Cry, the Beloved Country
Alan Paton
3.92
74,982 ratings4,838 reviews
Cry, the Beloved Country, the most famous and important novel in South Africa’s history, was an immediate worldwide bestseller in 1948. Alan Paton’s impassioned novel about a black man’s country under white man’s law is a work of searing beauty.
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.
The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, “We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from poets, almost all thin. In Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony.”
Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.
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316 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1948
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Alan Paton
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Noted South African writer Alan Stewart Paton of novels Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) and Too Late the Phalarope (1953) in 1953 founded the Liberal party and led it to 1968.
People educated him. He taught at a school in Ixopo, where he started his career and met and married his first wife. The dramatic career change to director of a reformatory for black youths at Diepkloof near Johannesburg profoundly affected his thinking. The publication made him best known. This searing account of the inhumanity of apartheid, told in a lyrical voice, which emphasizes love of Paton for the land and people of South Africa and his expectation for a change in the future. People most recognize title of this world bestseller from this country. Paton, afterward full-time produced Ah, but Your Land Is Beautiful (1981), two volumes of his autobiography (Towards the Mountain in 1980 and Journey Continued in 1988), short stories and biographies of J.H. Hofmeyr and bishop Geoffrey Clayton among other writings. Following his non-racial ideals, he helped to serve as partisan president. After the death of his first wife, he remarried and lived in Durban until he died.
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Will Byrnes
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June 17, 2021
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Alan Paton - image from The South African - photo by Terence Spencer
This is a classic, written by a white South African about a time before apartheid. Two fathers, one white, one black and their sons. It is stylistically unusual. Quotes are not used, for example. Conversation is indicated by leading dashes. Also the speech is quite formal most of the time, which conveys some of the culture of the place, I expect. Dark forces are abroad, but hope shows its face here as well, as there are leaders trying to prevent a descent into the madness to come. Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absolom are the focus. Absolom, as an adult, leaves to go to the big city, Jo’burg. He falls in with a bad crowd and is involved in a robbery. He unintentionally shoots a man who surprises them. The man, an idealistic white, is the son of Kumalo’s neighbor out in the country. Kumalo goes in search of his missing son, only to find him, and this horror, at the same time. Characters are portrayed sympathetically, white and black. There is much shared fatherly pain, much humanity here. It is indeed a classic.
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November 5, 2018
A few years ago, after twenty years out of high school, I made a point to start rereading all of the classics assigned to me in school. It has been an arduous yet uplifting task as I have experienced these classic books again through an adult mind. In this the third year that I am participating in classics bingo, I took the opportunity to revisit another high school book for the classic of the 20th century square. Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country seventy years later is still considered the greatest South African novel ever written. It exposes worldwide readers to the race relations that the country has experienced during the modern era and the gap that still exists today. The message that Paton writes can go along way toward the issues that modern nations experience to this day.
Stephen Kumalo is a simple parson who lives in the village of Ndotsheni. Although he and his wife have always been happy with their lot in life, his siblings John and Gertrude as well as his son Absalom were enticed by the bright lights of Johannesburg. Paton describes Ndotsheni with breath taking prose, and the people of the region till the land, hoping to make due with their station. Yet, the land is parched, and as readers find out later on, the church is falling apart as well, as this is what the white man has allotted to the native Zulu and Sesuto people. Thus, Johannesburg beckons.
Yet, as Paton so eloquently writes, bigger isn't always better. Problems upon problems befall native Africans from curfews and bus boycotts to wages in the diamond and gold mines and the unfortunate case of being black in a country ruled by whites. Kumalo's daughter and son have fallen upon hard times, and it is up to the parson to use his influence within the church network to bring them to safety.
Paton through his characterization of Absalom Kumalo and Arthur Jarvis, the man he is accused of murdering, reveals the disparity between generations in South Africa. The younger generation is working toward change in racial relations, a change in which whites and blacks live side by side in peace and prosperity and Nkosi Sikelele Afrika becomes a reality. The older, entrenched generation might respect these viewpoints, but for the most part, they are not ready for these changes. Arthur Jarvis' father James admits that his martyred son was of a brilliant mind, but he is not ready a unified South Africa in which blacks and whites live respectfully together. That Paton wrote this novel in the years following World War II and the defeat of fascism show how slow the rest of the world was to change.
