Liv’s Secrets by Janet Levine; Estes Park, Colorado: Armin Lear Press Inc; © 2024; ISBN 9781956-450507; 399 pages plus biographical notes; $24.95.
SAN DIEGO – The main character in this novel is Liv Weisz, a wealthy Jewish South African opposed to the apartheid regime of South Africa, who allows her home on the outskirts of Johannesburg to be a meeting place in 1960 for indigenous Africans and sympathetic Whites.
The novel tells how the Weisz family immigrated in the 19th century to South Africa from Lithuania and through hard work established themselves as leading merchants in Transvaal. The white skins of the Jewish immigrants led to their grudging acceptance by Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch settlers who had arrived in South Africa three centuries earlier.
Some members of the Weisz family, pleased by their family’s upward economic mobility, accepted a social system built on subjugation of Blacks by Whites. There were other family members like Liv who felt apartheid was an anathema diametrically opposed to the Jewish values of tikkun olam and tzedakah.
Author Levine, a political progressive who had served on the Johannesburg City Council, created the character of Liv (short for Olivia) as a bisexual, who once she lets her guard down falls passionately in love with Paul, but marries John (names influenced by the Beatles?). After John and Liv were divorced, Liv had a torrid affair with Rosie. Liv’s paternal aunt Sally similarly had a longstanding relationship with Liv’s mother Jane.
Lesbian relationships in repressive, mid-20th century South Africa were dangerous, with partners often masquerading as “friends” or “cousins.” Liv also initiated sexual relations with a Black African, an even greater “offense” in the apartheid regime.
Although Liv tried to conceal her liaisons, this was a time when the regime spied on its citizens. Obviously, Liv’s lifestyle and political beliefs caused lots of tension for her and the people around her.
Political tension and sexual tension are melded in this story, especially after Liv’s activities cause her to be arrested.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.