Julia belongs to the inner circle of Johannesburg high society. It is rumoured that all those not invited to her wedding pretended to be out of town at their beach houses to save face. But in the New South Africa, things have changed. The days of tea on the lawn are over and white 'madams' of the affluent suburbs like Julia have to adjust.
Julia's husband, Douglas, is a serial adulterer and is no longer willing to pay for the small luxuries she has always enjoyed. Her daughter has rebelled herself right out of her life. She doesn't seem to be able to manage the 'home workers' who appear, in these new days, to come with a will of their own, and her best friend, Caroline, is quietly considering killing her husband. Now Douglas's ex-wife, who is never spoken of, has announced her intention of coming to visit from London bringing, no doubt, her politically correct credentials along with her. She's coming to see Nelson Mandela, she says.
'People Like Ourselves' is an elegantly written, perceptive and honest book which takes a wry look at the brave new world that is the 'African miracle' today, to which tourists flock on reconstructive 'face and body safaris'; where Botox injections keep yesterday's white madams smiling gamely through while their gardens are robbed of their plants in the night and burglars pad around in diving suits to bypass the latest intruder alarm systems; where a woman's social standing is no longer secured by the amount of starch in her table linen. 'Closure' is the catchword of the day, but here it is applied not to truth and reconciliation as much as to getting rid of your husband and moving to a guarded, gated community. It's a new world where anything can happen, and nothing turns out quite the way you expect.