I appreciated how the older generation in the characters of Msimangu, Stephen Kumalo, and James Jarvis showed magnanimity toward the end of the novel. Even though a heinous crime had been committed, the fathers were not going to stand for the crimes of their sons and might even accept that a change is coming to a new South Africa. In this era where race relations is unfortunately not a thing of the past, perhaps Cry, the Beloved Country would be an appropriate novel to discuss in high school English classes. Yet, with the exquisite prose and mature topics addressed, I achieved more from this book through adult eyes than I ever had during my high school years. Classics bingo has given me the chance to revisit these lovely novels, and I am happy for the opportunity to do so.
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May 3, 2008
This isn't an infinitely quotable book, but occasionally it produces a line that is devastatingly clear and true. Lines like, "It was not his habit to dwell on what could have been, but what could never be." and, “It is the duty of a judge to do justice, but it is only the people who can be just.” made me put the book down and stare dumbfounded at the wall. But mostly this isn't a highly quotable book; it's a beautifully written, riveting book where passages or entire halves of scenes are compelling streams of words, readily understandable for actions and conversations, and profound for their insights and suggestions into human life in adversity and prosperity.
If you're going to write a borderline hopeless story, do it like this. Paton's prose is mostly readable and occassionally beautiful, especially in his monologues, letters and prayers. For example: "The truth is that our Christian civilization is riddled through and through with dilemma. We believe in the brotherhood of man, but we do not want it in South Africa. We believe that God endows men with diverse gifts, and that human life depends for its fullness on their employment and enjoyment, but we are afraid to explore this belief too deeply. We believe in help for the underdog, but we want him to stay under. And we are therefore compelled, in order to preserve our belief that we are Christian, to ascribe to Almighty God, creator of Heaven and Earth, our own human intentions, and to say that because He created white and black, He gives the Divine Approval to any human action that is designed to keep black men from advancement." It goes on, but this should give you a sense of Paton's insight and rhetorical ability.
Paton touches on almost every level of trouble in post-colonial South Africa: racism, classism, elitism, residual imperical feelings, how wealth corrupts natives, arbitrary segregation, the loss of family values, the loss of social pride, the abandonment of positive religious teachings, the inability of government and the misunderstanding of the new laws. It doesn't blame white people or black people; it creates individuals who embody multiple faults, and when such people make up a new nation, it shows how such a system could collapse and increase human suffering. Paton does not rub this in your face; even his foreward explains that several of these people are real or are based on real people, and his praises those who are working towards a better world. This novel is every ounce about trying to do something. This isn't literary bleakness or contemptable anti-humanitarianism (a strange view for any author to have, given that all our authors are humans). There are good people stuck in all of this, and from the very first chapter you get a sense that this is, if not a good place, then a place that could be truly great. The difference between Alan Paton here and Edith Wharton or Nathanael West in much of their writing is that the disappointment does not permeate the tone and the myopic view does not bias the story. Paton is a far more sympathetic writer, able to capture the most dangerous elements of humanity in a way that is uniquely his own, though we'd be better off if it became more common.
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Sara
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November 21, 2018
This is the story of South Africa, and it is the story of two fathers and two sons. There is a moment in which the fathers meet face-to-face that contains everything there is of humanity and the struggle for understanding and compassion in men. That moment left me eviscerated.
I love that this is not written in the spirit of good vs. evil, but in the spirit of man vs. his baser instincts. I sincerely loved Stephen Kumalo and Mr. Jarvis, and I felt both their heartaches. Some books are meant to be written, they well up from inside an author and spill onto the page because their message is one that must be voiced, and this is such a book.
The history of South Africa is sad and, like all colonializations, it is complicated. There is a way of life destroyed and no attempt to offer a replacement that is viable for the native population.
