Joost van der Westhuizen has had his fair share of controversy. Well, maybe more than his fair share. Actually, no, this oke has been embroiled in more controversy than most men – and it got just a little worse.

The former rugby star has been trying his utmost to prevent the publication of ‘Joost and Amor: Behind the Headlines’ for some time now. Written by entertainment journalist Gavin Prins, the book is a no-holds-barred look into just what happened between the happy couple.

The promotional cover stickers alone should ward off anyone who doesn’t regularly read Heat while sitting on the toilet.

But, if you insist on reading the book, we only ask that you read Rebecca Davis’s review of it first. Promise us that, at least.

Here’s an excerpt:

The book’s blurb also describes it as being “Hard-hitting, often shocking, but ultimately uplifting”, which is about as accurate as explaining 50 Shades of Grey as “a how-to guide for watercolourists”. I am, of course, being unfair. You will indeed find the book hard-hitting, shocking but ultimately uplifting if you are: (a) a Media Ethics lecturer seeking to prescribe a what-not-to-do guide; (b) the leader of a Doomsday cult on the lookout for proof of the End of Days; (c) Joost van der Westhuizen, Amor Vittone or Gavin Prins.

Particularly the latter. Because this is not really a book about Joost and Amor so much as it is a book about Gavin. He says as much explicitly in the introduction: “This is my story”. Prins is easily impressed by the lustre of celebrity, it seems. “OMG! Amor Vittone had just hauled me over the coals because I wrote something about her,” he writes early on. “Wow! I was under the impression that the assistant of a celebrity’s personal assistant called you. Not the singer herself.” Whole chunks of the book are written in the style of a note passed to you in Maths class.

Read the rest, here.

[Source : Daily Maverick]