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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some Fine Stories!, December 12, 2004
This review is from: Telling Tales (Paperback)
Nadine Gordimer has brought together here 21 writers, including herself, who "tell tales" without fee or royalty to help in the world fight against HIV/AIDS. As you would expect, most of these stories are terribly serious; they are about the awfulness of war, loss, sorrow and at least half of them are about death. These are not stories, however, about dying with AIDS; neither are they always about the death of people. (In fact, only one writer Margaret Atwood mentions the disease in an aside.) Jose Saramago's story is about the death of a centaur; the bulldog in Arthur Miller's tale probably dies from an overdose of chocolate, for example. About the only comic relief comes-- as we would expect-- from a very funny, brief story by Woody Allen called "The Rejecton" and is about a family's dilemma when their three-year old is rejected from a tony nursery school in Manhattan. The writers are from many countries and nationalities. Some of my favorite writers and stories are here: Gabriel Garcia Marquez ("Death Constant Beyond Love") who can create as much magic in ten pages as he does in novels hundreds of pages long; and Amos Oz's tale of a young Israeli whose parachute drifts into a power line ("The Way of The Wind"). Susan Sontag (The Letter Scene) makes profound observations about letter-writing while Christa Wolf in "Associations in Blue" shatters some of the positive notions most of us have about the color blue. For instance, she tells us that "the care packages that the Americans dropped in Afghanistan were blue and no longer yellow, so people could tell them apart from the yellow cluster bombs that they [the U. S.] were dropping at the same time.
Ms. Gordimer reminds the reader that five of these writers, herself included, won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Additionally, I noticed a couple of Booker Prize winners as well. I do not know how Ms. Gordimer selected the writers she included. I would have expected, however, to see selections by Toni Morrison-- Ms. Morrison because she is black, a woman, a Nobel Prize winner herself and, most importantly, as good a living writer as there is; and Mr. White because he is gay, HIV positive, the winner of literary prizes as well, and has been writing stories about AIDS for nearly twenty years now.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sharing for a cause, July 13, 2005
This review is from: Telling Tales (Paperback)
Some writers, like musicians, go public about their caring about people and causes. They may not appear at a Live 8 concert, but when approached they can be just as generous. The result of one such approach is this highly enjoyable collection of "tales" told by well known authors from around the world. Nadine Gordimer, the initiator of the project, and 20 authors have donated a story each. The publishers, translators and designers have waived their fees and profits. The book was published simultaneously in several languages. All proceeds will go to HIV/AIDS education and treatment in South Africa.
This in itself would be enough reason to buy and look at this book! Yet, there are more grounds for spending your money on it. The stories, selected by the authors themselves, reflect some of the best of each author's writing. They convey diverse personal outlooks or describe real or imagined life experiences. We find John Updike next to Arthur Miller, Paul Theroux and Gabriel Garcia Marquez together with Amos Oz and Günter Grass... Several less known African authors, such as Njabulo Ndebele, share a spot with well known Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. In its totality, we have been offered a smorgasbord of excellent story-telling. It's a partial who's who of current world literature. The topics presented are as wide ranging as the authors' backgrounds and perspectives. Some are serious, some are funny or satirical. All excel in style and expression. This anthology is one to treasure, to pick up from time to time to read or revisit one of the authors. The ideal gift for yourself and others who enjoy a glimpse into the writing of some of the world's literary greats. [Friederike Knabe]
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Saving the World, January 12, 2005
This review is from: Telling Tales (Paperback)
Nadine Gordimer is not only an admirable writer, but an admirable person. Her altruism is shown in the gathering of material for this great book, with no thought of gain for herself. The stories are all excellent and thoughtfully chosen. There is so much to choose from, it must have been difficult to select. For readers interested in South Africa, I recommend A TELLING TIME by Glynnis Hayward(ISBN 1591295912),a gripping tale by a new South African author.
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