It suited the white man to break the tribe, he continued gravely. But it has not suited him to build something in the place of what is broken.
In the midst of this chaos and struggle, Paton finds the wisdoms that make humans reflections of God. Msimangu says But there is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power. The more I contemplated that statement, the more profound it seemed to me.
Much of what afflicts the people of South Africa at the time of this book’s publication has been remedied, but its message is so strong and so important and so universal that it can easily be applied to much of what we continue to see in the world today. And, at a more personal level, there are the feelings of the men involved that are so true to feelings each of us have or may have.
This was almost the last thing that his son had done. When this was done he had been alive. Then at this moment, at this very word that hung in the air, he had got up and gone down the stairs to his death. If one could have cried then, don’t go down! If one could have cried, stop, there is danger! But there was no one to cry. No one knew then what so many knew now.
Are these not the thoughts that run through our minds at the moment of loss? Why didn’t I do this or that? Why wasn’t I watching closer? Why didn’t I speak up, hold on, stop fate by altering the time frame by one precious second?
I understand that this novel is now included in many high school curricula, and I applaud that. Everyone should read it.
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February 13, 2023
A flood that threatens makes a person worry about his house, but when the house is destroyed, something must be done, he has nothing to do against the flood, but the destroyed house can be rebuilt.
Banal Watan, written by Alan Peyton, a writer and activist and opponent of racial discrimination from South Africa, is a story about racial discrimination or apartheid in Africa and the people who live in its hellish conditions. The author narrated a time when people, both black and white, were becoming aware of apartheid and its effects in their living environment and started to fight against the existing situation.
From the author's point of view, the homeland is destroyed or is on the verge of destruction. His homeland has no choice but to mourn. So, dear country , weep loudly for the broken tribe, for tradition and violated law, for the man who died, for his wife and orphaned children. Banal Watan, when your pain and suffering has no end. The protagonist of his story is a poor priest, or Omfendis
in the local dialect, who goes to Johannesburg from his poor village, Indo-Teshni, in search of his sister and son. What happens to him and his disintegrated family in the rest of the story can be seen as an example of the terrible life of blacks in South Africa, the old priest no longer prays, he is mute from the inside and the words escape him. Omfendis also sheds tears, for drought, for depleted provisions and for rain. What keeps him is not prayer or hope for a life without suffering. The priest understood that a Christian or a human being, regardless of any religion, cannot be free from the suffering of existence, because suffering is not to escape from suffering, but maybe to endure it. On returning to his village, Omfendis cries and sheds tears. This time, he and Vatangoi lament together, so banal, beloved land, for the child who has not yet been born, for fear, for the future, banal, for the dying child. Omfendis seems to be aware of the future and what will happen to people, he calls people to love and not hate each other, from the priest's point of view, it is cultivating power and the desire for power over others that creates hatred and so on. There is enough hatred in their land. (Pyton seems to have expressed the characteristics of the future leader, it is love for people and not having hatred that makes the nation united and united, and thus Nelson Mandela becomes the leader of the fight against racial discrimination from among the group that advises to love people. ) the end of the book and the author's prediction is astonishing, Peyton announced dawn, light and illumination while the darkness and darkness covered everywhere. While Indochina and Johannesburg and South Africa are in darkness, but the dim waves of the sun promise the coming of dawn and light, the dawn will reach Indochina, Johannesburg and the whole of Africa. The author believes in the arrival of dawn, but does not know its time. Banal Watan was written in 1948, when the anti-apartheid movements began, it took almost 50 years to achieve what Peyton skillfully predicted in Banal Watan, namely the destruction of apartheid and racial discrimination.
be realized The character that the author created in the book, Omfendis or the old priest, can be considered as a model for people like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu . People who rejected violence, asked for national reconciliation, avoided malice and hatred and fulfilled Peyton's dream.
