An enigmatic compelling yet mysterious and confusing read this, the 1974 Booker co-winner by Nadine Gordimer. It was so compelling, I couldn't get enough of the massive descriptive passages - early 70's South Africa brought to life through the eyes of rich whites, landless Blacks and Indian tradesman in the middle. The beauty of the South African veldt, the grinding poverty of the black townships and the surreal nature of Apartheid South Africa are brought to life in such a way as to take the breath away, the superb narrative sparingly used gives life to the smallest detail from spiders webs to mighty floods. That said the plot itself concerns a middle aged man trying to find his own identity in South Africa, rich and powerful he has bought a farm for a weekend hobby - a weekend farmer. Divorced and estranged from his son he appears to be at a midlife crisis, the complex nature of the story changing from the point of view of his Black workers then back to himself. This complexity is certainly challenging and sometimes it was hard to separate actual occurrences from dream sequences.
The plot is quite thin; the narrative is carried along by large segments of the superb descriptions of South Africa daily life from many different angles. A rich white South African trying to conserve his slice of land but never really belonging, even his Boer neighbours are strangers to him the plot struggles as he does to find himself among South Africa. The passages concerning his poor but loyal Black workers work best in the novel - the main character remains almost a stranger to the reader possibly as he is a stranger to South Africa. Metaphors abound within the narrative but trying to make sense of what the main characters is trying to achieve within himself I found quite difficult to grasp, a failed relationship weighs heavily throughout and a sexual tension threads it way through the novel with some quite strange sequences that are hard to understand if they are real or imagined. Mid life crisis is always easier to understand in print if one is also at mid life so some parts of the novel made a lot of sense but as a whole there is a lot of confusion. So all in all quite brilliant portrayals of life from all sides in South Africa during apartheid, beautifully descriptive but having quite a loose plot that in itself is both simple and complex at the same time. An enigma then but worthwhile all the same just for the descriptions..
The plot is quite thin; the narrative is carried along by large segments of the superb descriptions of South Africa daily life from many different angles. A rich white South African trying to conserve his slice of land but never really belonging, even his Boer neighbours are strangers to him the plot struggles as he does to find himself among South Africa. The passages concerning his poor but loyal Black workers work best in the novel - the main character remains almost a stranger to the reader possibly as he is a stranger to South Africa. Metaphors abound within the narrative but trying to make sense of what the main characters is trying to achieve within himself I found quite difficult to grasp, a failed relationship weighs heavily throughout and a sexual tension threads it way through the novel with some quite strange sequences that are hard to understand if they are real or imagined. Mid life crisis is always easier to understand in print if one is also at mid life so some parts of the novel made a lot of sense but as a whole there is a lot of confusion. So all in all quite brilliant portrayals of life from all sides in South Africa during apartheid, beautifully descriptive but having quite a loose plot that in itself is both simple and complex at the same time. An enigma then but worthwhile all the same just for the descriptions..