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Title: Character sketches in the Namibian veld
Review: Orner's novel comprises character sketches at an isolated boys' school in the Namibian veld. It's not about plot. The very short chapters--sometimes just a paragraph and at most a couple of pages--are an unusual choice for a novel; they don't really stand alone, but they don't really form a cohesive whole either. Orner does a good job of depicting the various characters through stories they tell each other and the observance of their everyday life--variously touching and humorous. However, those little chapters and characterizations started to wear on me after a while, and I felt I'd had enough long before the end.
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