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Werner
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October 28, 2023
Though not published until early in 1948 (and the events leading to its submission for publication, which the author describes in the Author's Note at the beginning, were rather unusual) Cry the Beloved Country was written in late 1946, and is set in the author's present. It's fair to say that it's generally recognized as one of the greatest masterpieces of world literature produced in the 20th century, or indeed any century, and hands down the greatest novel ever written (to date) by a South African writer. (Ironically, it was first published in the U.S., and probably wouldn't have found a publisher in South Africa at the time.) I've regarded it as a must-read for decades. Now that I've at last read it, I greatly regret (as I so often do, with too many books) that I didn't do so much sooner!
The backdrop and central concern of the novel, of course, is race relations in the “beloved country.” Having been granted independence from British rule in 1931, though still part of the Commonwealth and recognizing the king of England as its king, South Africa was (and still is) a nation with a population overwhelmingly black (about 80%), but a nation at that time dominated politically and economically by the descendants of British and Dutch (Afrikaners) colonial settlers. While the fully-developed legal system of racial segregation, or apartheid, would not be officially enacted in all of its particulars until 1948 (soon after this book was published), key components of it were already in place, and the rest of it already enforced by custom. With less than 20% of the population, whites claimed ownership of 90% of the land, owned all of the mines and industries, and completely controlled the government, since blacks were disenfranchised by law. While living standards and incomes for the white community were generally comparable to those of “developed” countries, the black community lived almost entirely in Third World poverty, and was systematically kept in that state to create a permanent pool of cheap labor for white employers. Education was segregated, and provided only inadequately for blacks. Whites and blacks virtually never interacted on any footing of equality, and virtually never had cross-racial or cross-cultural friendships. In that environment, few people of either race thought of the other as individual fellow humans; rather, they were just an undifferentiated mass of alien and possibly hostile Other. Blacks generally resented white exploitation (with good reason); whites generally feared blacks as a potential threat to their own lifestyles, and were tempted to subscribe to theories of black racial inferiority as justification for keeping them subservient.
Paton doesn't start his novel out with a description of this state of affairs (although, in his very short first chapter, he does set the stage by a physical description of his rural setting, with its terrain greatly damaged by human abuse of it, and not able to support its people), because it's something every South African reader would have been viscerally aware of to begin with. So, as his readers would, he just presupposes it, and goes from there. When our story really gets going, in chapter 2, we meet our protagonist, Rev. Stephen Kumalo. He's the priest of the small black Anglican church in the village of Ndotsheni, in Natal (which is, as I understand it from the geographical clues in the book –I don't know a lot about South Africa's internal geography-- in the southwestern, historically British-dominated, part of the country), a 60-year-old man living quietly with his wife on a scanty income. Like many of their fellow Zulus, Stephen's brother-in-law (husband of his sister Gertrude, 25 years younger than Stephen) has been gone a long time. He moved to the great city of Johannesburg (pop. ca. 700,000 at that time) looking for work in the mines, and hasn't been heard from for quite a while. Gertrude finally went to Johannesburg to look for him, and also went silent; Stephen's only child, a young man named Absalom, followed in his turn, looking for her, and he's no longer writing home either. But now, a letter written by a fellow black clergyman has arrived from Johannesburg, informing him that Gertrude is “very sick” and that he needs to come. That journey will be a fateful and pivotal one, marked by tragedy --but also by unexpected light that can shine in darkness. It will bring him together with both familiar faces –including his younger brother John, a fairly prosperous Johannesburg carpenter and influential orator in black political circles, long estranged from both Stephen and the church-- and with entirely new acquaintances, most surprisingly a Ndotsheni neighbor, well-to-do white farmer James Jarvis. These two would normally never have spoken to each other; but fate sometimes has strange twists....
