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Title: Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club) by Alan Paton ISBN: 0-7432-6217-4 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 29 September, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.1 (187 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: With all the touching of Humanity
Comment: My own grandfather was very close to Alan Paton. They worked together, in South Africa, on the developments of a Liberal Party, the purpose of which was to help the blacks. They wanted, primarily, to create legally equality of the races. Eventually, Paton would come to North America, touring and lecturing. My grandparents showed him Toronto. And so, I myself have a special bias in favour of Paton.
Having read his CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY, I can only applaud the man. His very style is mimical of Steibeck's THE GRAPES OF WRATH. There is repitition (individual sentences are said over and over), poetry, and the asking of philosophical questions.
The story is of Stephen Kumalo, a black priest. He has lost his family. His brother, sister, and son have left the village. They have gone to Johannesburg, where the white men are. Where industry is. And so the journey begins. In fact, Kumalo will see things he has never seen before. He will be robbed, he will be lied to, he will be tired of walking so many miles, he will see prostitution, crime, hatred. The simplicity of his beautiful village is not found here in Johannesburg. Incidentally, he finds some white men who show compassion to him. I will say no more.
The story has depth of passion, brilliance, and love of South Africa. Paton, himself a white man, devoted his life to the helping of blacks. He was a hero to South Africa, and remains a hero even to me.
Please read this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: My review of Cry, the Beloved Country
Comment: Cry, the Beloved Country is a very moving novel about a black man's country under white man's law. Anyone who is interested in race relations, history, or the African language will enjoy this book like I did. This is an insightful book in which I learned a lot about South Africa. I learned that Johannesburg was the center of the gold mine industry. Many people left their small tribal villages to work there in 1946 which is the year this novel is set in.
The basic premise of Cry, The Beloved Country is about a young black man who is accused of and found guilty of murdering a white man. The author does a great job of making the reader care about both the victim and the accused.
The author Alan Paton does a great job of describing the character of the victim Arthur Jarvis as a very caring person who was well respected by people of all races. Arthur Jarvis was concerned with the social problems facing South Africa in 1946 like racial crime, the lack of education of African youth, and the conditions of the gold mines, and the welfare of the workers who labored there.
Alan Paton does an equally excellent job describing the accused person. Absalom Kumalo is the son of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo who goes in search for his son in the first section of the book. The cause of Absalom's crime according to the author is a breakdown of tribal values and family bonds like working together to achieve a common goal and a sense of belonging to a group. The Western emphasis on focusing on the individual influenced the way of thinking in South Africa that led to this breakdown.
I really enjoyed how the fathers of both sons became friends in this book. The white father James Jarvis actually helped Stephen Kumalo The elder Jarvis supplied Stephen Kumalo with milk to nourish the sick children of his village. Jarvis also provided Stephen Kumalo with a person to teach his people how to farm to grow more food.
I appreciated the list of words at the end of the book, because some of the African words were hard to pronounce. I love finding out the meaning of new words even if they are in a foreign languages. Cry, the Beloved Country is a beautifully written book about South Africa with strong themes and memorable characters. I loved this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: How could anyone NOT like this book?
Comment: I feel truly sorry for anyone who couldn't find the goodness in a book such as this. Stories of inspiration on this magnitude are few and far betweeen, and as if that weren't enought, the excellent writing is beyond most other "bestsellers" out there. If I had to choose one Oprah pick that made my head spin, this was it. Would also recommend "Bark of the Dogwood" and "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter."
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Title: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Oprah's Book Club) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez ISBN: 0060740450 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 20 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: East of Eden (Oprah's Book Club) by John Steinbeck ISBN: 0142004235 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 18 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (Oprah's Book Club) by Carson McCullers ISBN: 0618526412 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 21 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom ISBN: 0786868716 Publisher: Hyperion Press Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd ISBN: 0142001740 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 28 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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