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Confounding expectations
Confesssions of a Gambler
Rayda Jacobs
2003
Kwela Books, Cape Town
240 pages
Review by Lisa MacLeod
When a woman describes her gambling addiction, her voracious sexual appetite and her affair with her sister’s husband, what is most surprising is not that she is possessed of rapier-like wit or an unashamed vanity, but that she is Muslim.
Confessions of a Gambler centres, almost incongruously, around a Muslim woman in Cape Town, South Africa, who develops a compulsive gambling problem. Her name is Abeeda Ariefdin, or Beeda to her friends and family, and she is, in no particular order, a faithful Muslim, mother to four sons, the ex-wife of a cheating ex-husband, a sister, daughter, neighbour, employer and friend to some of the most delightful characters ever to wend their way into a novel.
Rayda Jacobs taps so deeply into the South African psyche in this book, and tackles so many of the taboos inherent within southern African society, that it leaves one almost breathless.
On the flipside of all the socially acceptable wholesomeness, she is confronted with a compulsive gambling addiction, has to come to terms with a homosexual son who is dying of Aids, and has to absorb the guilt and pain of a long-term affair with her brother-in-law, Imran. But Beeda, with her ascerbic wit and rapier-like intelligence, is
more than capable of standing up for herself.
In a direct challenge to the classic stereotype of the demure Muslim woman, Beeda also has a streak of unashamed vanity, a ferocious sexual appetite and a long-standing love affair with her own body, coupled with a self-deprecating image of herself.
She says at one point:
Rhoda also told me once that at night she gets into bed first before pulling her clothes over her head. Not me. I have always been a strutavarian in my own home. Beede Boude, they used to call me in school for my great legs. But my face wasn’t going to make a man miss his supper. He might pause, like one who’s suddenly discovered something interesting on his dessert plate, but not ask for the recipe.
She is a thoroughly likeable character, and her environment and her tale are so life-like that one could easily be forgiven for mistaking this book, as I did, for an autobiography rather than a novel.
Jacobs tells Beeda’s story in a split time-frame, cleverly and seamlessly skipping between her life as a middle-aged divorced gambling addict, and her life as a beautiful, strong young mother, during which the scene is set for many of the dramas of later years. This split frame view of Beeda’s life lends insight to the reader, and Jacobs crafts Beeda’s metamorphosis into adulthood, and the birth pains of her love affair with Imran, with extraordinary tenderness.
The book is in essence, a life story, inextricably bound with the customs and lifestyle of life in South Africa, but weaves in many subplots. Central to it is the analysis of a gambling addiction, made all the more terrifying by the ease with which it happened to a woman who, on religious grounds alone, would have brought shame and horror to her family for even being seen in a casino.
The conflict for Beeda, who is largely self-sufficient, and not supporting a family, lies not so much in the enormous loss of money over time, but rather the guilt and shame associated with being a Muslim woman in a casino. This dichotomy has many more implications than social exclusion, but also applies to Beeda’s religious principles.
At one point in the book she has a conversation with her best friend, Garaatjie, who advises her not to buy a new car with the money she has won, saying:
"I don’t think it is a good idea to buy a car with it … Just now you have a bloody accident. It’s not good money, Beeda. I wouldn’t … And you know you can’t use that money to go to Mecca."
Beeda considers this and responds:
"But what if I win another ten thousand? And another? How many cars can I drive? I’ll be the only Muslim in Cape Town with a hundred thousand in a bank account, who can’t afford to go to hajj. I go to the casino for fun Garaatjie… If I win a thousand I’m happy. It means I can come back and play again. I don’t want to lose, but I do want to burn in the jahanam (hell) fire either."
The relatively recent legalisation of gambling in South Africa has been at the root of many social ills in the country, and has contributed greatly to the oppression of the poor, a point illustrated time and again by Beeda as she describes the scenes of destitute people losing their money in the Canal Walk casino in Cape Town.
The book is absolutely gripping and the reader is thrust from one drama to the next, all underpinned by the deterioration of Beeda’s state of mind, as she is drawn into the ever-darker world of the hopelessly addicted gambler. It is a frightening state to be in, clouded by self-doubt, helplessness, shame and guilt, and yet made irresistible by the ever-present promise of a win.
Jacobs’s writing is littered with typically South African phrases and she switches between Afrikaans, English and African languages throughout, lending her writing a very chatty feel. Jacobs submitted her first story at age 12, to Springbok Radio. She spent 27 years in Canada, and returned to SA in 1995. Her first novel, Eyes of the Sky, was awarded the Herman Charles Bosman prize for English fiction.
Jacobs is also well know for a series of articles in the Cape Times, dealing primarily with rites of passage and custom in the Muslim faith. This interest is obvious in Confessions of a Gambler, and she devotes a lot of detail to describing the funeral rites (a devastating account of the death of Beeda’s son, Reza) and wedding customs in her community.
This almost anthropological detail provides an interesting take on a different culture, and she carries it over to explore some of the nuances of cultural relationships between South Africans: the historical stand-off between Malays and Indians, her stilted and almost curious relationship with her black domestic worker, and the value of lighter skin and the effect this had on the pecking order between her and her sisters.
Jacobs is a deeply talented story-teller, and this book is a great read from beginning to end. Besides being a good yarn, it is also thoroughly believable and educational, the kind of book best read twice and passed onto friends.
Lisa MacLeod is a South African journalist working in London.
