South Africa Books

Doris Lessing is a writer of many locales and many genres. Of British parentage, she was born in Iran when it was called Persia. At age six she moved to Zimbabwe when it was called Rhodesia, and in 1949 she moved to London where she has remained ever since. In her 83 years, she's written over thirty books: realistic novels, science fiction novels, and some that she calls "inner-space novels." She's written plays, an opera libretto for Phillip Glass, and an autobiography.
Her latest realistic novel, The Sweetest Dream, begins in the early 1960s, and concerns Frances Lennox, a forth-something actress who has turned to journalism out of financial need. She has two adolescent sons. Their London house serves as a crash pad for teenagers with family troubles, so prevalent in the `60s. Frances' husband, Johnny, has abandoned her and the boys in order to pursue his own ambitions within the Communist Party. The story traces the gradual growth of all of the characters, youth and adult, into the late 1980s. Some remain in London, others go to the States, and still others wind up in Africa. Halfway through, the novel shifts direction and concerns itself with Sylvia, one of the flophouse kids, a once-anorexic waif who, having become a doctor, devotes her life to helping poor people with AIDS in Africa.
But the novel's first half deals mainly with London's Swinging Sixties. Lessing, herself once a `60s communist radical, is now deeply critical of the movement. In an interview with Salon, she has said, "We were going to have justice, equality, fair pay for women, cripples, blacks -- everything, in a very short time. This nonsense was believed by extremely intelligent people." She's still incredulous at the current political correctness that has survived since the `60s. The Sweetest Dream seems to ask: did we really want our society torn down and rebuilt again by twenty-one year olds?
The sweetest dream that Lessing writes about is the dream of altruism, our dream of helping people, of serving others, of actively doing our parts to create a better, even a perfect world. What Lessing adds to the pot is that the character of altruism leans greatly upon the all-too-human personalities that practice it. Differing temperaments create different brands of social idealists.
Frances, for example, is the Good Mother whose instinct is to help wayward youth, to clothe, shelter and feed them. Her altruism falls naturally like rain, she cannot help but help. Her weakness is that she cannot say no. She is often taken advantage of and occasionally trounced all over. She has altruism with all heart and no head.
Her husband, Johnny, is altruism with all head and no heart. He is a young, charismatic Communist Party idealist whose dream is to unite the workers into an ideal society in which no one will suffer anymore. If it means sacrificing some individuals who get in the way, then so be it. Like many western European and American communists of his time, he remains in denial of Stalin's wholesale atrocities. Not to mention that, while he's out fighting to tear down the bourgeoisie, his sons remain fatherless at home.
Perhaps the novel's deepest flaw is that tends to meander. Anecdote gradually follows anecdote, and sometimes the reader is left wondering which was important and which wasn't. It reads like memories piled upon memories with very little rising drama, except for the question you might ask about any actual, living person: what will become of them in thirty years?
And this is what's compelling in The Sweetest Dream. The characters themselves are lively and varied. We watch them grow, or refuse to grow. Interestingly, the old adage that character is destiny only seems to apply to the novel's purely villainous characters. Communist Johnny remains a helpless, charming, deceitful dreamer until the end. Rose, the snot-nosed, vindictive teenager has become, appropriately, a tattletale journalist for a British tabloid. Lessing's villainous characters, lacking dimension, are unable to change into anything except self-caricatures. And it seems likely that the author intends it so.
But the more sympathetic characters such as Frances and her sons evolve in the most surprising and yet plausible ways. And even poor Sylvia, whose brand of altruism in Africa is rooted, like her anorexia, in a martyr's self-denial, changes in a most satisfying way. She grows from being helpless to being undeniably strong.
In showing the long-term evolution of her characters, Lessing has created a rich novel about personality and politics. In The Sweetest Dream, as in most of her work, there's a constant awareness that what at first seems only personal balloons into the political, and what's political affects us all in the most deeply personal ways.
For more writings of a literary nature, see www.maninquotes@blogspot.com

A good plot diluted with far too many sub-plots, some of which were rather contorted.
With remarkably few words this author can conjure up a vivid scene e.g.(pg.14)"she would go slowly upstairs, leaving behind her on the stale air the odours of flowers and expensive face powder." However, at other times the story is bogged down with far too much detail.
I liked some of the social and half-humorous statements that popped up from time to time. e.g the author's take on international conferences where "they get paid to travel to some beauty spot and talk nonsence....they take off every day to see the lions and the giraffes and the dear little monkeys and I don't think they notice the land is perishing from the drought." (437).
There were a vast number of characters in this book, making it difficult to keep track of everyone. What became of Clever and Zeberdee? We don't know. What became of Rose, the journalist,who came to Zimlia and tried to undermine and wreek havoc for Sylvia? That thread was dropped unceremoniously. Why so much attention to Colin's daughter, Celia, at the very end? Above all how does the name of the book fit this story?

Doris Lessing - The Sweetest Dream.


In the first half of this splendid book we are back more or less in the territory of the author's The Good Terrorist. Frances Lennox, a middle -aged woman living in a large Hampstead house, presides unassertively over a large dinner table frequented by a group of 1960s youngsters brought home by her sons and who mostly belong to the radical left. Her Stalinist (later Maoist) ex-husband (irresponsibly abandoning wives and children seriatim) also drops in from time to time when he is not being a delegate in plushy hotels abroad, and plays the guru to the youngsters. Some rooms in the house become almost permanent squats for the young people who have often fallen out with their middle class families. Frances herself is a middle class left-wing Liberal; but she is unwilling to assert herself even when some of those who avail herself of her hospitality abuse her for being bourgeois and for belonging to an exploiting class. The politics of these youngsters are depicted as crude, their rhetoric based on clich s and slogans, their behaviour as selfish and self-indulgent. For instance, they defend their shop-lifting as an anti-capitalist activity. Clearly this novel is in part a scathing political tract against the radical left. But it is much more than that, as the psychology of Frances, of her sons, her mother-in-law, and each of the other young people is displayed with an insight which makes this a great novel and a captivating read.

