Book Review - Resident Alien by Rian Malan

A book review that I did for my journalism course...

Unafraid to deal with the controversial, the taboo or the bizarre, Rian Malan’s Resident Alien is a collection of published material from over the world that tells the stories which others won’t. Agree or disagree with the man’s personal views, his arguments are clear and concise, and always exceptionally written.

Collected from works for publications from some of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines, Malan lifts the metaphorical stone in the search for answers and stories that uncover uneasy truths. Whether it be the much publicised questioning of worldwide Aids statistics or the long forgotten Boers of Tanzania there is always a message or opinion which leads you to question your own, a refreshing and enthralling read.

Rian Malan has been a divisive and often disliked member of South Africa’s literary community ever since the publication of his first book, My Traitor’s Heart, which detailed his experiences and internal conflicts growing up in Apartheid South Africa. The pieces in Resident Alien work on the same basis of his personal issues with certain subjects and his crusades against what he believes to be right and wrong. With one writer saying it is, “the finest collection of journalism published in South Africa”, one thing for sure is its brilliance.

Along the way Malan takes us throughout Africa, to America and all over his native South Africa meeting some of the most colourful, crazy and weird people, each with their own amazing tales. There is the last Afrikaner, a petite old white lady, the sole survivor of the other Great Trek to Tanzania. Banished from her own people for bearing the child of her black lover decades before, she stayed when others left living in her mud-hut with her offspring and in turn theirs, she remains ironically racist. Then there is are the father and son truckers of Angola. A bird fanatic and poachers of Uganda. Better-known figures of Thabo Mbeki and music industry moguls make their appearances, although not always getting pleasant commentary. His cast are nothing short of fascinating and the stories that they hold and are associated even more.

His opinions are always meticulously justified and rather than dragging one through boring political discussion (of which he is thoroughly capable), he brings you along on his journey, enabling you with the knowledge to how he came to his views. In his highly controversial pieces on Aids statistics, he was labelled an outright Aids denialist, whereas he rather questioned the reality to overblown Aids figures. One must read what he has to say carefully as it is often increasingly shocking the more one understands the situations he details.

Malan’s work here is not all serious; there are many charming tales of characters who etched their mark in the world. Tales of nature’s beauty and beauty pageants, the pseudo-Irish civil war and Zimbabwean Jewish rockabilly punk bands who toured the world.

One cannot question this man’s ability to write, Rian Malan can certainly write. And the reader, if willing to open their mind, will find their opinions challenged, changed and come out with a different outlook on the society in which we live. There is a reason his articles are the main features in magazines such as Rolling Stone, Esquire and The Maverick, and that’s his brilliance.