Bodily Fluids Black Light

South Africa: the classics PART THREE

I just finished reading a classic among classics that I recommend if you want to understand the delicate question of the role of each community in the South African company BEFORE the brutal regime of apartheid :

' Cry, the Beloved Country ' by Alan Paton (1948 - 230 pages)

Minimum level required: B1 + (to determine your level of reading, see to the pages of June 09 of this blog)
May suit a young player (14-15 years)

It is indeed a basic book (which is also often the literature curriculum in English schools) to understand complicated relationships and not necessarily antagonistic to the black population and the various white communities on the eve of the election of DF Malan, whose party will implement apartheid.

An interest of this novel is to share with us the lives of two men who are total opposites but yet to understand and respect each other. Another is to avoid the usual cliches about South Africa (which are the good ones are the bad guys) to finally get the reader to the heart of the identity of this complex country.

Reading is often facilitated by a large number of dialogues and descriptions of actions. The characters are easy to recognize and often endearing.

A difficulty noted, however: the author uses multiple narrators and some pages are sometimes complicated to understand because we do not know immediately who is speaking. Finally, some passages are more of a moving poetic prose, which is another reason to dive.

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South Africa: is it possible? PART TWO

' South Africa: it's possible ' slogan is very courageous of the official site of South Africa. It implicitly recognizes that going to South Africa does not come naturally ( is Not self-evident ) ...
The brutal murder last week, the most prominent representative of nostalgia for apartheid, Eugene Terreblanche - Huguenot ancestors (click the title of this post for details) - has revived fears real that the country is far from pacified.
But how would he, after decades of unspeakable atrocities? The South African democracy is young and fragile (I remind you that the first democratic elections were held 16 years ago ...).
This month I suggest you read a novel written by a great South African writer, JM Coetzee, Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. He is very discreet, which abhors interviews and which we know little: he was born in 1940, has worked as a professor of literature at Cape Town and, like many of his fellow whites, eventually leaving South Africa for Australia in 2002. He never defended apartheid, on the contrary, but has never taken sides for movement whatsoever. Here's an article in the magazine ' Time ' said about him (October 2003):
' Coetzee Will Be Remembered For Something Quite simple: Was a writer here Who Described, More Than Any Other Truly, What It Was To Be In The conscious and white face of apartheid's stupidities and cruelties . "

' Disgrace ' by JM Coetzee (1999 - 220 pages )

Minimum level required: B2 (to determine your level of reading, see the pages of June 09 of this Blog )

The novel sparked a real controversy in South Africa, probably because he was an early stage the dismay of the minority white when it loses its supremacy in the new Africa South. We follow the long descent into hell of a university professor anniversary, lonely and disillusioned, and her daughter, a kind of easygoing hippie (is that a tautology?) In which he believes he can find refuge ...
Uh ... no, with JM Coetzee, it is expected a good episode of brute violence, which leaves the reader KO ( knocked-out ). In the view of many critics, the Nobel Prize in Literature has just reward postmodern writing in a very controlled apparent simplicity. Choosing rare among English writers, the narrative of ' Disgrace is written in simple present, giving the reader an immediacy hanging until the last page.

sensitive souls, do not refrain: you will miss an incredible reading experience. Discovery and behind the scenes of the 'Rainbow Nation'.