Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club) by Alan Paton
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.66 You Save: $11.34 (76%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.65 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club)
Book Review: Cry as you can feel the pain.
Summary: 5 Stars
Dating from 1948, this book is at least as powerful now as when it was written, and was on the list of banned books in the old (white ruled) regime in South Africa. It is a simple story of a poor black pastor as he journeys to Johannesburg in search first of his sister, then of his son, and then relatives of sundry others from the locality. The black pastor also finds his brother, who like many caught within the magnet of J'burg, is not recognisable as the man that departed the countryside.
Alan Paton produced a well crafted and consistently understated volume. From the storyline, lots of sub-plots are interwoven. It is not an open indictment of the apartheid ("separate development") system that was increasingly introduced in South Africa in the late 1940's and 1950's - but yet it is. Almost in a subliminal way, there is a questioning of what is going on in the beautiful country, whilst appearing to "just" tell a tale.
Three books make up the story, although it would not make sense to read one alone or to read them out of order. Paton has a strange symmetry; the first and second books begin in the same way, with almost the same words for half a page of each. I found myself turning back to the opening lines of chapter 1 as I read the first chapter of the second book.
The story left me crying more than once, and when not crying on the outside, I was usually internally. From the mid point, there is an eerie inevitability about the gentle unfolding of the story. You know what is going to happen, at least in part, but it does not stop you reading further.
The cry of the title may be the cry of the author because the land is broken, and the tribe is broken. Paton refers to the tribe, but means the tribal system, with stability and knowing one's position. At the end of the volume, after the events in the storyline, there is some small mending of land and tribe taking place. It is perhaps the beginnings of hope. You have to divorce yourself from the historical reality of the country, as to whether that hope was realised.
I read an American edition. The author's note describes the extra-ordinary help given by an American couple to meet a hard deadline with potential publishers. That in itself lifted me up, and perhaps prepared me for the uplifting pages to follow.
I wish that I had read this book previously. The story-line is fiction, but the message is truth of the most powerful kind.
Peter Morgan (morganp@supanet.com)
Book Review: Beautiful Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Cry Beloved Country is a beautiful , lyrical book. Paton has an interesting writting style which adds to the poetry of the novel.Stephen Kumalo, a Angelican priest of Zulu ethnicity is the parson of a native African congregation. He lives in the countryside which is suffering from drought and erosion of the soil. He journeys to the city to seek his sister and his son. Kumalo is a good man. There is a tragedy ,but also inspirational actions. There is nothing sugary sweet about this story.The ending is upbeat and demonstrates the goodness of people. Book Review: South Africa - 60 Years Past
Summary: 5 Stars
Although this book is about 60 years old I just read it for the 1st time. It is a keeper and a treasure. It is a book that you will want to revisit often at least for awhile. I find the book to be filled with spiritual messages. You will see the making of aparthaid long before it was abolished. The story itself is quite suspenseful and Paton's writing style is unique. I like it.Book Review: So Glad I Discovered This Book!
Summary: 5 Stars
The story of one man's quest to find his son and to seek forgiveness. I had never heard of this book prior to the 1001 Books To Read list (it had not been required reading in high school), and I am sorry I didn't read earlier. This book is one of the most memorable books I've ever read, and I know I will look forward to re-reading it again one day.
I understand some here have not taken kindly to Mr. Paton's writing style, but I found it engaging and very easy to read. His descriptive style, for me, was far from boring and kept me involved in the story to the point where I could envision all that was happening. For me, his words just flowed so evenly.
The story may be a little dated for today's politics being as the novel was written in 1946; however, it provides a thought-provoking point of view of the beginnings of apartheid in South Africa. The issues are complex, and the answers are not always easy or simple, but the effect on people is amazing and long-lasting. Mr. Paton describes how every facet of life is touched through this horrible policy. The dilemma of complexity is driven home when the stories of two men, Kumalo and Jarvis - one black, the other white - come together. Sympathies for both men are strong and the reader can find their hearts wrenched at what happens simply because that's the way it is done.
Well done and thoroughly enjoyed!
Book Review: Great Simplicity; Great Depth; Remarkable Humanity
Summary: 5 Stars
Many friends recommended CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY to me over the years, but it was not until May of this year that the book came my way in the form a gift. I picked it up one evening and--much to my own amazement--read it in a single sitting. Yes, it really is that good.
Published in 1948, the book tells a simple story. Zulu-born Stephen Kumalo is the elderly Christian priest of a tiny church who has seldom set foot outside his rural South Africa village; he is both uncertain and frightened when he summoned to Johannesburg to attend his sister, who is in great crisis. Once in the city, however, he determines to locate his son Absalom, who also lives in Johannesburg and from whom he has received no news for quite some time. Kumalo conducts his search with a mounting sense of despair--and ultimately finds himself in the midst of both personal tragedy and public scandal.
Although the story is grim, the novel itself is not. Alan Payton (1903-1988) wrote several novels, but CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY is best-known and most widely read work, and much of its power rests on the remarkable way in which he styles his prose: it possesses a shining simplicity that not only seems to capture the vocal cadence of South Africa but also allows the reader to see through the novel's several levels with a remarkable sense of clarity.
Much of the novel's power resides in its portrait of South Africa in this particular era. The word "apartheid" had not attained its full implication in 1948, but Paton not only identifies the almost accidental seeds of apartheid, he forecasts the ultimate result as well. Paton also endows the novel with a very clear idea of what Christianity should be in actual practice as opposed to what it too often is in actual fact, and although the story is indeed dark, the humanity involved is such that one never feels the darkness cannot be dispelled.
The older I become, the less inclined I am to keep books; these days I read them and give them away, and new permanent additions to my library are rare. But CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY is a keeper, a book I've no doubt I'll return to again and again.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
With Thanks to Kate, Whose Gift This Book Was