Riotus Assembly
by Tom Sharpe
Atlantic Monthly Press 1971

Do you like to escape in a book that makes you giggle in a world of vivid imagination? Would you wonder about people having sex in rubber suits, with the male wearing a dress and the female other costumes? How about a war between different tribes in a mental institution enacting battles of their people from long ago, perhaps not being able to remember the results?

How about a storyline that makes Woody Allen movies seem tame and unimaginative?

If any of these questions strike you fancy, then branch out an get a copy of Riotus Assembly. It was written during the height of apartheid in South Africa. Not surprisingly, it was banned in that country for many years. The story is a parody of the relations between white, Afrikaneer, and English peoples. It begins with an old, aristocratic woman using a custom made elephant gun (with four barrels) to blast her black lover into pieces hanging from the trees.

The commandant investigating the self-confessed crime embarks on a crusade to demonstrate that the woman is innocent. He believes that the crime was committed by her brother, a bishop.

Parody turns to farce as the story comes to a close. When you get to the war at the end you will be giggling at the antics of the warriors, as you also guffaw at the lawyer with a lisp defending the brother in court hoping to save the man from the gallows.

We read this wonderful story in our Philosophers’ Club this month. One of our colleagues lived in South Africa at the time. This group of joyful men, usually intend eviscerating the books chosen by their colleagues, gave Tom Sharpe an unanimous salute for a fine read. What a hoot!

Happy New Year!

Warms, Cym