- Hardcover
- Publisher: Random House Value Publishing (Nov 8 1989)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0517023946
- ISBN-13: 978-0517023945
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Gordimer weaves together the tale of the life of Hillela, a South African Jew, with a history of modern South Africa since the 1950s. PW stated that this ninth novel of Gordimer's "could well be considered her masterpiece."
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Gordimer achieves a remarkable imaginative integration of private and public experience in this powerful novel, which traces the life of a beautiful South African woman from childhood to early middle age. Born to white privilege but abandoned by her mother, who bequeaths her a rich sexuality; reared by two aunts, who embody the opposing worlds of material comfort and social consciousness; on her own by 17, and soon immersed in the first of a series of relationships whose direction no one could have predictedalways Hillela is passionately grounded in her own feelings as she becomes increasingly involved in the black struggle, nationally and internationally. Yet she remains elusive, transcending simple definition even as her story, shaped by intense moral concerns, reaches a climax of stunning grandeur. A brilliant, engrossing noveland highly recommended. BOMC dual main selection.Elise Chase, Forbes Lib., Northampton, Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
big disapointment,
By A Customer
This review is from: Sport Of Nature (Paperback)
This was a book that i was required to read for my english lit class. Although i didn't personally like the book, many people that i know did. I found the subject matter very boring, partly because of my inability to relate to it. I would only recommend this book to someone with a strong interest in South African politics.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Absorbing, but just couldn't relate to main character,
This review is from: Sport Of Nature (Paperback)
I have never read Nadine Gordimer before, but when I saw 2 collections of her works at 2 of my friends' houses (and rave reviews) I got curious. This book is a thickly textured look at 3 sisters and their divurgent lives and the daughter of 1 who is exposed to all 3 and then further divurges into the racial movements of 70's South Africa. Gordimer's use of setting is really good. I found particularly interesting the family of the most politically oriented sister, Pauline and her husband Joe and children where the domestic lives interleave with the sometimes violent politial terrain. The main character, Hillela, however, I found to be less than heroic -- she simply seemed to be a sensual being who floated in and out of various beds and even the tragedy which befalls her later in the story doesn't REALLY seem to have changed her - she seems like the same person on page 1 as on page 300, although the narrative implies otherwise. For a book released in the 70's I'm sure that this was a revelation, although here in the new millenium it seems dated.Despite all this, I think the author is terrifically talented in her ability to convey sensuality, to provoke thought, and to establish setting and mood. There were some passages of the book that are among the best I've read anywhere.
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite book of my favorite author!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Sport Of Nature (Paperback)
Check out the copyright date -- she must have been prescient
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