In the second half of the book, in the 1980s, we move to "Zimlia", a newly liberated African country. Sylvia, Frances' step-daughter, has trained as a doctor and has then gone to work in a desperately poverty- and AIDS-stricken village in that country. In Zimlia we meet again some of the other youngsters who had sat around Frances' hospitable table: two of them, Africans who had been exiles from the country before its independence, are now in with the corrupt and incompetent government; three others have become leading figures in wealthy NGOs, moving importantly from one international gathering to another, and distributing largesse to the corrupt government without troubling to make sure that the money reaches the people who most need it. Again any possible resentment a reader might feel about being exposed to another political tract is likely to be overcome by the sheer brilliance with which the setting, the circumstances and the characters are described. Here, too, one knows that Doris Lessing is burning with rage about intellectual and political corruption, but, though there is nothing subtle about the political level of the book, her craft is such that one becomes deeply involved with and interested in the many people she so vividly portrays. The Sweetest Dream of a better world that black and white radicals had hoped for is cruelly dispelled in the shadow of Stalin, Mao, and tin-pot dictators in Africa, and Doris Lessing seems to say that it is an illusion to think we can transform the world by politics, but that individual acts of goodness and unselfishness can create pools of light in the surrounding darkness.

Structured in two sections set in London and Africa, The Sweetest Dream is an interesting chronicle of the turmoil of western ideology in the post-World War era. Lessing bitterly attacks the dogmatic views on communism and justice held by leaderships which were soon forgotten when they rose to power. Instead, her heroines are women (Julia, Frances, Silvia) whose political positions are not so defined but who rise above their circumstances to provide care and support to those around them. The section set in Africa is particularly intense and vivid. On the other hand, plotwise the story meanders too much and often loses focus, specially in the 60's part. I got the feeling that the novel would have improved with better editing.

It's the sixties and Frances Lennox and her two sons try to make the best of their situation, which requires that they live with her conservative mother-in-law, who is the German matriarch of this English family. Francis's ex-husband, who is a Communist rabble rouser, dumps his second wife's problem child Sylvia with Frances and she takes charge of the girl as if she were her own in this excellent and dramatic novel that takes you back to the tumultuous sixties. The book moves forward through two decades, reliving the politics of the times through the voices and views of Ms. Lessing's well drawn characters. A super story laced with satire.

Let's see. Aside from the incredible writing, this book has an interesting layout, in which the reader feels she is perusing a small, personal journal; an atypical heroine, who is conniving, sensual, hardheaded and more shrewd than intelligent; and an exotic African setting during a time when people from all over the world were arriving to re-invent themselves. This maid turned hotel-keeper turned entrepeneur struggles through single motherhood, business bamboozlement and romantic entanglement. She would rather blackmail a man than accept his help, and she steals her best friend's lover. She's anything but drab. I admired the steel in her spine and enjoyed this book greatly.

I wasn't surprised when I read that Ms. Freed wrote the initial short story in one sitting. The story has a magazine (Cosmo?)feel to it, like its intended audience is composed of sixteen-year-old girls. And girls, in my opinion, deserve better than this age-old fanciful tale of a brash woman. Willa Cather, for one, does a far better job.

I'm a Lynn Freed fan but found Agnes utterly undeveloped: there's no backstory for the unapologetic narcissistic behavior: business, her lovers, her husband, her own daughter, her (?) friends. Take a pass ... even the supposed eroticism is so veiled as to be barely evident.

This is a very well-rounded story that takes you back in time.
It's another time & place in South Africa with a young girl trying to 'find herself'. This young girl becomes a woman and sees the mirror of herself in her own daughter. History clearly repeats. Growth and renewal comes out of this story of relationships. It is a lovely story and a quick read. There are some wonderful lines...very well written...a nice escape as any reader will recognize people and thoughts (in our current every day lives).

California writer Lynn Freed spins the tale of Agnes La Grange, a plucky young Englishwoman who has immigrated to So. Africa after WWI. The greatest pleasure of this book is engrossing yourself in Agnes's desires: she wants to experience adventure and passion without feeling she's being dominated by a man. Remember, this was the Edwardian era, when women were given more to fits of the vapors that to fits of passion. It's a pleasure to read along as Agnes struggles not to succumb to the mores of her time.
As author Freed grew up in South Africa, her book is all the more compelling for its presumed accuracy. At least, it feels accurate, a sense lent credence by the photographs which are included.

Another "white man bad" screed. What should have been a fascinating story ends up being a platform for the author's own bigotry. Skip it.

The early descriptions of Sarah's life in South Africa were fascinating, a window into another world and time. But once the story line moved to Europe, there was little to hang onto: what it was like for Sarah to live in a "zoo", to be treated as a scientific specimen, to be deceived and abandoned by her husband-in-name, to be lost in a card game, to be sold from one man to the next. I skimmed the last 200 pages and even then, could barely stand to finish it.

Hottentot Venus is a wonderful work of historical fiction by Barbara Chase-Riboud surrounding the exploitation and short life of Saartjie "Sarah" Baartman. Saartjie was a South African herdswoman who was brought to England in 1810 and exhibited in a freak show for seven years as the "Hottentot Venus." She was exhibited in a cage partially covered in "native attire" where thousands came to view her protruding buttocks and elongated labia ("apron") - a symbol of beauty and desire by her tribesmen. A distortion on the image of Venus as the goddess of love and beauty, Saartijie was heralded as the missing link between man and apes - thus propelling her as an atrocity to be gawked upon, repulsed and pitied by Victorian England and France.

