After being abandoned by her mother, Hillela was pushed onto relatives where she was taught social graces. But when she betrayed her position as surrogate daughter, she was cast adrift. Later she fell into a heroic role in the overthrow of apartheid.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This ninth novel (July's People, Burger's Daughter, The Conservationist, etc.) by Gordimer deals, as does most of her writing, with South Africa, her native land, with the emerging black leadership of surrounding states and with the ways in which human beings survive physically, emotionally and morally under, and struggle against, racism and injustice. Required reading for our era, it is a moving and powerful book that, in a career rich with distinguished works, could well be considered her masterpiece. The title comes from the translated Latin term for a plant or animal form that is unlike its parent stock, and applies equally to the protagonist, Hillela, a Jewish South African followed from adolescence into her 40s, and to South Africa itself. Abandoned early by her mother for a lover in Mozambique, Hillela lives for a time with her father in Rhodesia; is expelled from boarding school there and is shuttled between the households of two maternal aunts, until her burgeoning sexuality and an innocence of appropriate categories as to whom one may love, cast her out of the family circle. As she grows into womanhood, Hillela becomes an increasingly impressive personality, ever more closely linked to contemporary events. The strands that make up her life, as that life is reported, rumors and all, by an unnamed narrator, are woven into the larger tapestry that portrays South Africa over a span of more than a quarter of a century, from the late 1950s, when the government became increasingly oppressive, to the rise of black consciousness and militancy in succeeding decades and into the near future. Gordimer, who vividly conveys the impossibility of living decently under apartheid, clearly sympathizes with Sasha, Hillela's pro-revolutionary cousin, who writes, "The mines and petrol bombs are planted by blacks, but it's the whites who have killed their own children."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Gordimer achieves a remarkable imaginative integration of private and public experience in this powerful novel, which traces the life of a beautiful South African woman from childhood to early middle age. Born to white privilege but abandoned by her mother, who bequeaths her a rich sexuality; reared by two aunts, who embody the opposing worlds of material comfort and social consciousness; on her own by 17, and soon immersed in the first of a series of relationships whose direction no one could have predictedalways Hillela is passionately grounded in her own feelings as she becomes increasingly involved in the black struggle, nationally and internationally. Yet she remains elusive, transcending simple definition even as her story, shaped by intense moral concerns, reaches a climax of stunning grandeur. A brilliant, engrossing noveland highly recommended. BOMC dual main selection.Elise Chase, Forbes Lib., Northampton, Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
haunting,
By Chutes (East Brunswick, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Sport of Nature (Hardcover)
This is a richly written book. Gordimer handles the character in an interesting way--one of the reviewers said that she couldn't relate to the character, and I think that is because Gordimer is presenting her as someone who is puzzling to other people, a "sport" or new species. You don't get into the heroine's head so much as you try to figure out her mysteries. Of course, that means Gordimer is giving the reader the role of someone from the ordinary world who isn't quite as evolved sexually or politically as her heroine. I found the heroine haunting because of her self possession, her practically unselfconscious drive to grow that freed her of much of the guilt and fear of isolation that keep most of us from doing the right things.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Look beyond normal reading,
By Jeanette Burch (Kincardine Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sport of Nature (Transaction Large Print Books) (Hardcover)
I do not agree with the substandard reviews of this book. If you are interested in South Africa don't be afraid of a more difficult read and pick up this book. It is a little difficult to get into but once you get used to Gordimer's writing style, anyone will enjoy it. Hillela is a very interesting character who one can not underestimate. I like her spirit, and I truely think she has a complete change of character by the end of the story.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Absorbing, but just couldn't relate to main character,
This review is from: A Sport of Nature (Paperback)
I have never read Nadine Gordimer before, but when I saw 2 collections of her works at 2 of my friends' houses (and rave reviews) I got curious. This book is a thickly textured look at 3 sisters and their divurgent lives and the daughter of 1 who is exposed to all 3 and then further divurges into the racial movements of 70's South Africa. Gordimer's use of setting is really good. I found particularly interesting the family of the most politically oriented sister, Pauline and her husband Joe and children where the domestic lives interleave with the sometimes violent politial terrain. The main character, Hillela, however, I found to be less than heroic -- she simply seemed to be a sensual being who floated in and out of various beds and even the tragedy which befalls her later in the story doesn't REALLY seem to have changed her - she seems like the same person on page 1 as on page 300, although the narrative implies otherwise. For a book released in the 70's I'm sure that this was a revelation, although here in the new millenium it seems dated.Despite all this, I think the author is terrifically talented in her ability to convey sensuality, to provoke thought, and to establish setting and mood. There were some passages of the book that are among the best I've read anywhere.
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