Customer Reviews

My Son's Story

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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. However, the frequency of pronouns can be confusing and the long, impassioned dialogues never directly state anything at all. One must already be familiar with the apartheid and liberation movement to fully comprehend the book.

_My Son's Story_ is told by Will, the son of a former schoolmaster, a light skinned, "colored," anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa. Will and his family live in an uneasy peace amongst white Afrikaans. Will's father is known by his sobriquet, Sonny, by the blacks who admire him and depend upon his leadership against the virulent racism endemic in South Africa in those years. The family has to endure Sonny's intermittant jailings related to his political struggles as well as Sonny's love affair with a white woman, named Hannah, who also shares Sonny's anti-Apartheid commitment. Later on, Sonny's beloved daughter, called Baby by everyone, also becomes involved in the anti-Apartheid movement. The most sympathetic person in the book is Aila, Sonny's quiet, dignified wife and mother to Will, who seemingly inadvertently, but inevitably, surplants Sonny as the political activist in the family. Will's particular closeness to Aila and his resentments toward Sonny are the stuff of Greek tragedy.

Unfortunately, Ms. Gordimer's overly convoluted and intellectualized style of writing caused me to often feel distanced from her characters. The result is a novel that frequently falls dead in its tracks. Fortunately, Ms. Gordimer does occasionally write forcefully. It is in these places that her message is communicated clearly and effectively.

A brilliant book -- perhaps her best. As usual Gordimer is all about human relationships -- not just blacks vs. whites, but dark blacks vs. lighter skinned blacks; fathers with their sons and daughters and their wives and their mistresses; old,veteran revolutionaries relationships with young, new revoltionaries and on and on.

Her syntax is always complicated, and sometimes frustrating, but well worth the effort.

Now that I'm finished with My Son's Story I feel that my older review of this book was mostly wrong. This is a very difficult book to read, the writing is very complicated chocked full of allusion, metaphor, allusion, simile, allusion, and, you guessed it, allusion! It is a wonderfully elegant, rich book which makes the struggle against apartheid in South Africa real and personal to the reader.

What I love about this book is that the "heroes" of the movement are shown to be multi-dimensional, flawed, people, who are doing their best in their lives, as well as to further the interests of the liberation movement.

My Son's Story is an inspiring, moving book. As difficult as it is to read(it made me feel kind of stupid!) I know that I am a better, richer person for having read it.

This was an extremely well-written story of the effect of apartheid on one black family in SA. The writing is not fast-reading but well-done. It adds to he impressive oevre dealing with conditions in SA but personalizes the problems there.

I am a freshman in high school and I was required to read this book for a summer reading project. I found everything very confusing, from the political aspect to the relationships throughout the novel. It made me feel horrifically dumb and I am planning on telling my english teacher that this year. It shouldn't be required for 9th grade students, 11th or 12th maybe but it was very difficult for myself and my classmates to read and understand. I did realize, after visiting this website that it was a very good novel and I enjoyed it a lot. I would really recomend this book and website to anyone above my age.

I really shouldn't be writing this review yet, I haven't finished the book, I'm about two-thirds through it, I'll write another one when I'm finished but I had to get my frustration out somehow!

I love the plot, the deep multi-dimensional characters, and the moral message of this book. It illustrates life in South Africa under Apartheid in a very moving, meaningful, way. In fact, Gordimer's style of writing is quite elegant. However, Gordimer's writing philosophy seems to be: Why say something in a concise sentence or two when you can phrase it and rephrase it in several thousand sentences, showing off what a great writer I am, and what a great memory I have since I bring up points made of off the cuff discussions the characters had 150 pages ago, causing everyone confusion and endless time reading and re-reading the same sentence over and over again before they figure it out! I'm not the type who feels that everything must be clean and concise, but this book's style borders on anarchy of the English language, the confusion, the disorganization, the chaos of the way this book was written illustrates life under apartheid better than the plot, maybe, that was the point. Most author diagram a book to keep the plot online, Gordimer must obviously diagram each and every sentence in her book to keep the thought she tries to express in mind! She certainly can't have that good a memory! Every sentence in this book is a run-on. Each sentence expands like the Blob, taking up space for no particular reason, yet continually growing until you reach the end, which, you feel, must have happened more from a butcher's knife than the actual end of the story. Paragraphs, pages, even chapters are made up of one, maybe two, long run-on sentences, which you must then dicipher for yourself! Don't get me wrong, these ideas are worth deciphering, but who wants to read a book with pen and paper in hand so you can jot down what happened earlier in the sentence? I do! Nadine Gordimer is, in fact, a genius! I love her ideas and its well worth taking half a year of your life to try to read one of her books(if your fast), just remember, most people, if they truly want to understand the writing, will have to read it in five-minute increments, that's all you can take!

My Son's Story is well-worth the time and effort it takes to read, it'll change your life and give you a realistic view of what life was like under apartheid. I know this has been a rather schizophrenic review, but hey, My Son's Story is a schizophrenic book! 5+ stars for content 1 star for clarity of thought and writing, overall 3 stars!