Saartjie's experience in England lands her in a famous legal case in which abolitionists took her "partners" to court insisting that Saartjie was enslaved and working against her will. She, being an illiterate person, testified that she had signed a written contract with her "partners" and was being fairly compensated; however considering she died in poverty, the contract (if it truly existed) is highly questionable.

Immediately upon death at age 27 from complications caused by alcoholism, syphilis, and tuberculosis, Saartjie's body was sold and dissected to prove the theory that she was indeed the missing link and not human. Her remains (death caste, full skeleton, and prized "apron") were callously displayed and stored in a Paris museum for nearly 200 years and were only recently returned to her native South Africa for burial in 2002.

Chase-Riboud's in depth research and careful reconstruction of Saartjie's world is superb! The novel is lengthy, detailed and descriptive. It has a Victorian flair to it - especially in the passages where in depth dialogue is used to convey the Englishmen's misguided, racists thoughts of the time. The author's imagination fills in the gaps and gives Saartjie a resonant voice that transcends time. A true work of historical fiction as it references the French Revolution, American Civil War, and historical figures like Jane Austen, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Charles Darwin. The reader empathizes with Saartjie, all the while pulling for justice to be served for her. This is a touching novel - one that will stay with the reader well after the last page is turned.

Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub
Nubian Circle Book Club

I want to thank the other reviews who sold me on this book because here it is, 6 am, and I can't put it down.

For a fascinating and disturbing look into this woman's story, written with lush descriptions and unforgiving honesty, I highly recommend it as well.

LOL @ the other two haters - your BS was helpful to NO ONE and that alone speaks for itself. GTFOHWTBS. Truth hurts.

..this book should be on the reading list in every high school,how else are we to change the cruelty and racism that is inflicted and promoted by governments down thru history,the story of sexism is most painful as you become aware that society today is still staring at its "venus" in the form of many young and spiritual girls and women today,in all countries of the world...the authors style is brave as she takes us from murder to our lonely Sarah shopping for beloved gloves and thru a death journey that is poetic in its justice.......please read this and urge others to

Berry's older sister Laura wanted to make a difference in the world, to do something good for those less fortunate than she was. So she went to South Africa to teach and give of herself to those who needed her help. While there, she was murdered by a mugger. Berry and her parents never really got over it.

Now, almost two years later, there is going to be a memorial service for Laura and a monument to her will be unveiled in South Africa. Berry's mother can't make herself go to it. Ever since Laura's death it's like she's been missing a piece of herself. So Berry's father arranges to take her with him, to have a father-daughter bonding trip.

Berry is not happy about the arrangement. She and her father were never close, especially after her parents got divorced. Laura was obviously his favorite, the one who was smart and knowledgeable about politics. Berry was the disappointment. She feels like now she is even more of a disappointment, and is not eager to spend so much time alone with her father. Will their trip together help them to grow closer, or will it make even clearer to them their distance?

The family dynamic in this story was interesting. It was sad to see the ways Berry's family reacted to the death of her sister, but it seemed like they all reacted in realistic ways. I liked the details about life in Africa, from the people to the landscape to the tourist spots Berry and her father visited.

I didn't like the writing in this book. The narrative was stilted; I didn't feel like Berry was really giving her actual feelings. It seemed wooden and passionless to me.

To be honest, I wasn't exactly thrilled with this book. I think that it lacked something very important: a good plot. This book just starts, and goes smoothly throughout the rest of the book. I didn't ever find myself wondering what was going to happen next or unable to put the book down.
But still, this book my lack a good plot but it doesn't lack a character change.The main character has a very poor outlook on the world, and on a trip to South Africa to attend a memorial service for her dead sister, she finds her grief deep inside her.
A short read, and if you just want to sit down with a book I would say go for it.

in need of a subject for a book report, i came across this book while searching through my school library. little did i know the depth this book possessed. the author, carolyn coman, has an amazing ability to create rich characters that are extremely realistic. berry's struggles and changing attitudes toward her life make for a very interesting read. the novel is almost depressing in a way. while berry has to learn to live with her tragedy, the reader does as well, and its very easy to dive deep into this novel. it's rather short, and probably could have been longer, but power isnt always judged by size.

Berry is one strange cookie. Self-absorbed is an understatement. Why is she so mean to her father? ...

Many Stones by Carolyn Coman is a story about a teenage girl, Berry, who travels to South Africa with her estranged father to attend a memorial for her brutally slain sister. Just describing the plot makes for a long sentence yet somehow the book comes in at a slim 158 pages. This is my main criticism of the novel. It's hard to get into such a deep story about family tragedy so quickly. The reader kind of jumps right into the troubled lives of Berry and her family with little back story until a few chapters in.

Short as it may be, the book stll has several touching moments and may very well be a welcome change for someone looking for a quick read but is tired of the fluff that usually entails.

In this youth memories, J.M. Coetzee defines himself as `twice-born: `born from woman and born from the farm'. He is, first of all, a mother's son (`he clings to her as his only protector'), but `the farm is his secret fate'.
Growing up in a rude and unsocialized family with eccentric characters, with a father who becomes an alcoholic and a mother, for whom `studying is just nonsense' and `children should be sent to trade school', he nevertheless continues to study `normally'.
Through school, he discovers the real world around him: the different social classes, the opposition (and ostracism) between black / colored and white (race), English and Afrikaans (language), and Catholic / Protestant and Anglican (religion).

This clear, sublime, impeccable prose is a far cry from J.M. Coetzee's struggling `Beckettian' beginnings.
Its undercooled, accurate and still dramatic style makes this book a marvelous and moving read.

