Customer Reviews

A Rainbow in the Night: The Tumultuous Birth of South Africa (Library Edition)

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This is a wonderful book, chronicling apartheid from its start in the 1800's when a group of Dutch zealots seized the area as their "right" thru modern times and the demise of apartheid in the 1990's. It covers the early wars between the blacks and the Dutch, the different tribes of blacks against each other, and the conflict between the later-arriving British and the Dutch. It then builds up the segregation of the blacks building up to apartheid. It covers: The abhorrent treatment of the blacks, the labeling of various types as to race, their segregation into their own townships, the segregation of blacks from "coloreds" (people of mixed race, or Indians) including separation of families because of black vs colored; the declaration that Afrikaans is the official language; the building of a resistance and the various resistance groups; the imprisonment of Mandela and others; the student protest in 1976 and violent reaction by the whites; finally with the freeing of Mandela and the end of apartheid.

The book is quite thorough and writing is excellent. There is one thing that threw me off for a while and that is that it is not written linearly with respect to time, so you have to pay attention to the years that you are reading about. None the less, it's a hard book to put down.

Mr. Lapierre relates the history of South Africa from 1652 when Dutchman Jan van Riebeeck lands in the Cape to plant lettuce to 1994 when Nelson Mandela becomes South Africa's first black president. There are great hardships and great triumphs described and the perseverance of the African people is remarkable and commendable. Mr. Lapierre states in his bibliography that he "wanted to recount, as accurately as possible, a fabulous human epic" which I find he does very well. I admit that I didn't know much about South Africa's history and after reading Mr. Lapierre's historical account have been awakened to the devastation that apartheid had caused for the South African people.

The book contains informative and moving images and the appendices contain a short summary of what each noted person is doing today, some excerpts of the seventeen hundred laws and measures instituted by apartheid legislators, a chronology, a glossary, a bibliography, an explanation and some information on charitable organizations, image credits, acknowledgments and a very thorough index. I commend Mr. Lapierre's hard work in researching and writing this book and his humanitarian efforts to help destitute children in India, Africa, and South America to where half of the royalties of this book are donated.

Thank you to Mr. Lapierre and De Capo Press for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

It is not much use learning history if we do not also feel the sensation and emotions of the protagonists at the time they enter history. For this reason, it is never easy writing history. Detailed academic accounts tend to be cold and uninspiring. On the other hand, the ones that sensationalize are often inaccurate. Dominique Lapierre's account covers almost four centuries of the history of South Africa - from the time Van Riebeeck landed there to grow lettuce to the handing over of the reigns of power by de Klerk to Mandela. In a fast moving, yet seamless account he showed that man's oppressive nature can be contained and overcome only by the spirit of man. This book is probably the best for the reader who has heard about apartheid but does not know how it started or how it ended, and more importantly, what went on under its policies. This book is for the reader who has heard about Nelson Mandela but is not sure why this man is great. This book is for the reader who believes that the human spirit is strong but not am not quite sure how strong it can be.

I can't believe so few people have reviewed this great book! LaPierre is a phenomenal author and I would have thought more people would be reading his stuff. I picked up this book solely because LaPierre wrote it. He really makes history come alive.

I strongly recommend this book. It gave me a thorough understanding of Apartheid, and I now realize fully what a great hero Nelson Mandela is.

Although I have not read the Bible cover to cover, I hadn't realized that the Bible said that God gave the Southern part of Africa to Dutch Calvinists. This was news to me. heavy sarcasm Seriously, the lesson here is much broader...

I have to admit, I didn't know much about Africa's history. This book has made a huge impact on me and I ached for the people of Africa and what they had to endure the apartheid. There are a few pages of photos included in the book which I think was a great addition. Although the subject matter was at times very difficult to read, I'm glad I finished it. There was also a great deal of other information that I found very interesting. I loved reading about the day to day lives of the people. My favorite was Chris Barnard. I was amazed by his carreer and also loved reading about his family life. I thought this would read like a text book, but I was wrong. It's like reading fiction, and it's hard to put down. It's a book I think everyone needs to read this, especially those of us who really don't know much about the history of Africa.

Nicely written informative history of a part of the world of which I had little previous understanding. Enjoyable and fast paced.

There are many excellent books on South African history. And Domique Lapierre has written some oustanding books. Unfortunately, Domique's turn to South African history has produced a mediocre effort. Given its brevity, this book can only take a brief look at South African history. Even within that contraint, however, the books fails. It is a rambling, unfocused meander through South African history with some absurd asides - most notably an invented recreation of the meeting where the idea of apartheid was launched. Though this is the only obvious place where a recreation occurs, it is difficult to trust anything in a book that contains an unquestionably fictional account.

These faults in mind, this book does provide a useful overview of South African history. That being said, it is only useful for a beginner. Those seeking an in-depth factual treatment of any period should look elsewhere.

I wish I had read this book prior to my trip to South Africa. Knowing the history of South Africa would have made my trip even more meaningful.
This is a history book that is not boring and keeps the readers interest.