As a top attorney Rupert Smith has seen many things in his career. Perhaps the most puzzling of his encounters has been the life of Brett Kebble. Having known Kebble very well (Smith acted for JCI, the company of which Kebble was the CEO as a commercial attorney in several transactions), Kebble seemed to have every conceivable talent, yet his life story is tragic.
Mettle, Smith's debut novel, takes the Kebble story and makes the point that behind every seemingly uncaring, fraudulent, dishonest man, there is a real man with his own preferences and passions, loves and allegiances. Smith has used his main character, Chris Mettle, to try to "de-monsterise the human", as he puts it, and show that whilst the tabloids have de-humanised the monster, his narrative is an expression of the rule that to understand is to forgive.
The book plots the history of Chris Mettle, born into a dysfunctional working-class family in 1957 and growing up in a "Whites-only" world. Chris becomes the major shareholder and CEO of an insolvent JSE-listed gold producer, where he and his fellow directors manipulate the stock exchange to try to save the company. They almost succeed. But Chris' participation in the fraud is anathema to him and he feels that he has compromised everything he stands for. When the plan goes wrong and it becomes clear that the whole world will know what he has done, he is unable to face his wife and children, and makes a drastic decision.
Mettle draws on Smith's own personal experience as a child growing up in Springs, as a student at Wits, and as at practising commercial attorney in Johannesburg. The central part of the story, which deals with stock exchange fraud and subsequent assisted suicide, is also based on real events.
"I have made up very little of what is in the book - I have simply tied the events together on a fictional basis," he said.
That the book tracks the history of South Africa, its people, its issues and its history, gives the reader much to relate to. As South Africa changes, so does Chris. His eyes are opened to a new world, but it is a world where privilege comes with temptation and corruption is waiting in the wings. Taking the reader through the anguishes, loves and losses of growing up, to success in his chosen career and across the borders into the dark world of corruption, the reader is moved swiftly across the years until the inevitable climax. This is a good read that will make you look differently at the mistakes and decisions that powerful men make.
That Smith has huge empathy for this man is evident, and whilst this is a work of fiction Smith maintains that he wrote Mettle "to try to show that one should never make hasty moral judgments. That is an issue which stays close to my heart, and which I think lies at the core of much misunderstanding and misery. I would like to say something about walking a mile in a man's moccasins before judging him".
E-mail your name and contact details to moc.snoitacinummocoppih@tenil to stand a chance to win a copy of Mettle.
