SOURCE: "Maltreated Angel," in Times Literary Supplement, December 24, 1993, p. 22.

In the following review, Kruper finds the political writing in Return to Paradise somewhat heavy-handed and incoherent but admires Breytenbach's descriptive abilities when he does not discuss politics.

For a long time during his Parisian exile, Breyten Breytenbach was better known as an artist than as a poet or revolutionary; and he painted the picture reproduced on the cover of this book [Return to Paradise] himself. It depicts a tall blond prisoner, with wings, followed by his saturnine, small captor. Both figures are wearing red shoes. Red shoes feature from time to time in his text as well, and seem to have some special meaning for Breytenbach. Since I do not know what their meaning is, I cannot be at all sure that I understand the artist's intention, but Breytenbach seems to see himself as a misunderstood and maltreated...