Isle

Author: ​Claire Robertson
Publisher: Umuzi 
​Reviewer: Beryl Eichenberger
‘No man is an island, entire of itself…’ this famous John Donne quote came to me as I started reading ISLE. And it stayed with me. The very notion of being on a small island conjures up a sense of isolation, sitting on the periphery of society, an onlooker perhaps.
Claire Robertson is a multi- award winning South African author who writes with a melodic pen, haunting, nuanced and meaningful, her prose is a little like the waters that might surround an island, Swelling to 

match the significance of her stories, ebbing to allow one to think through her narrative. ‘Isle ‘is her latest offering and she says the theme is ‘Making a place for yourself’ and ‘The cost of carving this out but also the unexpected freedoms that this brings. ‘
Isle was a challenging yet ultimately satisfying read. Splitting into two stories that cross centuries we meet two women in very different worlds depicted through using two different writing styles.
In the medieval world of 1289 when the first story ‘Forth from this place’ is set, she writes with meticulous construction, speaking of a slower time, creating a very different era.
“On that main river the sometimes steeper banks and betimes incredible breadth, and the fierce castles imitating rock, impress the visitor with their force, and people’s doings are by contrast small.’
It is almost another language but not quite, as careful reading defines the meaning. I did however have to look up words like ‘sennight’, meaning week, amongst others but her use of present tense throughout brings the reader firmly into each time frame and this is Robertson’s strength. This island is home to a group of unmarried women, ‘semi-nuns’, - inspired by the Beguine communities of the 13th Century – they are led by their magistra Lutgard.  Unrecognised by the church, they have chosen to unbind themselves from the men who would shackle them; to seek a freedom from the expected norm of the time. But it is Mechthild, artist and sculptor, to whom we are drawn. It is she who finds the young man stranded on the beach, she who sees his face as that of a perfect Christ model but in the end, she who carves a larger than life Virgin that becomes her masterwork and her freedom.  Her story will resonate as she uses unfamiliar tools and teaches herself the man’s trade of wood carver, a skill that Robertson herself has. Within the bounds of the story, of the isolation, privacy and celibacy the women have chosen, the emotions of desire and lust are fulfilled, despite the seeming separations.  This speaks to that very quote of Donne’s. 
UXO brings us to post World War ll, the early 1950s, and Second Lieutenant Lily Kinsella and Sergeant Burge on a mission to dismantle ordnance units in far flung places. On a tiny island somewhere north there is a munitions pile that will exacerbate their taut relationship.  As a wartime flight nurse Kinsella’s experiences have marked her and she seeks solace with men that cross her path but would never be permanent. There is a barely discernible vengeance in her actions, her debt to Burge ‘she owes him much, she owes him nothing’ outweighed by her own flaunted needs. As I navigated the story i was intrigued as to whether the unexploded munitions is an unspoken metaphor for unexploded emotions.
Robertson’s story takes you inward. It raises many questions and re-reading will be a given. As a woman i questioned my ‘freedom’, its cost and if I have truly been ‘myself’.  Hovering in this intense narrative, however, is that remaining isolated should never be the final choice. ​