Customer Reviews

Rowing Lesson

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Anne Landsman's The Rowing Lesson is the story of Manhattan-based Betsy Klein, who returns to South Africa to be at the bedside of her dying father. While Dr Harold Klein, or "Doktor God", lies in a coma and his family awaits his death, pregnant Betsy imagines her father's life.

Like the river that is central to the story, Betsy's narrative flows lyrically, weaving deftly through past and present, painting an impressionistic picture of her irascible father's life. From his childhood days with Jewish immigrant parents in George and Wilderness, to his medical studies at Groote Schuur hospital and beyond, Landsman evokes the period in which the story is set and captures the political mood of the country with her keen eye and poetical turn of phrase.

I felt a little disappointed initially as I realized the book was written in present tense, second person, but my opinion changed when I got past the first few pages, and I gladly allowed myself to be swept along with the tide of Dr Klein's colourful life. In the end I realized this book could not have been written any other way.

This book is more than a story about father and daughter or about life and death. It is about black and white, jealousy and desire, beginnings and endings, about what it means to be Jewish in South Africa, and so much more. Anne Landsman's The Rowing Lesson is a beautifully-written portrait of a man with all his faults and fears, told in her unique and flowing style. I was swept away.

Anne Landsman shares so much in this brilliant novel. As an ex-South African of the same age, the remembrance of family - conflicted, beloved, dangerous and loving - reached deep into my soul. Landsman has the capacity to evoke pain and pleasure in just a few words. Her words paint a vivid picture of an experience that many of us will endure - the loss of a parent, strained love between siblings, a return to a world of pain in the midst of great beauty. Bravo.

This novel is full of poetry and spunk, as the narrator imagines her father's life in South Africa after she returns, married and pregnant, from her long years as an ex-pat in New York. It is a poignant book about the bond of father and daughter, and a meditation on identity and place.

This is a beautiful book, beautifully written and very moving. Rush out and buy it immediately

Although the other (two) reviewers here loved this book, I cannot agree as I found the stream of consciousness style irritating, choppy and, frankly, hard to follow. [Not everyone is James Joyce!] I gave it a good try for a few chapters and then gave up.