The Soccer Player
By Vincent Gray
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About this ebook
This is a short story dealing with the Sisyphean struggles associated with the passionate commitment to one's life project which in a sense is linked to the attainment of personal authenticity, it is about living a life centred around 'doing' rather than 'having'. It deals with the personal emotional costs of following one's dreams.
Vincent Gray
As a son of a miner, I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. I grew up in the East Rand mining town of Boksburg. I matriculated from Boksburg High School. After high school, I was conscripted into the South African Defence Force for compulsory national military service when I was 17 years old. After my military service, I went to the University of the Witwatersrand. After graduating with a BSc honours degree I worked for a short period for the Department of Agriculture in Potchefstroom as an agronomist. As an obligatory member of the South African Citizen Miltary Force, I was called up to do 3-month camps on the 'Border' which was the theatre of the so-called counter-insurgency 'Bush War'. In between postgraduate university studies I also worked as a wage clerk on the South African Railways and as a travelling chemical sales rep. In my career as an academic, I was a molecular biologist at the University of the Witwatersrand, where I lectured courses in microbiology, molecular biology, biotechnology and evolutionary biology. On the research side, I was involved in genomics, and plant and microbial biotechnology. I also conducted research into the genomics of strange and weird animals known as entomopathogenic nematodes. I retired in 2019, however, I am currently an honorary professor at the University of the Witwaterand and I also work as a research writing consultant for the University of Johannesburg.
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The Soccer Player - Vincent Gray
The Soccer Player
By
Vincent Gray
Smashwords Edition 2016
Copyright © 2016 Vincent Gray
This book is a work of fiction. All the characters developed in this novel are fictional creations of the writer’s imagination and are not modelled on any real persons. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.
ISBN: 9781370039449
Author Biography
As a son of a miner, the author was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He grew up in the East Rand mining town of Boksburg during the 1960s and matriculated from Boksburg High School. After high school, he was conscripted into the South African Defence Force (SADF) for compulsory national military service at the age of seventeen. On completion of his military service, he studied courses in Zoology, Botany and Microbiology at the University of the Witwatersrand. After graduating with a BSc honours degree he worked for a short period for the Department of Agriculture in Potchefstroom as an agronomist. Following the initial conscription into military service in the SADF, like all other white South African males of his generation, he was then drafted into one of the many South African Citizen Military Regiments. During the 1970s he was called up as a citizen-soldier to do three-month military camps on the 'Border' which was the operational theatre of the so-called counter-insurgency 'Bush War' during the Apartheid years. Before and in between university studies he also worked as a wage clerk on the South African Railways and as a travelling chemical sales representative. The author is now a retired professor whose career as an academic in the Biological Sciences has spanned a period of thirty-three years mainly at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Before retirement, he lectured and carried out research in the field of molecular biology with a special interest in the molecular basis of evolution. He continues to pursue his interest in evolutionary biology. Other interests which the author pursues includes radical theology, philosophy and literature.
eBooks by Vincent Gray also available on Smashwords
The Girl from Reiger Park -The Barracuda Night Club Trilogy. Book No.1
Who was Oreithyia? -The Barracuda Night Club Trilogy. Book No.2
The Barracuda Night Club Mystery - The Barracuda Night Club Trilogy. Book No. 3
The Girl from Germiston
The Tale of the Sakabula Bird
Rebekah of Lake Sibaya
Segomotso and the Dressmaker
Devorah’s Prayer
Farewell to Innocence: The full uncensored saga of Hannah Zeeman
Send Him My Love (Short Story)
Three Days in Phoenix (Short Story)
The Soccer Player (Short Story)
Uncle Raju’s Headstrong Niece (Short Story)
Waterlandsridge (Novella)
The Man with no Needs
Hotazel: Journal Writings of a Lipstick Lesbian
The Wind Blows and the River Flows (Novella)
Metamorphosis (Novella)
The Transaction (Short Story)
The Black Maid from Ikageng: An African Novella
A Posh White Woman
Between Nostalgia and Dystopia
Joburg: Sex, Love and Marx
Love at the End of Time
This book is dedicated to:
Melodie my wife and Ruth my daughter
The Soccer Player
I
Ever since being a child, I have always felt socially awkward, out of place without any sense of belonging. For most of my life, I