In "Boyhood," J.M. Coetzee revisits his childhood as a white, English child growing up in South Africa. Written in the third person, Coetzee's memoir takes a detailed investigation into his own childhood, a time he refers to as "anything but a time of gritting the teeth and enduring." Through his own memoir, Coetzee raises many questions about society, and offers examples of young adult struggles that are shared by many.
On page twenty eight towards the beginning, Coetzee parallels his life to that of a spider. "He begins to think of himself as one of those spiders that live in a hole in the ground with a trapdoor. Always the spider has to be scuttling back into its hole, closing the trapdoor behind it, shutting out the world, hiding." Shy, easily embarrassed, and usually worried, a young Coetzee is very similar to any small and fearful creature. But unlike the quote from above, Coetzee's passiveness is shown through numerous scenes and examples with very little explanation done by the author. Instead, Coetzee lays out the story, and draws the reader to draw their own conclusions.
The most stunning, and intriguing example of this is in the way that Coetzee uses language to present his relationship with his mom. Instead of telling us that he his confused and at a loss in his relationship with her, he shows us through his sporadic and at times conflicting feelings towards her. For example, look at the two lines below taken from the book:
"He wishes she (his mom) did not love him so much. She loves him absolutely, therefore he must love her absolutely...The thought of a lifetime bowed under a debt of love baffles and infuriates him to the point where he will not kiss her, refuses to be touched by her."
"She buys tickets for him and his brother. `Go in, I'll wait here,' she says. He is unwilling but she insists. "
In this first example, he misinterprets his mother's love to be a curse, and a nuisance, and meets it with a cold heart. But at the same time, he does not want her to leave his side when he goes into an amusement park. What I have yet to reveal is that these two lines are on the exact same page, an example of how Coetzee transplants the inner conflict that he felt as a child on to the pages themselves.
It is important as well to remember that Coetzee writes the book in the third person, which allows him to disconect himself from the main-character. This disconnect allows for Coetzee to be much more critical of himself and to point out observations that he may not have realized as a child. This literary trick is another example of how Coetzee is at his best in this novel.
J.M. Coetzee's literary prowess shines through in his dark and despairing memoir of his childhood. While detaching himself from his childhood, and refusing to tell the reader but instead lay down the facts and let the reader do the work, Coetzee has accomplished much in this novel. At one point Coetzee asks his readers, "If he were no longer himself, what point would there be in living." Of course he does not explicitly leave us with an answer. None the less, in this memoir of mental and physical growth we as readers are reminded that the struggle to be ourselves is shared by all.

In his memoir, Boyhood, JM Coetzee writes about a young boy, presumably himself, growing up in South Africa during the 1950's. One thing about this book I enjoyed was the author's varying choice of subject matter. Coetzee managed to cover all bases in terms of his childhood. The memoir leaves the reader clear about the narrator's experiences at school, his attitude towards his family, his opinions on religion, his friendships, his enemies, his athletic memories and his aspirations. I most enjoyed his description of his first cricket at-bat.
Another aspect of the memoir that I enjoyed was the stories structure. Rather than mixing the many different subject matters together, Coetzee does a nice job of focusing on one thing at a time. For example, Chapter Two deals exclusively with the young boy's feelings about school, and about getting beaten by teachers. This was one of my favorite chapters because the narrators outpouring of emotions gives the reader a vivid image of his insecure character. Had this chapter been mixed with feelings about his family or religion, it would have been more confusing.
Also, I enjoyed JM Coetzee's subtle use of humor. Oftentimes, memoir authors try to hard to make jokes and it becomes distracting, however, Coetzee finds the perfect balance. When the narrator is trying to explain why he likes the Russians he writes: "Russia and America do not play cricket. The Americans play baseball; the Russians do not appear to play anything, perhaps because it is always snowing there. He does not know what the Russians do when they are not making war."(28) This is not an outright joke, but rather a comical thought from a young boy.

okay. has historical relevance as a memoir of an Afrikaaner boy growing up in S. Africa.

Coetzee uses an unusual third-person narrative writing style, in this personal memoir of his childhood. This style however is cold and distant and reflects his up bringing. Coetzee an established South African, Cape Tonian born writer has won various literature prizes for his work.

Coetzee takes his reader on a journey through the sites and memories of his childhood. He successfully allows you into deep chambers of his mind as a youngster growing up in a small Afrikaans, South African housing estate during the Apartheid era. Readers venture through the experiences and emotions of the young Coetzee, growing up in a home with a white English mother and a white Afrikaans father. He pours out emotions of confusion and the feeling of alienation felt, growing up in an unconventional home of the day. The same of having an English tongue in and Afrikaans dominated school leaves Coetzee fearful of failure and exposure.

In his memoir we meet Coetzee's parents, who he feels very differently about. He comes across as being very close to his mother whom he both loved and resented for her constant motherly protection. In his home he and his mother seem to have the first and last say on all decisions, this making them the head of their home. This unconventional arrangement angers him yet he does not want to loose this power control he lacks respect for is father. He is ashamed of his father and how soft he is and views him as the weaker parent. He feels that the way he has been raised makes him abnormal in his society and grows up always feeling like an outsider looking in.

Coetzee's book is an easy but is not particularly entertaining read. If you are looking for light comic relief, riveting romance, mysterious twists or nail biting suspense this book will definitely not have you reading cover to cover longing for more.

