The narrator of all the stories is a young aspirant writer (a surfer, a traveller), a character who shares little with Oom Schalk Lourens except a wry point of view, an appreciation of irony and an ability to observe the world in fine (and usually sardonic) detail. Were it not for this askance view of the world, Loker would not have been able to venture out along the razor's edge, particularly in our current time of political correctness and exaggerated sensitivities.