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Behind The Lines Paperback – April 19, 2017

by Ian Patrick (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 12 ratings
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These eight short stories are works of fiction, but reflect the author's real personal experiences while undergoing compulsory military training during his youth in apartheid South Africa. The stories are all based on real events but the characters are the products of creative imagination, however rooted in reality they might be. Readers will enjoy a range of humour and unusual incidents - frequently hilarious - along with perceptive insights into the trials and tribulations faced by a young man seeking an identity in a confusing world of military discipline and rigid conformity.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    84 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    April 19, 2017
  4. Dimensions
    5.98 x 0.18 x 9.02 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1545138591
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1545138595
  7. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
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Editorial Reviews

Review

A selection of comments left by Amazon reviewers:"Ian Patrick writes beautifully""The skillful telling of the tales, with their whimsy and wit, leaves one hankering for more""...a stunning autobiographical account of his experiences as a soldier""I highly recommend it""Very, very enjoyable reading""Quick enjoyable reading""Portrayed with honesty, humility and sensitivity we are privy to the transformation of perspective that occurs in the youngster as he reformulates the way he views the society in which he lives and in whose army he is forced to serve.""a powerful and thought-provoking read""...these stories are hilarious ... Think MASH or Catch 22. You will laugh out loud ... I loved it."

From the Author

The eight short stories stories in this volume are set in a period twenty to twenty-five years before the first democratic political elections in South Africa. Those elections, in 1994, took place against a background of joy, trepidation, euphoria and pessimism, as the world waited for a miracle. Could peace and racial harmony be achieved in a country that had for decades become synonymous with racial strife, prejudice, discrimination, enmity and political fragmentation?

The first day of the elections dawned. The queues formed. They grew longer by the hour. Would peace prevail? Would the election process succeed?

After extensions and delays, technical problems and administrative reversals, the nation heaved a collective sigh of relief as Judge Johann Kriegler, the presiding officer overseeing the entire process, eventually declared the election 'substantially free and fair' and the new democracy was born.

The phrase 'substantially free and fair' became used and abused in the months that followed. In general, despite criticisms of a process that some viewed as involving trade-off and compromise, the phrase went into history reflecting a memory that although all had not been perfect, the future could be faced on a foundation of 'substantial' truth.

In telling one another our stories and anecdotes we are all subject to interrogation and interview, fact-checking and 'gap-minder' analysis. Sometimes our stories are coloured by the need to entertain or to assert a point or principle. Sometimes the writer will bend truth to his or her needs for the specific purpose of achieving ends more literary than 'authentic'. What I can say, with confidence, is that the stories in this collection are 'substantially' true. The major incidents, interactions, dates and events in the stories are all drawn from actual experience between 1969 and 1975. None of the individual characters is intended to represent an accurate picture of a real person, although real people are inscribed in the imaginative creation of these fictive personalities.

This is particularly true with reference to myself, and to the incidents portrayed in the collection. On the very day Neil Armstrong prepared to step onto the moon I did indeed smuggle a (more than) one-thousand-page copy of the Collected Works of Shakespeare into the tower where I stood guard over the Durban Oil Refinery. I did, too, hitch-hike from Pretoria to Durban during a long night's journey into day, in the course of which I received a startling education in the company of an elderly Indian market-gardener. I was one of a platoon of soldiers who did in fact fly by helicopter into KwaMashu and find a gleaming treasure of ice-cold Hubbly-Bubbly before fabricating an exhausting hike back to base camp. I did experience the horrific engagement with a young white man who told me in an army tent what he would like to do to a black man. I did in truth contemplate leaping from an army Bedford truck onto my knees in order that I might escape further military service. I did in fact fake an injury during basic training so that I could get three days' light duty. Furthermore, I did in truth witness many other real events, actions and interactions that are inscribed in these stories under the guise of fiction ...

But other characters as represented in the stories remain merely fictional. They are simple creations of the imagination, even in cases where they reflect my memory of real people...

The 'substantial' truth of these stories, then, is intended to reflect various stages in the coming to adulthood of a young white man in apartheid South Africa. A young man who had so much to learn, and even more to un-learn, as he tried to shed the burden of an apartheid education and learn a little more about the truth of the world around him.