I read Kaffir Boy, which was a seemingly long time ago, however, it still remains glued into my head. The main character of the book `Kaffir Boy' is Mark Mathabane, who was also the author of the magnificent book. The book portrays the life of an ordinary black boy living in the hatred filled streets of South Africa. The racism described is so well portrayed that it is almost painful; the author (Mark Mathabane) paints a crystal clear picture of what it was like to live at that time, with racism chasing you down. Thanks, Mark Mathabane, for giving me a great book to read!

he book "Kaffir Boy" not only captures the real life hardships that occurred in South Africa under the Apartide, but it is also a great story of success and avercoming all adversity. The Story is told from the perspective of Mark Mathabane when he is a young boy all the way up until he is a fully grown man. Mark Mathabane in his autobiography tells the story of what it is like to overcome true poverty in this story which at many times is sad and depressing, while at other times can make one laugh and smile. While reading this book one will go through a roller coaster of emotions, which will make you never weant to put down this book.
The main reason I liked this book was because of the perspective it was told in, which is of course the first person perspective. What this does for the book is it make it very belivable, because you know that everything that happened in the book is true and it wasn't just though up by some author who never experienced what South Africa was really like. And the other this this does for the book is it maked is so much more detailed. Mark Mathabane make is so that the readon knows almost every detail so you can better understand the situation that is occuring in the novel. I belive the only bad thing about this book would be that some of the scenes in the book seemed like they were un-needed. One example of this would be the part of the book where a raping occures, and there are many other scenes like this in the book. But what I think Mark Mathabane is trying to do is just to help the reader better understand the situation he was in. In closing I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to learn about South Africa uner the Apartide because the book gives you a really great understanding of what it was really like.

I have come a to rare realization. I think back to my years at Asbury Park High School and how there was little to no educated reading of books by or of black people, which I think is strange now as Asbury Park was a mostly black town. It wasn't until I eventually got to a black university that I learned more and more of my heritage, black history and what could become a black future.

Oh, as good as they were, I read "The Crucible," "The Pearl," "Of Mice and Men," etc. in Asbury Park, but not until Norfolk State U. did I even know "Kaffir Boy" existed. And what a travesty! I know all about white history and such. Someone asked me the other day how I even heard of a group called "Frankie Goes To Hollywood." Because when I was growing up in the 80's, everything on MTV was white. I had never met a Chinese person except the goof in high school who got voted "Class Clown." My favorite television show was "Tales of the Gold Monkey," a show with no black characters. A great deal of black life, especially literature, is lost on today's youth because it was lost on yesterday's youth.

Why were we spared the turmoil of Mark Mathabane's childhood? His oppression by evil soldiers who shared the darkness of his skin tone, as they forced him to practically dance in feces? His needs, yearns for a better life studying tennis at the tutledge of a kindly white sponsor? His fright at unexpected and often raids on his poor village by storm troopers ripe with power and arrogance yet bereft of dignity and compassion? Why didn't anyone tell me of this book when I was 15? Because if we're aware of the evils of the world when we are young, there will be unlimited resources for us to change it in the future.

Kaffir Boy was about a boy living under the apartheid laws of South Africa. These laws prevented blacks from doing anything in their community. They had no freedoms, and no hope for jobs to make money to live their lives. Mark Mathebane was the young boy in this book. He talked about his life and how horrible it was. This book was extremely graphic and sick minded for high school students. He gave every detail about how he lived and how he survived. One section of the book that comes to mind is where Mark is getting raped by a man. He gave every single detail that made me want to throw up. In another part of the book, a man made him step in a bucket full of human feases, which is flat out disgusting. This book is horrible in the fact that he or she reading it will have a stomach ache from the gross facts. Not suited for High School students!!

I have read Mark's book three times and still come to one conclusion: it could have been better. It is a fine read indeed, but there are several things in the content of the book which I as a black South African, having lived in a South African ghetto during and after Apartheid, found Mr. Mathabane's book a bit too commercialized. I too come from the ghetto in SA. Despite the ills of Apartheid and oppression we suffered under the white minority. There were moments for happiness in our lives in the ghettos. Mr. Mathabane paints a picture in which he tells of his life as that of the worst among them all. It is troubling to see the way he distorts and diss our culture, food, and beliefs. His description of amasonja and murogo on page 63 is very disturbing to me. This is the food that kept us strong, we enjoyed this as young people or black families in our communities. True not everybody liked amasonja or murogo, but it wasn't filthy food. Also his description of eating blood (ubende), this is a delicacy among us Zulus, especially among children and families that value culture.

It is also sad to see how he fails to give proper translations of things such as muhodu on pg 30, he says is cattle's lungs--NO its not; page 84 mfana is not a brat; page 6 pap is not porridge. These are just few of the things that have I found inaccurate.

It just seems like the book had its intention of being a best seller, especially catering to the American society. Only for Mr. Mathabane to forget that one day us black South Africans will get hold of this book.

I must say that at least ninety percent of the book is accurate, but the very elements of our cultures are not well represented in Kaffir Boy.

This was a great book! To see the struggle of this woman's life during aparteid in S. Africa rattled me to the core. And it brought to light some of our issues with race in this counrty. This is truly a book for the strong and I think we can all learn something from it.

Firstly I have to admit that I haven't finished reading the book, I will edit my review when done. But I was curious about what other have said about it, so I paged to this review page.

I bought this book because I vaguely remember the story of Sandra Laing from newspapers etc. as a kid growing up in South Africa. She is quite a bit older than me, I was rather young when the incident happened, and I cannot remember much about all the controversy.

I mainly bought this book because I am quite interested in the genealogy of Afrikaner families. I have spent several years now documenting my own heritage. Frankly, I am surprised that the case of Sandra Laing stands out so much, as we Afrikaners are a creole nation who speaks a pidgin language - and I say this with pride. After 356 years in Africa, I don't believe that any of us are "pure whites" whatever that means. I guess it is not a well known fact (even amongst Afrikaners) that Afrikaners have on the average 6 to 12% of non-European blood (depending on which researcher's works you read). However, the majority of that proportion is Asian blood (particularly East Indian). In my own case I have verified this through DNA testing and genealogy - only because I was curious - my self-guestimate is 1/16th. I am sure the situation in the USA is not dissimilar.

