My Son's Story [Turtleback]

Nadine Gordimer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2004

Will, the narrator of this powerfully charged novel, discovers that his father, a political activist and local hero in their South African town, has become involved with a white woman. Wrenching, passionate, deeply resonant, My Son's Story evokes the inexorable yoking of the personal life and politics with uniquely moving force.

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Highly praised as a literate goad to South Africa's conscience under apartheid, Gordimer ( A Sport of Nature ) here delivers her most perceptive and powerful novel in years. The story of a man's evolution as a political activist and the toll it takes on his family and on him, it is also a picture of a marriage and of an extramarital affair, set against a backdrop of daily life in segregated South Africa, even as the winds of change begin to blow. An exemplary husband and father, a pillar of rectitude in the black community, Sonny is dismissed from his teaching job after he leads a political protest. Imprisoned, on his release he becomes a leader in the revolutionary underground; at the same time he is swept into an affair with a white woman, a worker in a human rights organization. The intertwined events that lead to the breakup of Sonny's family and the tragic end of his high hopes and ideals are partially narrated by his teenage son Will, bitter and cynical over his father's marital betrayal. The novel is eloquent in its understated prose and anguished understanding of moral complexities in a land where blacks keep "rags . . . on their persons as protection against tear-gas as white people carry credit cards." Tightly focused and controlled, expertly plotted, the narrative is replete with ironies; the tension increases almost invisibly, until the unexpected, jolting denouement. In the end, Will resolves to record "what it really was like to live a life determined by the struggle to be free." Which is exactly what this book does, honestly and memorably.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Gordimer's new novel, about a colored South African family ravaged by the father's affair with a white human rights advocate, probes with breathtaking power and precision the complexities of "love, love/hate," and the interplay of public and private reality. First-person narration shows son Will's struggle to deal with confusion and bitterness after discovering father Sonny's infidelity; alternating third-person sequences depict Sonny's evolution from a committed schoolteacher and devoted husband/father into a resistance worker for whom the movement itself ultimately becomes a second family--one his loyal wife Aila cannot share with him, though his lover Hannah does. The book's richness of sensation and consciousness is such that Gordimer's eloquence is, at times, almost unbearable. Always, though, she retains perfect control over her material, rendering her characters' shifting perspectives with truly extraordinary empathy and discernment. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/90.
- Elise Chase, Forbes Lib., Northampton, Mass.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Turtleback
• Publisher: Demco Media (August 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0606300015
• ISBN-13: 978-0606300018
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,553,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Review of Nadine Gordimer's : My Son's Story, May 4, 2001

By 

Eva Jåfs (Finland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Son's Story (Paperback)

My Son's Story is an inspiring, moving book. As difficult as it is to read (it made me feel kind of stupid!) I still feel that it was worth reading it. The book tells the story of the effect of apartheid on one black family in South Africa. Will, who is a young man, finds out that his father is having a relationship with a white woman. The father is a "colored" schoolteacher who has become a hero in the struggle against apartheid. Throughout the whole book you get to read about Will's feelings about his father and how horrified he is about him having another woman. Actually, I would say that the book has two plots: The first one deals with the political situation and everything around it, and the second tells about relationships between people and how difficult they can be. The book describes well the complexities of relationships- between the son, Will, and his father, Sonny; between Sonny and his wife Aila; between Sonny and his lover Hannah, between everyone and the political situation at hand. Why did I feel stupid when reading this book? Well, for starters, the writing is very complicated and often filled with metaphor. Plus, Gordimer looks back at things that happened several pages a go and so if you weren't really alert all the time you might be left out on some important and relevant points. Also, Gordimer's style of writing isn't very concise, it's actually rather disorganised which made me often quite confused. Apart from all this, I have to say that this is a very rich book which makes the struggle against apartheid in South Africa real and personal to the reader. And I know that I should have taken much more time to read this book since it's not the kind of book that you can just read in one day and then forget about it. I guess that's a good sign, I mean the fact that the book made me think. Think about the facts of life that aren't that pretty. Maybe, if I take the time to read this book again I might understand it better.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of Gordimer's best works, May 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: My Son's Story (Paperback)

Gordimer's intricate tale of an educated black family struggling with the evils of apartheid is most noteworthy for its rich characterization. The story is told primarily by Will, the teenage son of anti-apartheid activist Sonny. Will acknowledges the horrors of the political situation around him but is painfully affected by the domestic consequences of social change (first his father's affair with white activist Hannah, and later his mother's imprisonment).

The complexity of the writing is necessary for conveying the emotional weight of the story. The chapters alternate (roughly) between the first person narration of Will and a third person account of the unfolding situation. This allows the reader to experience the pain and ambivalence Will feels, while also making the reader aware of the secrets that the family members keep from each other.

I disagree with the other reviewers that Gordimer's work is overly cerebral (if you want to see pretentious, dry, and overintellectualized, check out fellow African author J. M. Coetzee... yawn). My Son's Story is brilliantly realized in terms of both form and content. Without its complexity, the book would not be as believable, heartfelt, or utterly tragic... although I probably wouldn't have appreciated it in the ninth grade either.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Message is Worth the Work, September 17, 2002

By 

Kim "Kim" (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: My Son's Story (Paperback)

Nadine Gordimer deserves her Nobel Prize, her books are wonderful and terrifying and frustrating and enlightening all at once.

Gordimer's world is the world of the white anti apartheid activist (at the time of this book). She writes what she knows and it's an unusual and interesting perspective. My Son's Story is a political book no doubt but told from a very personal space, which is the mark of a great story. Thing is, Gordimer doesn't always write in the most accessible of ways, it is often difficult to get to the larger point she's trying to make, you know it's there but you have to work hard to get it and frankly, there were times when I wasn't sure I was seeing what she wanted me to see. Gordimer likes to use literary tools to make these macro points, lots of metaphor and at times, it's tiring to try and keep up, I did quite a bit of going back and re-reading. That said, I believe this to be a great book, it's worth the work I put in but frustrating as well.

I encourage others to read Gordimer for her insights into a culture which is thankfully nearly dead by now. Just go into it knowing that this is not a casual beach read, but you know, a good book sometimes takes work.