The Quiet Violence of Dreams

K. Sello Duiker First published 2001

About this book

The Quiet Violence of Dreams is set in Cape Town's cosmopolitan neighborhoods - Observatory, Mowbray and Sea Point - where subcultures thrive and alternative lifestyles are tolerated. The plot revolves around Tshepo, a student at Rhodes, who gets confined to a Cape Town mental institution after an episode of 'cannabis-induced psychosis'. He escapes but is returned to the hospital and completes his rehabilitation, earns his release - and promptly terminates his studies. He now works as a waiter and shares an apartment with a newly released prisoner. The relationship with his flatmate deteriorates and Tshepo loses his job at the Waterfront. Desperate for an income, he finds work at a male massage parlour, using the pseudonym Angelo. The novel explores Tshepo-Angelo's coming to consciousness of his sexuality, sexual orientation, and place in the world.

Subjects

  • fiction
  • fiction, general
  • gay college students
  • lgbtq novels
  • male prostitution
  • south africa, fiction