It is well known that people were formally classified as belonging to a race after 1948 (though I submit that Apartheid existed long before that). Physical appearance played some role. This was one of the stupidest acts of the then National Party. My family looked European, and we happened to have been classified as white. Though I know that we are not - completely.

So why in the case of Sandra Laing was her appearance more African than many others? I don't know enough about biology to answer that question, as much as I don't know why my son's eyes are blue when neither my eyes nor my wife's eyes are blue. However, the way this family (and others) were treated due to physical appearance was certainly one of the many tragedies of the era.

Flipping through the book, what really irritated my immensely, was the atrocious spelling of Afrikaans phrases in the book. They don't even resemble any language I am familiar with. Was the editor out to lunch? Could the author not spell-check her phrases in her word-processing program? My version of MS Word (purchased in Canada) can spell-check Afrikaans, why can't hers? Such poor attention to detail really diminishes the professional image and academic merits of the book.

Another thing that irks me quite a bit are blanket racist statements by people like the first reviewer from that Bookclub - based on well-meant, but utter, ignorance (did she get her "facts" from the book?). While I agree with her summary and 'apartheid was bad' sentiments, she made too many factual and historical errors in her "review" for me to address here.

In short. Afrikaners blood was never pure to start with - well-known fact - whatever they say or said. Afrikaners merely look less coloured than the coloureds. There were not 3 classifications (she goes on to mention 4) but many more initially. Afrikaners have much (about 20%) French blood as well, but never conquered the country. They may have conquered parts of it, but it was the British Empire that conquered the whole country (almost the whole continent!) for the "Queen" (for the mineral wealth, more to the point). While Afrikaners had a big role to play in institutionalising apartheid (unfortunately), they hardly invented it. They merely took over that role from the British in 1948. Williams talks about the American south - I believe that Afrikaner leaders actually studied laws in the American South before institutionalising apartheid in South Africa. There were several study tours by many to the American south (rather than to nazi-Germany as some believe). Etc, etc.

Many Afrikaners were (and still are) racist, some Afrikaners supported the system, just like some Americans/Germans etc supported their systems. But the Afrikaner National Party could never stay in power without the English vote. Fact. So please don't blame the entire Afrikaner nation for the acts of some - even if the majority.

Anyway, while a few historical and grammatical errors are clearly in need of being corrected, I am glad that someone wrote down the story and sad circumstances of Sandra Laing. This is a story that needed to be told again, so many years later, in context. It is worth reflecting on it and remembering it. Sadly, the country is not out of the woods. Today (2008), the future still don't look rosy, never mind that Afrikaner power left the scene 14 years ago after 46 years of running things. But I guess the problems are new and different today.

I want to commend Judith Stone for the phenomenal work she has done in discussing a number of difficult subjects: Sandra Laing herself, the history of South Africa, and the nature of memory, family, and the examined life. Clearly, Sandra's lack (repression) of memory, and her inability to articulate her feelings, left Stone with an enormous challenge. She works through this brilliantly by marshaling the journalistic reports from the time and later, interviewing people who know Sandra, and sensitively explaining and exploring Apartheid's tortured history. Stone uses her knowledge of studies of PTSD, false-memory syndrome, and other relevant fields in psychology to examine Sandra's individual and South Africa's collective forgetfulness/refusal to admit reality. All in all, Stone has done a stunningly professional and sensitive job in illuminating one person's life, the cruel and terrible absurdities of Apartheid South Africa, and, more broadly still, what it means to live in a world where an ideological rigidity based on lies and hypocrisy sucks the life out of everyone--oppressor or oppressed.

I found Judith Stone's book on Sandra Laing wonderful as a chronicle of the history of race in South Africa. The book is a reminder, though, that people don't easily fit into categories. Sandra's white parents wanted her to be classified as white. I felt that the book presented convincing evidence that Sandra, despite her appearance, was the natural daughter of two white parents. Sandra herself felt more comfortable with blacks and wanted to fit in with them.

Judith Stone clearly wants Sandra to be a victim of apartheid and a symbol of the new South Africa. Stone has a hard time making Sandra fit into this, though. Stone talks a lot about the hardships Sandra faced, and sometimes it seems she is bending over backwards to make excuses for Sandra's behavior. Although Stone doesn't say so, it seems clear from the story that Sandra is either borderline mentally retarded or somewhere close to it. Sandra claims she didn't know at the time she was expelled from school at nine that it was because of her color. Her parents homeschooled her until age 12, while working endlessly to get her the legal right to attend a good school. When they finally succeeded and Sandra returned to school, she was put back two grades, then found it difficult to pass even that. Sandra went on to fulfill every black stereotype in existence. At 15 or so, Sandra left school to move in with a black man who was already married to someone else and had three children to provide for. The thought that maybe it might be a good idea to finish school seems never to have once crossed her mind. She went on to have five children out of wedlock with three different black men, again without the slightest forethought. Three of Sandra's children were turned over to foster parents for nine years. Money Sandra received, both from working at menial jobs and from payments for her story, flowed through her hands like water. I frankly felt sympathetic with Sandra's white parents and brothers, who eventually cut off contact with Sandra and her train wreck of a life. Yes, there are plenty of white girls in the world who act just as foolishly. But making a heroine out of Sandra is difficult, no matter how much color prejudice she experienced as a child.

This book presents good evidence that race classifications are superficial. Unfortunately, removing racial classifications is not enough to create responsible citizens.

When Sandra Laing was born in 1955 to a pro-apartheid Afrikaner couple in South Africa she was registered as a white child - but upon entering a white boarding school, was persecuted by students and teachers because of her brown skin. Her parents believed an interracial union back in their family history was to blame, but neighbors thought Mrs. Laing had committed adultery with a black man and the entire family was shunned. She was reclassified as 'coloured', her parents fought the South African courts to reverse the determination, then as a teen Sandra eloped - with a black man - and her parents disowned her. WHEN SHE WAS WHITE: THE TRUE STORY OF A FAMILY DIVIDED BY RACE crosses back and forth along discrimination lines and is riveting. Impossible to put down, it will enhance any general-interest lending library and is an emotionally charged, highly recommended pick.

