| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finding one's own voice,
By EriKa "E" (Iceland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Burger's Daughter (Paperback)
I have probably by now read almost everything Gordimer has written in her long and prolific career. I have defended her writing to those who have only dabbled in one or two works and form opinions. Gordimer's works are much more complex than one can dissect in one reading of a particularly book or in a reading of only one of her books. Burger's Daughter was surprising, as all of Gordimer's works are. Gordimer has mastered the art of voice and gives her characters complex lives and thoughts without resorting to or relying on cliché or expectation. In Burger's Daughter, the protagonist lives a life that was created for her before she was even born. Her father's political activism created circumstances into which she would be born and in which she would be expected to live, much as royalty is born and expected to follow in the monarchy's traditions. The book traces Burger's daughter through her literal and figurative explorations to find her own voice, which can be the most difficult thing one can do in life, particularly when overshadowed by the voices of everyone around you. This work is quite subtle and although surprising (only because I am always amazed that someone has such talent for breathing life into a page) it is very typical Gordimer. Well worth the time to read it.
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A challenging but ultimately rewarding novel,
This review is from: Burger's Daughter (Paperback)
Nadine Gordimer's prose can be difficult to follow at the initial read, but is full of thought-provoking allusions and is a book you will definitely think about for a long time. In this tale, Burger represents the man who was Nelson Mandela's lawyer in apartheid South Africa. Gordimer follows Burger's daughter as she copes with ties to her homeland, the complicated issue of white and black in South Africa, and with both the persecution and expectations she faces because of her name. Highly recommended!
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Richly rewarding novel by Nobel Prize Winner,
By
This review is from: Burger's Daughter (Paperback)
Until I read this novel, years ago, I had very simplistic views of South Africa. "Burger's Daughter" changed that.While telling the story of an individual young woman growing up in a well-known activist family and learning to discover her own identity, Gordimer also paints a broad and detailed picture of life in South Africa among those who fought apartheid while Mandela was still in prison. It is a rich cast of characters, black and white, who find their strength and their joy in their heroic resistance to the government and their civil disobedience. Through them you learn of the complexity of the problems created by apartheid and the range of social issues rooted in a system of racial separatism. You also learn a great deal about the mindset and courage of those who were free to leave South Africa during those dark days yet chose to stay and fight a well-armed and oppressive foe. And as modern-day South Africa has inherited the legacy of apartheid, the book is as fully relevant today as it was when it was written. Gordimer packs a lot into this novel; it's not a page turner, but a book that you soak up slowly and deliberately. It is a solid, important book, worthy of a world-class writer and Nobel Prize winner.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
See all 54 books citing this book
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
|
|
