Introducing South African Author Pamela Power
Words by Megan Thomas
This week on Babble is all-things-Pamela-Power, South African author and scriptwriter from Johannesburg. You can listen to the podcast episode, watch the video version of the interview, or you can stay right here and read some reviews of Pamela’s books so you know what you’re in for. Fans of Liane Moriarty will love Pamela - her books are like the South African version of Big Little Lies, which is set in monied Australia (although it was Americanised for the HBO series).
What do you make of giving 1-star reviews? Pamela shares her thoughts on trashing books in her interview. There’s no risk of that here, though, because unlike one of the first reviews Pamela read about her debut novel, which her editor forwarded to her before reading the whole thing, we love Pamela’s books.
Published by Penguin South Africa
Anything written by Pamela retains the crisp, quirky commentary that was first introduced in Ms Conception. It cuts a slice of life from the lives of an elite minority of leafy Johannesburg: private-schools, suburban-living, competitiveness, judgement, occasional domestic bliss... and a front row seat to watch it disintegrate. She also unpacks the emotional toll that the trials and tribulations of early parenthood take on marriages and relationships.
In her Babble interview, Pamela says she wrote Ms Conception, in part, because she was so horrified by what being a mother entailed. She depicts the ins, outs, and leaky boobs of motherhood to the backdrop of middle-class life in suburbia, featuring a cast of overbearing parents and overachieving children.
Published by Clockwork Books
Things Unseen is a psychological thriller whose characters are embroiled in scandal, abuse and childhood trauma - the makings of a murder mystery, right? But it stays true to Pamela’s desire to poke fun at the mania involved in keeping up appearances - even in the wake of a murder (or perhaps especially in the wake of a murder).
It claws up the tapestry of seeming perfection and shows what’s rotting underneath. And trust me, things are rotting underneath. In true who-dun-it style, the fast-paced, quick-witted storylines keep you hooked throughout.
Published by Penguin South Africa
This is more similar to Ms Conception than Things Unseen (hence why Things Unseen was published by a different publisher), but it’s actually not that dissimilar at all when it comes down to it. There’s no murder, sure, but there is a 12-year-old girl who, after being announced as head girl of her private school, is pushed from the balcony… by another child.
But it’s less about the incident and more about Delilah, the mother and family of the girl who has been accused of pushing her. What I love about this is watching how a simultaneously serious yet frivolous situation ricochets around this insular society. We delve into the lives of the people involved, and hold a magnifying glass to their insecurities, and the kind of middle-class pressures that make it possible to read such an authentic, believable whodunit about little girls.