To Every Birth Its Blood (Ravan Witers) [Paperback]

Mongane Serote (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997 | Series: Ravan Witers

The many people of Alexandra Township are the characters in this book in which readers can discover the links in a chain of extended families, friendships, street gangs and political groups.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This novel by an exiled, black South African poet successfully evokes that country's climate of crisis in the ongoing struggle against apartheid. In the opening chapters, Serote seamlessly weaves social commentary into the plot. Tsi Molope, a black journalist and actor, observes an extensive and vocal cast of black citizens living on the outskirts of Johannesburg. On assignment for his newspaper, Tsi and the photographer accompanying him are assaulted by policemen and jailed, without charges, for a week. Tsi's only effective recourse is to publish his story. At this point, however, midway through the novel, he virtually disappears from the book. Serote then packs the narrative with a series of characters and their respective histories without advancing the plot. Anxious to impart information about black South Africa, Serote is perhaps choked here by his political zeal as well as literary ambition. Although unfocused and meandering, this final section nevertheless tracks the impetus of the anti-apartheid movement.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

These two richly concentrated novels from South African writers probe the soul of a troubled land through the eyes of very different but equally affecting characters. Brink creates a first-person narrator, a white male novelist struggling to construct a love story from his musings on the nature of fiction and the semiotics of passion. Current events intrude in the forms of a black friend under police scrutiny and the singular manuscript and diary produced by a young Afrikaaner woman who committed suicide by self-immolation following her activist lover's death in prison. Gradually, reality and interior monologue merge into a dominant image of fire that will and must burn. Serote's linked episodes take readers inside the township of Alexandra for a painful journey through the majority black experience in South Africa. The appealing prose style, mingling description and dialogue in rhythmic patterns that complement the many musical allusions, does not soften the story Serote has to tell of suffering generations joined together in "The Movement . . . the eyes which see how poverty is akin to a skeleton. So white. So dry." Both books are recommended for most fiction collections.
- Starr E. Smith, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ravan Press; Subsequent edition (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0869752162
• ISBN-13: 978-0869752166
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,701,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, September 28, 2001

By 

Eskia M. (Madison, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Every Birth Its Blood (Ravan Witers) (Paperback)

A look at the struggle in South Africa which transcends the regional conflict and addresses universal issues regarding the formation of nations.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serote's book says it all., August 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: To Every Birth Its Blood (Ravan Witers) (Paperback)

One of the best books to read if you want to understand the past of South Africa. Also read Serote's poems.