The Power of One: A Novel by Bryce Courtenay
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Book Reviews of The Power of One: A Novel
Book Review: The Power Of One
Summary: 5 Stars
The power of one is set in South Africa where a young boy is condemened at school. He is the only Englishman in a school of africaans and is tourchered, but this tourcher helps his strenght of will later in life, even if he doesn't know it at the time. Then he meets Hoppie Groenawald. A very succsful boxer who gives Peekay, an idea and a small piece of advise. To become the Welterweight champion of the world. 'First with the head, then with the heart', a piece of information which helped me aswell. His time in his home town with his mother and grandfather bring on many new surprises. His mother has been 'Born again' and Peekay has no real friends. Until he meets Doc, a german music Proffessor, who soon becomes the closest friend to Peekay. When the war begins, Doc is put in Prison for the simple reason is a German. But as he is a music proffessor, he is allowed to have his piano and is not under top security, so he can still give Peekay music lessons. Peekay helps smuggle tabacco into the prison and is know as the tadpole angel, a name tht will follow him until he dies. Peekay then takes his first step to becoming the Welterweight Champion of the world, he joins the prison boxing squad. To his suprise he is a natural and is the best in the town, and can beat kids a few years old then him, becasue 'small can beat big' as Hoppie would say. Then he goes off to bording school and meets Morrie. A clever young jew who is about the same standard of interlect as Peekay. Together they scam their way through High School. But Peekay still wants to become the boxing champion of the world, and with Morrie as his manager he is invincible-literaly!. Peekay didn't win the scolarship to Oxford so he goes to work at the mines and meets a long lost enemy. Maybe boxing has another good point! This is the most moving book i have ever read. It sends a message to us all: About black and white, About following your dreams, and that Small can beat big.I recoment this book to anyone from 10 years up!
Book Review: Trouble in Paradise
Summary: 5 Stars
Though in the popular vein, this is an original modern novel and deserves a reading for many reasons. Firstly, it is about South Africa and, to the extent that outsiders know anything about that troubled country, it serves as a lesson to what the future might hold for any nation which falls into the grip of a race war. From this point of view it is a very ugly novel. Happily, it has some highly redeeming features which make us want to read through all the trouble and strife. Bryce Courtenay is a good writer. He is able to involve us in the story from the beginning with well-drawn characters. The central character starts the book off as a small boy, living in South Africa during the Second World War. As if the black/white race problems are not enough, we find out (those of us who didn't know) that there is also extremely bad blood `twixt English and Boer. So when young Peekay is sent to be the lone Englishman attending an Afrikaner boarding school, he is really in hot water. Thus begins one of the most unusual educations you could wish for and how Peekay eventually manages to turn every disadvantage to his favour is part of the delight of this chronicle.
Besides being a good yarn, this book has considerable depth and we can follow Peekay quite closely as he learns all about Latin and Greek, cacti, boxing and especially, human nature. By the age of twelve, he is so well versed in these matters, not to mention the machinations of the Pentecostal Church and the workings of the South African Prison system, that he is clearly a boy apart, who may be destined for stranger things still.
If you have the slightest interest in South Africa, you will enjoy this book from many angles. It is a story about the twentieth century and one of its most pressing problems, which we have now brought forward into this one. In any case, most readers will have trouble putting it down, as it is the story of an unusual life told with passion and honesty.
Book Review: Trouble in Paradise
Summary: 5 Stars
Though in the popular vein, this is an original modern novel and deserves a reading for many reasons. Firstly, it is about South Africa and, to the extent that outsiders know anything about that troubled country, it serves as a lesson to what the future might hold for any nation which falls into the grip of a race war. From this point of view it is a very ugly novel. Happily, it has some highly redeeming features which make us want to read through all the trouble and strife. Bryce Courtenay is a good writer. He is able to involve us in the story from the beginning with well-drawn characters. The central character starts the book off as a small boy, living in South Africa during the Second World War. As if the black/white race problems are not enough, we find out (those of us who didn't know) that there is also extremely bad blood `twixt English and Boer. So when young Peekay is sent to be the lone Englishman attending an Afrikaner boarding school, he is really in hot water. Thus begins one of the most unusual educations you could wish for and how Peekay eventually manages to turn every disadvantage to his favour is part of the delight of this chronicle.