This book is an awesome description of the treatment of people on Rwanda; the reactions from developed countries makes one realize how insular and selfish people can be. Everyone interested in world events and mission work should read this description of the genocide recorded by Bishop Rucyahana. It is also a great example of forgiveness and hope from people who have suffered so much.

This book, reviewing the Rwandan genocide of 1994, is a compelling read. Bishop John Rucyahana, who lost family in the horrific events of that year, brings an African perspective to join the many western viewpoints that have mourned the deaths of over 1.1 million Africans.
One item of note is that Rucyahana is not intent to simply identify systemic political issues as the root of the evil that was seen (though he acknowledges their role), nor to focus too narrowly on individual organizers of the slaughter. Instead, he reminds us that this event should keep before us the human capacity for unimaginable evil.
Yet simultaneously Bishop Rucyahana sees real hope and reconciliation flowing among the people of Rwanda in the wake of this genocide.
For all these reasons, the book is compelling and deserves reading as a story of how great good can be brought out of the most heinous evil.
On the other hand, the book could have used a bit more editing. At times, the text simply doesn't flow well, which is regretful for such an important book.
As supplementary background, an interested reader might also be interested in We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda.

Bishop John Rucyahana is Rwandan. He was a refugee in Uganda during the Rwanda genocide and in this book he illustrates for us the historical origins of the genocide, the reason that the plan succeeded, and the answer to the questions of reconciliation.

For each of us who care about how such evil can be possible in the world, The Bishop of Rwanda gives us those insights. Using true stories to illustrate both the evil of the genocide and the miracles of reconciliation, Bishop John ultimately tells a story of hope for the future of Rwanda.

If you want to know what happened, why it happened, and what you can do to keep it from happening again, this book is an excellent start. If you want to understand Rwanda so that you can assist in the reconciliation process there, this is an great text to begin your understanding.

Having been blessed enough to meet with Bishop John twice this year-once in my country and once in his, I can tell you that this man is even more powerful than his account of those tragic events in 1994. He is truly devoted to his work-Reconciliation, as well as his school, which he gave us a tour of. If you want to know what has happened in Rwanda, I would suggest reading this book, along with "Murambi: Book of Bones.", "Shake Hands with the Devil." and "We Wish to Inform You.." for a more complete picture. If you wish to know what is going on right now in Rwanda, Bishop John is a very integral part of that process, and his book is a faithful portrayal of his work.

Within a world of differing political opinions and cultures it remains painful to recognize the inhumanity of man that flaunts indifference to others at every opportunity. The contrast of evil and of love towards others is acutely apparent and as described in this book is an echo of history, and the reality of our collective existence. This book retells the ongoing battles we face, and the sense of responsibility that we each have to shoulder. Rwanda is an example. When they were challanged and forced to choose, they chose God and to love one another. This book is a difficult read, my suggestion; read the ending before pushing this book aside.

Ovid Abrams did a super job with this piece of writing. It takes discipline to work very hard. In my opinion, in general, Guyanese people should support writers. Writing requires courage. Metegee is now a powerful asset and resource for the aspiring writers in Guyana. I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Thank You Mr. Ovid Abrams.

Exceptional! A metegee is a traditional Guyanese dish with everything included and that's exactly what this is. As a daughter of Guynana, I was blown away. This will be my gift to all family members for the next year. Metegee includes culture, politics, sayings and was a fascinating study of life in a British post-colony. I was never bored reading it and suggest not only that all Guyanese families own one, but all Caribbeans. For a self-publishing volume, this book was very well done. I would love to take a class with the creative and gifted author.

In a nutshell, Metegee is a treasure chest of Guyana's who, why, when, where, what and how. Abrams covers Guyana in all aspects of our history and culture. On a scale of one to ten, Metegee is a big, fat ten. A must have for every Guyanese or anyone else who may wish to know as much of Guyana as they possibly can.

Roxanne De Cruiz-Shung(...)

I bought this book with great expectations of sharing it with non-Guyanese friends, and then keeping it in my personal library. I was sorely disappointed........The colonial history and more recent political history are long on factual details, but superficially analyzed....and the "culture" element of the book is more about folklore than culture in a pure anthropological sense, with dozens and dozens of pages of local sayings and idioms, but no story to hold them together.... But my greatest horror about the text itself is the absolutely abysmal quality of the proofreading and editing....EVERYWHERE there are typos, and mis-spellings, and incomplete ungrammatical sentences, and parts of sentences repeated in successive paragraphs, etc. etc.....to the point where it is so totally distracting that I put the book away in disgust.....it was disappointing to think that this text could have been cleared before printing by the author who is a professional journalist. For shame!!!!!

Metegee is a metaphor for the people of Guyana, and for this book by Ovid Abrams, both are a mix. Mr Abrams has a very lucid and plane spoken style, and his collection has much to offer. I did find it enjoyable and informative, and would certainly recommend it.
I do take issue with a few things Mr Abrams said.

(1)Secondary education was readily available in Georgetown, and was not so costly as to be exclusive. It was also better, or at the very least as good as anything I've seen in both Canada and the US.
(2) I don't think that the British ever considered the "indentured" Portuguese their equals. The Portuguese came mostly from the little island of Madeira, either because of famine or political instability, I don't really know, however I do know that both commerce and agriculture were well developed there, and I'm sure that when they came their intention was to work out their contract and go into bussiness for themselves. This is what they did, and they prospered.
(3) As far as Obeah is concerned I never knew it as a religion, but rather as something akin to witchcraft. In fact in the late forties there was a famous case in which three people were tried and hanged, because they had sacrificed a young child in an Obeah ceremony.