That young man has not completed the process, of course. Not even more than forty years later. For as the famous last line of the magnificent novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald reminds us, however much we think we have extricated ourselves from the past, or risen above it, we are borne back. Ceaselessly, and inexorably.

In many ways, we remain perpetual prisoners of what we thought and saw and experienced as we came of age.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (April 19, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 84 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1545138591
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1545138595
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.98 x 0.18 x 9.02 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 12 ratings

About the author

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Ian Patrick

Ian Patrick

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After working as an actor, director and teacher in theatre, film and television, followed by a long academic career, Ian is now a full-time writer. His background plays a modest part in his writing, he says. 'My fiction is based to the best of my ability on research and field work. I have to believe the words my fictive characters speak, and the actions they undertake.' Which explains why he has accompanied detectives to the front line, interviewed victims of crime and forensics investigators, taken courses on forensics, crime scene management, and DNA analysis, and spent many hours scouring actual locations for his crime scenes: many of them based on actual events. 'I endeavour to make my fiction plausible and authentic. I can only hope that readers will also enjoy the journey of discovering my characters and their foibles, their actions and their experiences. I hope, too, that they will inform me about and forgive me for any lapses in my work or any errors of detail.'

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
12 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The book is comprised of what the author calls short stories but the eight vignettes flow into each other like chapters mapping
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2017
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It’s no surprise that a young soldier who could only make it through a long dark shift on watch by reading Shakespeare was not cut out for war. Ian Patrick’s ‘Behind the Lines,’ is a stunning autobiographical account of his experiences as a soldier in a time of military conscription in South Africa under the Apartheid regime.
The book is comprised of what the author calls short stories but the eight vignettes flow into each other like chapters mapping out a timeline and culminating in the coming of age of the troepie. As readers we journey with the protagonist. He grapples with his identity as his intellect and compassion for humanity conflict with entrenched prejudice.
From the journey by train, to basic training and on to a series of yearly camps troepies had to complete, the stories have it all. I laughed as the soldiers outsmarted their superiors in Hubbly Bubbly and shed tears too.
Portrayed with honesty, humility and sensitivity we are privy to the transformation of perspective that occurs in the youngster as he reformulates the way he views the society in which he lives and in whose army he is forced to serve. In Alpha Bravo Charlie, Patrick’s assumptions are challenged when he is given a lift to Durban by an erudite Indian vegetable seller. Blood Bond describes a critical incident which leads to the rejection of heartless racism, and those who ascribe to it. From this point onward, Patrick is transformed and finds a love interest who shares and encourages a more inclusive world view.
Ian Patrick writes beautifully. I loved the poetic touches as the youngster heads off to enlist journeying on ‘a bleeding train.’ Patrick tells us about his experiences in colourful ways without indulgence or excess. From these stories we can truly appreciate his cognitive shifting, his love of literature and drama, and his daring driven by desperation. His fine intellect is apparent; not only in his prose, but in the way he appealed missing a camp in court. He could have been a fine lawyer too.
‘Behind the Lines’ is a narrative about finding one true self, being open enough to critically engage and brave enough to reject what is unjust. This is a powerful and thought-provoking read that presents a period in South African history that affected many young white males. The skilful telling of the tales, with their whimsy and wit, leaves one hankering for more.
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helen stewart
4.0 out of 5 stars Uniform and uninformed - how powerful governments try to control people
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2017
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These short stories speak to a view felt by so many of us who lived through the same period of the schooling system designed to keep the people 'uniform' and at the same time 'uninformed' in order to fulfil the then governments ideals and to use scare tactics about 'the other'; the 'different' from them. The sheer futility of the conscription of young men to train them fight the 'perceived enemy' who would later become the new government is staggering.

I so enjoyed the piece where the writer takes a lift from 'one of the others' and is enlightened by chats about things never taught and unknown - speaks to me of how much we can learn from people who are different from us and how in the end we all want the same thing - to be allowed to live; work; succeed and not be judged for our looks or colour or religion.

The writer paints a great picture of 'coming to the light/truths' of a young man placed in a position not of his making but forced unwillingly to comply with orders from those then in power and who history would later consign to powerless and bitter angry old men.
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Evan Etski
5.0 out of 5 stars ... story lives in apartheid South Africa but could have easily been a young conscript in the U
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2017
Verified Purchase
The" soldier" hero in this story lives in apartheid South Africa but could have easily been a young conscript in the U.S. during the same period of Vietnam. Young men, coming of age and realizing the hypocrisy of a system under which they are asked to serve.

