Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club)
by Alan Paton

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• ISBN13: 9780743262170
• Condition: New
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Book Reviews of Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club)

Book Review: Heartbreaking tale of rich/poor differences
Summary: 5 Stars

The story is centered on Reverend Stephen Kumalo, a Black Anglican Minister in a rural South Africal tribal community. He departs to look for his son Absalom quickly in the novel. The first part deals with his search in Johannesburg, which exposes some miserable and excruciating injustices to the native population. He is accompanied by a fellow minister, the Reverend Msimangu, a more liberal but nevertheless devoted preacher. We also meet John Kumalo, a leader for Black rights who has nevertheless become corrupt in his work. As Kumalo looks for his son he is exposed to these conditions for the first time, having never been out of his insular farming community before. Some of his observations are truly shocking.

The novel really picks up in the second part, when we discover what has happened of Absalom: he has killed a white man named Jarvis who was an idealist and fought for Black rights fiercely. This is where we meet his more bigoted father, James Jarvis, a rich farm owner who sees his bigotry validated when his son dies at the hands of a man he wanted to help. However, as Jarvis examines his son's writings and how he lived, he begins a powerful movement toward the idealism of his son. This corresponds with Kumalo's crisis over his son being a murderer. The most powerful moment is the brief conversation between Jarvis and Kumalo, which drips of conflict but nevertheless ends in closure and understanding.

The novel ends powerfully as well. Jarvis ends up giving a sizable portion of his fortune to help Kumalo's impoverished farmers, Absalom is (inevitably) executed for his offense, and the novel ends with Kumalo contemplating his life on the top of a mountain while the sun goes down, a fascinating juxtaposition of symbolism that wraps up an intriguing novel quite nicely.

This novel tackles a plethora of themes, most notably the relationships between fathers and sons, the rift between White and Black, rich and poor, and the proud and the fearful in both mid-twentieth century Africa (which would shortly make Apartheid an official policy) and in all society. It also shows how people will willing to sacrifice many things and live in fear instead of fixing the enormous social problems they face. What results is a devastating little novel about what happens in a post-imperialist society, which is as senseless as is is poignant. This is a book that is often required reading of High School students (it was for me) but it is a first step in understanding what happens in such societies, abroad and here. This book has a ring of bitter truth to it and is unforgettable without being lurid. A must read for anyone who thinks they know what injustice means but has never experienced it.

Summary of Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club)

The most famous and important novel in South Africa's history, and an immediate worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1948, Alan Paton's impassioned novel about a black man's country under white man's law is a work of searing beauty. 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.

Classics Books

• Books > Subjects > Literature & Fiction
• Genre Fiction > Historical
• World Literature > African > Central & South African
• New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Literature