Evidently Mr Abrams is very keen on language and folklore, and that's fine, but there's too much. I didn't find the proverbs and saying so interesting, and many of the customs, beliefs, superstitions I wasn't familiar with. I do wish he had spent more time saying something about other ethnic groups like the Portuguese and Chinese. I also wish he had said something about the cattle ranchers in the Rupunnuni District.
Lastly though I know there was nothing altruistic about it,it should have been mentioned that but for Dutch engineering, Georgetown and the entire Atlantic coast would have been uninhabitable. Further though British colonialism was thoroughly detestable, it is worth noting as Mr Abrams points out that the exchange rate on the BG$ was 2 per US$ in 1960, and that after the Jagan-Burnhasm nightmare it stood at 140 BG$ per US $.

The book badly needs editing, but that is a minor distraction

This time last year, appropriately enough, I was reading this book of Churchill's epic escape from the States Model School in Pretoria, an event that had happened 100 years earlier to the very day.The 12 December 1999 was also a day in which I lost a friend in a road accident, thus, the centennial anniversary date becomes etched with the personal. Churchill was clearly a larger-than-life figure all of his life as his grandaughter and author Celia Sandys clearly shows in this historical work in which she followed in his footsteps, visiting campsites, battlefields etc and speaking to descendants of friends and foes alike. Contrary to the assertions of some other reviewers it is a well written and enjoyable book. Some of the interesting vignettes include the detective work the author did on tracking down the gold watches that Churchill had sent to various people for their assistance in his escape from the Boers (or Afrikaners as they are known today). At the time of publication Mrs Sandys had located 6 of the 8 watches. Mrs Sandys is not afraid to challenge Churchill's assertions that he was captured by Gen. Louis Botha himself (later the Union's first Prime Minister, 1910-19)and she rightly dismisses talk that there was ever a romantic entanglement with Helen Botha , the General's daughter. The author is partly correct when she records that Churchill's "huge political ambitions demanded a wife who would be a political asset..." However, that would cut both ways, something Helen Botha alluded to 60 years later when she said it was unlikely that she could fall for him as she was "a Transvaaler." Her father and Churchill may have "got along famously" but it is the author who is disingenous, not Helen Botha, in considering that a personal political rapport could see the leader of the Afrikaner volk, or a member of his family, contemplate such a marriage -particularly after the deaths of some 26,000 Boer women and children in the world's first concentration camps - British concentration camps. Nevertheless, this is a good read about a remarkable soldier-stateman in his younger days. Enjoy.

I am a great admirer of Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, and so being I read nearly every book that is published. As I write this Mr. Churchill was on the cover of one of our National Magazines last week, and the title was "The Last Hero". A man who is completing another biography of Mr. Churchill's life wrote the story inside.

A book by his Granddaughter Celia Sandys could be easily dismissed as a biased treatment, a work lacking objectivity. I believe The Authoress did a remarkable job of adding to the Historical Record without being a revisionist in her Grandfather's favor or to his detriment.

I have read Churchill's own accounts of the adventures contained in this book, and many other books written about this amazing story and I still would recommend it be added to any existing collection of Churchill books.

Mrs. Sandys manages to bring to light new bits of information that at times reinforce the contemporary accounts, and at other moments confirm what might have been an Historical Embellishment passed down through the years. She portrays her Grandfather with candor, and shares the information she collected while reconstructing herself the trip that her Grandfather made so many years ago.

Sir Winston Spencer Churchill M.P. has already taken his place in History. He was a man who seemed to know what destiny held for him, and also what History would say. He once said, "I know how History will remember me, as I shall write it." He once described the human race in the following terms, "We are all worms, but I believe I am a glow worm."

A well written, balanced account of a small part of a life that was full of momentous moments. Mr. Churchill is unique as he is not just part of our History, he is History. That he is still quoted almost daily, new books continue to be written, and a College is to be built confirm this is true.

When confronted with "if you were my Husband I would put poison in your soup", the retort, "if you were my wife I would eat it." Oh to be at that dinner.

Thank you Mrs. Sandys.

This is the first book that I have ever read about Churchill, so I was very surprised to read example after example of his arrogance and his "at all times" sense of entitlement. His granddaughter (an obviously biased author) recited many of Churchill's actions during the Boer War as examples of his bravery and courage. I, however, interpreted these actions in quite a different manner. One example of Churchill's "bravery" was when his train was ambushed by Boer troops. The author described his behavior as brave and heroic, whereas I viewed his actions as a very calculated tactic for self-advacement. In fact, it was Churchill's fault that the train went so far into Boer territory in the first place--he wanted more information for his newspaper, and his subsequent actions only put the British troops in more danger. The book was also not well written or organized; it reminded me of reading a high school book report.

The author, Celia Sandys, is the subject's granddaughter. As such, she had access to papers, people, and places that few individuals have. She presents a view of the early Churchill (age 20-25) that gives one an objective glimpse of his early life, ambitions, and personality. She has done much field research by access to original papers, actual locations, and descendants of those who knew Churchill in his early 20s. Much of her research is centered in South Africa where the young Churchill had a yen for being where the action was in the Boer War, and having an inordinate amount of luck escaping death and danger. Additionally, she gives detailed maps of his movements, and tries to bridle some of his self-sustaining writings that could not be independently verified. This work should give any reader an understanding that Churchill's early years were a prelude to his more famous leadership role during the dark days of World War II. An excellent read.

This book presents several interesting vignettes relating to Churchill's life and activities during the South African "Boer" war, but overall I was disappointed, and finished wanting more. Overall, I thought this was rather superficial, and I didn't feel as tho I had gained any substantial insight into the life of one of the giants of the late 19th/early 20th century.