Echoing Steinbeck and the Book of Job, a stirring novel on apartheid

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	• Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club) Alan Paton Scribner, 2003 - 316 pages average customer review:based on 246 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

My All Time Favourite

The writing is trully amazing. I have never read such a lyrical book. There are sections of it which feel like they could to be sung. There is wonderful poetic rhythm to the language.

And then of course there is the actual story ... which is also beautiful and tragic. The drama is very intense. Don't let the difficult to pronounce names put you off. This is worth reading numerous times.

Echoing Steinbeck and the Book of Job, a stirring novel on apartheid

The extraordinary beauty of Paton's best-known novel--the first of many works set in his native South Africa--is not its lyrical prose, its biblical allusions, or its evocative descriptions of Natal and Johannesburg. While all of these elements are striking and original, what truly lends the work its power are the moral questions the author leaves unanswered. Refusing to assign blame and casting an empathetic look both at the ruling white class and at impoverished blacks, Paton offers a far more devastating condemnation of apartheid than if he had written a book with clear-cut villains and saviors. The author's abhorrence of what became of South African society never threatens to overwhelm his love for his homeland.

The novel's two protagonists are Stephen Kumalo, a black pastor in the countryside, and James Jarvis, a wealthy white man. Both men are remote from their sons; Absalom left his rural home to seek a new life in Johannesburg, where Arthur Jarvis fights for racial justice--much to the chagrin of his conservative father. Chance and circumstance throw these two young men into a fatal confrontation, and their fathers struggle to make something from what little remains of their sons' lives.

Paton acknowledged that he began this novel shortly after reading Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"--and the influence is obvious and deliberate. Published as protest novels, both works revealed to an international readership the squalid lives of migrant workers and of the African underclass, respectively. Not coincidentally, both novels are also heavily indebted to the Book of Job. Overall, I think Paton's book improves on its illustrious counterpart; remaining faithful to the traditions of American naturalism, Paton's prose strips away Steinbeck's occasionally excessive verbiage to a leaner, meaner singsong prose.

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Inspirational!

This book is an inspirational glance at the inherent goodness in man and it's abuse by fellow man. While dealing with touchy subjects, namely apartheid, the ideas presented by Paton are as powerful as anything Orwell could have written. The bright, fresh, and positive future suggested by Paton reaches deeper into the soul than the dystopia presented by many 20th century authors. With conviction in God and country Paton illustrates the power of forgiveness and love in changing a corrupt society.

The Heartbreak of Two Fathers

They say the worst fear of a parent is for their child to die before them. There's something unnatural about it. In Cry...two sets of parents have this fear become a reality, but the focus is primarily on the fathers, Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis.

Set in South Africa during the gold mine craze, Cry...shows the effects of white imperialism on a predominately black nation. James' son is one of the few whites sympathetic to the plight of the native African people, yet is shot down by one of them, Kumalo's son, during a robbery.

The two fathers are united by this tragic event and the pain that accompanies it. Both men learn and grow from the experience and use this newfound growth and knowledge to help each other and the people of their hometown. They try to make some sense of the havoc in Africa, and to bring hope to the destitute people who are made to help the wealthy get wealthier, but who are not allowed to share any of that wealth. We can see now how Africa has been sucked dry and the people left to starve and die of disease thanks to exploitation.

The story is a 5-star, but the writing style is a 4, averaging it at a 4.5, which has to be rounded to a 5 rating. The language can sound wooden and repetitive. One could argue this is simply how the African people would sound in English; but, I still believe the dialogue could have been livelier than: "Will you stay father? Yes, I will stay son. Okay, father. Okay, son."

To clear up some confusion, some of the chapters consist of no dialogue between the main characters, but dialogue of anonymous and random people in Johannesburg discussing the different ills of the city.

Cry, the Beloved Country is an easy read and a good one.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

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