This novel is a cri de coeur for fundamental justice and decency in relations between human beings, delivered with powerful force and clarity. But while I won't say it has no passages of straightforward exposition (well integrated into the text), it derives its force and clarity from the way its message is embedded in an actual involving and emotionally compelling story about characters who become as real as any you meet in your everyday life. And it's a message which recognizes that justice and decency have to flow from love, which means they'll never be achieved by hate and never fostered by fear. The author's vision for the country he loves isn't one that demonizes whites, but one that calls on British-descended whites like Paton himself, Afrikaners (and those two groups, though both white, didn't especially like or trust each other, either) and blacks of all tribes to come together in harmony to build a society that works for everybody. That particular note of inclusion and reconciliation comes from the grounding of this vision in Christian belief. Stephen's faith (and that of other characters, of both races) isn't coincidental to the story; it mirrors and expresses the author's own, and this is a profoundly Christian novel, not just from having some clerical characters, but from depicting lived Christianity in its warp and woof, and inculcating a Christian message as its central reason for being written.
Stylistically, the most notable characteristic here is that Paton doesn't use quotation marks. However, when a character's speech is reproduced, he clearly indicates that a character is speaking, and who it is; and in dialogue, speeches by different characters are on different lines, and set off by a dash. As a rule, I don't care for fictional prose that affects a departure from normal grammatical rules, and normally wouldn't read it. But here I was motivated enough to give the text a chance, and quickly discovered that, at least in this instance, the author didn't sacrifice clarity on the altar of quirkiness; I never had a problem identifying who was speaking. His diction is highly readable, often beautiful and lyrical. He knew black culture, both urban and tribal, and black speech patterns, well enough to bring them to vivid life (okay, I don't have any first-hand knowledge myself; but I can recognize the ring of authenticity when I read it!), and had a good eye for his country's varied landscapes and cityscapes. Though himself white, he writes black characters very realistically, believably getting inside Stephen's head in particular (Stephen and Jarvis will be our two viewpoint character here, and we get much more of the former's viewpoint than the latter's). There's also a lot of serious social insight here that goes beyond the obvious, such as the recognition of the problematic effects of the destruction of traditional tribal community by the white government and white-run economy (which created an anomie and rootlessness in the black community), and of the role of farmland destruction, through overgrazing and practices that maximized soil erosion, in exacerbating rural poverty.
Alan Paton (1903-1988) is described by Wikipedia as a “strong Christian," whose “faith was one of the reasons he was so strongly opposed to apartheid.” At the time he wrote this book, he was principal of a reformatory for youthful black offenders (and very successful in effecting rehabilitation of those in his care); and yes, that experience is relevant to this novel.
Despite the changes in South Africa since 1994, many of the problems and challenges depicted here still remain; and the author's call for racial harmony and cooperation remains as necessary –and too often as elusive-- as it was in 1946. And even though it's delivered in the context of a particular setting, his moral, spiritual and social messages are universal, relevant wherever injustice and fear of the Other is rife; which is to say, always and everywhere. There aren't very many novels that I would actually recommend to all readers. This is one of them.
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Ahmad Sharabiani
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December 3, 2017
Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton
Cry, the Beloved Country is a novel by Alan Paton, published in 1948.
In the remote village of Ndotsheni, in the Natal province of eastern South Africa, the Reverend Stephen Kumalo receives a letter from a fellow minister summoning him to Johannesburg. He is needed there, the letter says, to help his sister, Gertrude, who the letter says has fallen ill. Kumalo undertakes the difficult and expensive journey to the city in the hopes of aiding Gertrude and of finding his son, Absalom, who traveled to Johannesburg from Ndotsheni and never returned. In Johannesburg, Kumalo is warmly welcomed by Msimangu, the priest who sent him the letter, and given comfortable lodging by Mrs. Lithebe, a Christian woman who feels that helping others is her duty. ...