The soldier's weekend trip home, realizing that he no longer fit in with the ideals of family and friends rang especially true for me. I was a twenty-something war protestor during Vietnam, an ideological break with my small conservative community. A leaving home of sorts.

Mr. Patrick skillfully combines pathos with humor. The hilarious "forced march" to the Hubbly Bubbly machine , followed by a commendation for the entire platoon, superbly defined the irony of military service.

I was disappointed when I reached the final page. I wanted more.
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DAVID C SMETHURST
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved the originality and spontaneity of this young man ploughing ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2017
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Loved the originality and spontaneity of this young man ploughing through his military training and creating space for himself to get ahead. Very creative of him to clear his name as far as his personal record was concerned. In today's record system nothing of the past would ever be found. Loved reading it.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A time my sons went through and the stories link ...
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2017
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A time my sons went through and the stories link up with what they told us - a thoroughly nostalgic book.
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A recommended read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 4, 2017
Verified Purchase
‘Behind the Lines’ was a very interesting and delightful read. It gave me an insight into the life of a trainee soldier and what that entailed. We gather that the young trainee is actually Ian Patrick who describes his time in the South African army extremely well and he also covers the political situation in South Africa (SA). There are moments in the book that are amusing, sad, and poignant. I felt that the author showed great honesty in his descriptions of himself at that time of his life.

It brought back many memories for me of growing up in in the cruel and oppressive era of Apartheid South Africa, a dark period in its history.

The learning experience that the soldier has with the Indian market gardener, who gives him a lift on his hitch-hiking trip back home, causes him to alter his views on the unjust society and the ingrained prejudices he held. The man is extremely well educated and the soldier, because of his youth and the fact that he is brought up in a white environment with preconceived ideas, learns that it is not only white people who have intelligence and knowledge. The journey is an eye-opening experience for him and although uncomfortable at times, it enables him to begin formulating his own opinions.

When the author describes the meeting with his girlfriend after his hitch-hiking trip, he finds it a very disappointing moment as she is uninterested in discussing politics or anything to do with what was happening in the country at the time. She is oblivious of how unfair the existing society is and this leads him to seek out people with wider views.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book but I loved the chapter called ‘The Lesser Works’ where the young man, who was on night watch in one of the towers, immerses himself in his book on the complete works of Shakespeare but is also aware of the events occurring on the moon itself that night and imagines Armstrong and Aldrin alighting on the surface of the big silvery ball. Delightfully told.

Although the book is divided into 8 short stories, they all flow into one with such ease so it becomes a very successful novelette in my opinion.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A Bad Soldier Reflects
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 15, 2017
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With Behind the Lines Ian Patrick takes the reader back to the ideological misery of national service in Apartheid South Africa as seen through the eyes of a relatively naïve young conscript. There is very little in South Africa’s literature that handles the experience of South Africa’s white conscripts with some sensitivity and compassion, and with good reason. Those who piled onto the back of Bedfords to help quell the “unrest” in the townships or kill the “terrorists” in Angola, and those who provided the logistical support to do so, participated in a war of oppression and persecution, and were either willing participants who subscribed to the ideology or unwilling participants who lacked the courage to examine and confront the ideology. There can be no sympathy with the cause. There might however be some empathy for the young men who were themselves traumatised and who’s lives will forever bear the scars of a senseless violence.
Mr. Patrick’s young protagonist is raised in the moral morass of Apartheid and it takes a certain amount of courage to push back against a system loaded with menace toward what it considers its aberrant members. At the same time as being immersed in an experience that edifies and informs, perhaps not always in the ways its protectors demand, Mr Patrick’s conscript has the good fortune to encounter the generous enemy and the atomisation of stereotypes. I read with the interest of someone who’s personal journey marched through much of the same territory, reflected much of the same cowardice, longed for some of the same courage and hoped for and ultimately received some undeservedly gracious absolution. This book is written in the voice of the bad soldier hopeful of becoming a good citizen, and as such it makes a valuable contribution to the literature about a time of endemic oppression and violence. I highly recommend it.
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