First Review of #RS

The RS of the title of this book stands for Reeva Steenkamp, a 29-year-old South African model and law graduate, shot dead by her new boyfriend, Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius. He is currently in jail, serving a five-year sentence for killing her which could see him released in less than half that time. Prosecutors are appealing. Readers should be aware that it's the seventh in a series of e-books on the crime and subsequent trial, and a certain amount of foreknowledge is presumed. Those looking for a straightforward, basic explanation of how, when and why Reeva Steenkamp was killed, might be advised to start with some background reading.

Even if readers are already familiar with the case, they should be prepared to go on an unpredictable journey that reaches to the stars and moon, and back. The book is a lesson in freedom, and freedom takes a wandering and often complicated path. 'It's complicated' is a phrase repeated several times in the narrative, and it applies to the way this book sets out to tell of Reeva Steenkamp, as well as of the world which made her and ultimately took her away. The black hole her killing created truly is complicated; Reeva could not escape it, but it absorbed all around it and continued to grow until its mass was felt by much of the world. The collapsed, darkened star of Reeva Steenkamp drew the world in to share her darkness and in doing so, brought in the light of freedom.

With her death, and the ending of her life, Reeva was also set free. No person in the world can catch, harm, hold or control her. Nobody can trample her dreams - or make them come true. Nothing on earth can touch her.

Perhaps Reeva might put up her thumb somewhere up there, as Neil Armstrong once did, and blot out the tiny star that is earth and its teeming humanity, if its light should ever pain her ageless eyes. For her loved ones left behind though, they must continue to live with the knowledge they cannot guide, help, comfort or laugh with her either. They cannot celebrate the milestones in her life she will never reach now. True freedom always carries an underside of pain and suffering, for someone, somewhere. Reeva Steenkamp's is no different. That her final cries for freedom were (most likely, in the opinion of this reviewer) terrified screams echoing through the South African night, is poignant, to say the least.

In writing what the authors intend to be a tribute to Reeva, rather than another narrative about the man who killed her, they have freed themselves too; I mention Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, because the book does too. At times it felt like Nick van der Leek pulled me reluctantly to the moon to place my trembling feet in the dusty footprints left by Armstrong, and I resented it. I'm interested in space and the universe the way I am in the vast tundra of Siberia or the great plains and prairies of Africa and the US - from a safe distance. I don't want to be there with even a fully-equipped SAR team on hand, let alone just ghosts for company.

But...the journey of the book covers the first landing on the moon, climate and the world economy, as well as South Africa - Reeva's home country. It also draws in Southern California, via author Lisa Wilson, and both her and van der Leek's personal journeys, as well as the crafts of writing, photography and movie making. It covers beauty and our concepts of it; money and what it means - and what it can do. It embraces Reeva's personal hopes, dreams and efforts, as well as South Africa's, and the world's. It touches upon, almost, the entire world, both past and future, and during the interludes, invites readers up to the moon.

Read the remainder of this review here.

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