The Power of One: A Novel
by Bryce Courtenay
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bryce CourtenayEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-09-29
ISBN: 034541005X
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of The Power of One: A Novel
Book Review: A keeper
Summary: 5 Stars
"It takes a village to raise a child."
-- supposed African saying, popularized by Hillary Clinton
I enjoyed this novel. Some parts of it I could read again and again, eg the hero's boxing matches (even though I have no interest in boxing), and his two epiphanies as a trans-racial witch doctor (at a prison concert and a township boxing match). Do not be put off by the gloom of the first couple of pages (600 pages of Anglo sorehead whining about brutal Afrikaners?) -- the tone soon picks up.
The novel is a coming-of-age story of an English-speaking White boy "Peekay" in South Africa 1939-1950 (age 5 to 17), told in his fictional first person.
The novel contains mystical elements only suitable in fiction, e.g. sometimes unbelievable aptitudes for young Peekay; a curse that fells a murderously brutal prison guard; and Peekay's immaculate conception (absolutely no one gives any hint he may ever have had a father).
Peekay's mother and his maternal grandfather both have weak personalities. In their place, a cavalcade of other characters offer parenting and mentoring to one who emerges as an extraordinarily gifted child:
a Zulu nanny of the chiefly lineage of Cetshwayo; an aged Zulu high witch doctor, son of Dingaan; a champion welterweight boxer; an exiled German professor and musician; a group of Afrikaner prison warders; a mixed-race prison lifer with a genius for coaching boxers, as well as for creating a witch-doctor cult around Peekay; the town librarian; a new schoolteacher who pushes Peekay far beyond the curriculum.
Plot spoiler in following paragraph:
Villains turn out to be less powerful and dangerous than first feared. There were only two real ones -- a thirteen-year-old who tormented the 5-year-old Peekay during a year at boarding school, and a murderous prison guard with good political connections in the right-wing "Ossewa Brandwag." I feared one of these two would show up later in Peekay's life, with the authority of the Apartheid security apparatus behind him, to crush Peekay personally, as well as any liberal initiatives he might be involved in. Both, however, turned out to be easily disposed of.
Like some other readers, I thought the ending of the book (Peekay's mining sabbatical) seemed rushed and incongruous.
The novel was soured slightly by my knowledge of modern South African history -- there would be no place in the politics of Apartheid South Africa for the hero's extraordinary trans-racial aptitudes. If he returns to South Africa with his Oxford degree(s?), he might make a lot of money in a top-line Johannesburg law firm, while doing occasional "pro bono" favors for black clients and liberal activists. He would have zero prospects, however, in electoral politics. His curious witch-doctor background might get him a job offer from Verwoerd's Ministry of Native Affairs, but only if he was willing to become a complete sell-out.
The title "Power of One" annoyed me slightly. Peekay pulled his weight; nevertheless, his path to success was made straight by others who loved him and/or believed in him.
Summary of The Power of One: A Novel
?The Power of One has everything: suspense, the exotic, violence; mysticism, psychology and magic; schoolboy adventures, drama.??The New York Times
?Unabashedly uplifting . . . asserts forcefully what all of us would like to believe: that the individual, armed with the spirit of independence??the power of one??can prevail.?
?Cleveland Plain Dealer
In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous, cruel shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives heroic dreams?which are nothing compared to what life actually has in store for him. He embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives, and the power of one.
?Totally engrossing . . . [presents] the metamorphosis of a most remarkable young man and the almost spiritual influence he has on others . . . Peekay has both humor and a refreshingly earthy touch, and his adventures, at times, are hair-raising in their suspense.?
?Los Angeles Times Book Review
?Marvelous . . . It is the people of the sun-baked plains of Africa who tug at the heartstrings in this book. . . . [Bryce] Courtenay draws them all with a fierce and violent love.?
?The Washington Post Book World
?Impressive.?
?Newsday
?A compelling tale.?
?The Christian Science Monitor
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