عنوانها: بنال وطن؛ گریه کن سرزمین محبوب؛ مویه کن، سرزمین مجبوب؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و نهم ماه جولای سال 1973 میلادی
عنوان: مویه کن سرزمین محبوب؛ نویسنده: آلن پیتون؛ مترجم: فریدون سالک؛ نادر ابراهیمی؛ تهران، امیرکبیر، 1348؛ در 353 ص؛ چاپ دوم 1357؛
عنوان: بنال وطن؛ نویسنده: آلن پیتون؛ مترجم: سیمین دانشور؛ تهران، خوارزمی، 1351؛ در 291 ص؛ چاپ سوم 1354؛ چاپ پنجم اسفند 1361؛
عنوان: گریه کن سرزمین محبوب؛ نویسنده: آلن پیتون؛ مترجم: هوشنگ حافظی پور؛ تهران، اردیبهشت، 1362؛ در 485 ص؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، مثبت، 1383؛
داستان دربارهٔ مسئلهٔ تبعیض نژادی در آفریقای جنوبی است. دربارهٔ کشیشی فقیر و پیر به نام: استیون کومالو در روستای محروم و کوچک ایندوتشنی است که برای یافتن پسرش (ابسالم کومالو) به ژوهانسبورگ میرود. او متوجه میشود که پسرش دختر نوجوانی را باردار کرده و مدتی نیز در دارالتأدیب بوده است. کمی بعد پسرش را به جرم قتل یک مرد سفیدپوست بازداشت میکنند و ... ا. شربیانی
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March 5, 2009
I am a teacher and, after 34 years, attempt to find new combinations in the catalogue of "must reads." I have done this as a staple for years. Last year, when deciding what I wanted to do - kind of like window shopping for lovely clothes -- I decided to read this book after reading Hamlet. I love the mirrored plot structure. I adore the fact that the land is a character. The moral imperative and subsequent hemming and hawing in Hamlet takes on a different light and life in the beautifully wrought quest into the valley of death by Stephen Kumalo. The gentle prod of grace, of questions, of moral hues and tones take me back to the wasteland scene in Hamlet. After speaking with the captain on his way to death against the Polish, Hamlet finally has his epiphany. For Stephen, the wasteland shifts, but the same 20,000 + on their way to death in a mine is the same moral imperative. My students are slowly putting the plots together and the depth that they are mining (pun intended) is impressive. I am quite pleased. They had trouble with the flow of dialogue at first, but they also had trouble starting in medias res in Hamlet. So goes the way with 15 and 16 year old students. We are going to next move to Eliot's wasteland for a quick jaunt through 20th century gardens and graves. Paton is a treasure - put on his shoes, or discover the link with the land through the unshod feet and understand how two men and their families, their villages can wrestle with ethical dilemmas and the imperative of humanity. Powerful when put together! * of particular delight - one of my students noticed two items: the use of Gertrude in both and also the idea of kairos! I was so happy. This is what makes books come alive. When we share, we grow.
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August 23, 2023
Beautiful writing, that is why this book gets four stars. But what do I mean by beautiful writing? That can mean so much. Here every sentence is simple. Every thought is simple. It is writing where all words that can be removed are removed. What remains is clear and concise and beautiful. The core is left, and that core says exactly what has to be said.
The book is about Africa, South Africa in particular and racial injustice in this country. It is about right and wrong and men's strengths and weaknesses. It is about Christian beliefs, but again whittled down to the most elementary concepts. It is not necessary to be religious to appreciate this book.
You will be moved to tears.
You will think: yes, this IS how life is, but dam we must go on fighting because along with sadness and injustice and wrong, there is beauty and kindness. Alan Paton says it all so honestly and so simply. I repeat: gorgeous writing.
I can only judge from my own reading experience. I listened to an audio book, narrated by Michael York. The narration couldn't have been better. Perhaps if I had read it I would have appreciated the words less. Here, every word was spoken with depth and a calm measured strength. You are forced to think and ponder and savor. Would I have appreciated the cadence of the lines or the message imparted had I read the book with my eyes rather than my ears? I am not sure. Some books demand that they be read slowly.
I haven't said one word about what happens. You must read the book to find out.
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Brook
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April 15, 2007
I cant say enough about this book. It is lyrically written, reads almost like an epic out of Ireland. The dialog between characters is straightforward, and the book manages to give you a glimpse of Apartheid S. Africa, from the richest people, to the poor urban laborers, to the criminals, to the peaceful rural farmers trying to maintain their land after many years of neglect. This is a classic that I have read probably 3 or 4 times.
My copy is beat to hell, but readable.
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