Customer Reviews

Fiela's Child

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
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the themes of this book could be classified as "vaguely" interesting, but the writing was extremely mundane and the story plodded along tediously with heavy, dragging footsteps. i also found the story to be overly sweet and cliche. highlights of the book, if they exist, could be fiela's depth of character and her hypocrisy, but even this spark of hope is eradicated by the saccharine content. the ending was predictable from the first sentence of the book, stooping to the level of a soap opera. too bad, but an amusing read at times.

There is so much to be learned and so much to be absorbed inwhen reading Fiola's Child. The perfect love and acceptance between amother and a child, although different races, the still-presiding conflicts between the black and white race, the need we all have as human beings to understand who we really are, the wreched and empty lives gained by those who take and do not give, and the heartfelt passion between a man and woman, thought at once to be siblings. The plot is thick, and the end is thought provoking. I think somebody should make a movie from this book. It's truly a must-read.

It is a book that brings back the disharmony and racialistic view of the Whites aginst the Coloureds. And in this point of view we see the struggle of a Coloured mother protecting the safety and haven of her White child like a tigeress over her cub. This is a book about romance, about the individual hearts and philosophies; it is also about greed and chauvinism, yet most importantly Fiela's Child is centered and wrapped in but one word - love. The love of Benjamin over Fiela and Nina, Elias' love over money, the love of Nina towards nature and many more. Those who are sentimentalists and with a touch of feminism in them, you will experience a world so real and yet with such illuminated beauty.

This is one of the three books that I had to study for during my O-levels two years ago. I think that this book is absolutely fabulous with many heart wrenching parts, for example when Benjamin is taken away from Fiela and her loving family and given to the cruel Elias or when Benjamin finally gets the truth out from Barta the he is indeed not her son. The author also beautifully describes the feelings of the different characters, like the guilt that Benjamin felt when he realises that he loves his "sister" Nina in a romantic way. A must read for everyone!

I am South African (Afrikaans speaking). This book is a true reflection on the South African climate - people so much the same, but devided by law. Knysna is a most beatiful setting - it is only when you visit this heaven, that you KNOW and UNDERSTAND this life, this love of mother and child in a forest, near heaven. You will cry your heart out!

Dalene Matthee has long been regarded as one of the masters of the (Afrikaans) Romantic Novel. When we were given Fiela se Kind (English translation: Fiela's Child) as a setwork, I like most students viewed the book with trepidation. After 10 pages, I went and bought myself a copy of the book.

This is the story of a white baby, abandoned by his natural parents, who is found and 'adopted' by a Coloured woman (Fiela), who raises the child, Benjamin, as her own. It explores the joys of Benjamin's childhood, the education that he gets from Fiela (so very different to what he would have got in a white household), and eventually the heartbreak when he is torn away from the only mother he has, and is given to a white wood cutter, who claims that Benjamin is his child who went missing in the forest.

This is a story told with a great sensitivity of the life styles of the people who inhabited the Cape in the mid 1800's. It is a compelling book, heartwrenching at times, humerous at times, but always, it gives the reader a feel for what was happening in the hearts of the people involved. The Characters may come across as being very simple, but that is the essence of the book. Fiela's simple, but pure, love for her child, the woodcutter's simple, but hard way of life, and Benjamin's simple non-understanding of why he was taken away from the woman he loved, and given to a man he hated. His lack of understanding that he is "better" than Fiela because he is white, and she isn't, and his stuggle to adjust to a new and totally unfamiliar set of rules.

This book could be described a bit like a prison, because once it gets hold of you, it doesn't let go, not until it has finished with you, and not you with it