The story begins with the narrator living in Mowbray and studying at the University of Cape Town . After graduating in mathematics and English and in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre he moves to London in the hope of finding inspiration of becoming a poet and finding the woman of his dreams . However he finds none of this and instead , takes up a tedious job as a computer programmer working for IBM his work including checking punched cards submitted to an IBM 7090 for the TSR-2 project . He seeks refuge in the Third Programme and cinema , falling in love with Monica Vitti . He feels alienated from the natives and never settles down , always aware of the scorn they see him with . He engages in a series of affairs , none of them fulfilling to him in the slightest . He scorns people 's inabilities to see through his dull exterior into the ' flame ' inside him ; none of the women he meets evokes in him the passion that , according to him , would allow his artistry to flourish and thus produce great poetry . By the end of the book he is working for International Computers on the Atlas project
Sharpeville massacre
Sharpeville massacre
Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II