A profound love that is made to know every bond in a repressive state—these are the "givens" in [Looking on Darkness]…. (p. 410)

Clearly the novel is going to be discussed as work of artistic merit (or lack of it), a document of liberal suasion and plea for change, a propagandistic statement of the horrors of South African policy, and a herald of South African literary development.

It deserves the attention.

The novel is structured in the form of a confessional. Joseph Malan sits in his jail cell, awaiting execution. He has been convicted of the murder of his lover, Jessica Thomason. He writes his "confession" because "it is necessary to empty myself completely, in order to return into myself." … (pp. 410-11)

In Jessica, Joseph finds his deepest tie. Their love is physical, symbiotic, unbreakable. They grow so close they cannot break apart without destroying a part of...