Besides being a good yarn, this book has considerable depth and we can follow Peekay quite closely as he learns all about Latin and Greek, cacti, boxing and especially, human nature. By the age of twelve, he is so well versed in these matters, not to mention the machinations of the Pentecostal Church and the workings of the South African Prison system, that he is clearly a boy apart, who may be destined for stranger things still.
If you have the slightest interest in South Africa, you will enjoy this book from many angles. It is a story about the twentieth century and one of its most pressing problems, which we have now brought forward into this one. In any case, most readers will have trouble putting it down, as it is the story of an unusual life told with passion and honesty.
Book Review: My favorite book ever
Summary: 5 Stars
I am first encountered the book, The Power Of One by Bryce Courtenay around the age of 13 the summer before high school. I was on a whitewater-rafting trip for two weeks and as my best friend read Black Boy by Richard Wright (also a favorite) I devoured the pages telling the story of Peekey, an English boy living in South Africa during the apartheid. At the age of six Peekey is herded off to an all-Boer (Dutch) boarding school because his mother has a breakdown. At the school he is tormented for his nationality, there are many violent scenes including one where he is urinated on by a nazi-motivated classmate. Throughout his few years at the boarding school his mother, his nanny (who was like his second mother) and his only friend, a chicken named Grandpa Chook all die, actually, Grandpa Chook is slaughtered by the other boys. Finally, Peekey is sent to live with his grandfather and Peekey encounters a German musician who cannot return to Germany because of the war. Peekey and the musician in exile become the best of friends, spite their age difference of around 60 years. In a trade-off Doc (as he is called in the novel) teaches Peekey science, literature, music, and Peekey helps him with his studies of plants. Because of the war Doc. is forced to go to jail, but Peekey is permitted visitation rights to continue his piano lessons. In the jail Peekey learns to box by an in-mate, a man brilliant of trickery who also becomes Peekey's close friend. Peekey knows at least 5 African dialects and becomes idealized in the jail, because he writes for the illiterate and sneaks in tobacco leaves for the jailed. In the novel the brutalities of apartheid are revealed but not the essence of the book. Courtenay does not in anyway preach. The novel is truly written beautifully (which is not something I say about most books) and includes humor, despair and the story of race relations, and young boy coming of age in AfricaBook Review: Skip the movie, Read the Book FIRST
Summary: 5 Stars
Annotation: An inspiration story of a young man named Peekay who struggles in South Africa during World War II to find that it only takes one to change the world. Peekay overcomes obstacles by using his courage to show the power of one. Author Bio: Bryce Courtenay was born in 1933 in South Africa. He arrived in Australia in 1958 and a year later became an Australian Citizen. He is married to Benita. He also has three sons with her. Courtenay began an advertising career at age twenty six and within five years, he had become Australia's youngest creative director. He retired full time in 1993 to become a writer. Power of One was his first novel and became an international bestseller. The book is translated into eleven different labguages. The book has sold over two million copies. Courtenay also wrote a book, April Fool's Day, in which it was wrote about his youngest son who died in 1991 from AIDS.
Evaluation: I was fist introduced to Courtenay's book when I saw his movie in the seventh grade. Four years later, I decided to read the story behind the movie in this novel. There is no comparison. The movie is a amended summarization of the book and although it is very inspirational, it is not as life changing as the book. I was enthralled in the hardships of Peekay's life as a growing boy in South Africa. He faces many obstacles in racial discriminations with the Afrikaaners since he was English. It is astonishing to see how this boy not only survived his childhood; he also made a tremendous impact on South African society by using the power of one. Peekay meets many people along his journey that only flavors the soup pot. This book was a life changing event for me. Not only did I feel like crying and helping Peekay with his mission, I felt like I have to make an impact on society today. This book receives my highest rating and I can not wait to begin reading it again.