Indecent Exposure

Indecent Exposure, Tom Sharpe’s second South African novel, is a brilliant follow-up to his Riotous Assembly, which the Sunday Mirror called, “One of the most savagely hilarious satires ever, a startlingly original first novel.” Once again the setting is Piemburg, the deceptively peaceful-looking capital of Zululand, where Kommandant van Heerden, Konstabel Els, and Luitenant Verkramp continue to terrorize true Englishmen and even truer Zulus in their relentless search for a perfect South Africa. While Kommandant van Heerden gropes his way towards true “Englishness” in the company of the eccentric Dornford Yates Club, Luitenant Verkramp, whose hatred of all things English is surpassed only by his fear of sex, sets in motion an experiment in mass chastity with the help of the redoubtable lady psychiatrist Dr. von Blimenstein; their efforts are rewarded by remarkable and quite unforeseen results. Meanwhile, the Kommandant, riding to hounds in the Aardvark mountains, succumbs to the bizarre charms of Mrs. Heathcote-Kilkoon, as Luitenant Verkramp’s essays in counter-espionage backfire in the bird sanctuary. Once more, Konstabel Els, homicidal to the last, saves the day—or what’s left of it—in one of the most savage hunts ever chronicled in fiction. And if you’ve ever wondered why Tom Sharpe, as a young man, was deported from South Africa (but not before enjoying its unique prisons), you need only read Indecent Exposure and its companion, Riotous Assembly.