Customer Reviews

White Lightning

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

 

 

This is the first Justin Cartwright novel I have read but definitely not the last. This book deals with our narrarator James and his life in England and South Africa. I have never read a novel quite like this before. It is so richly written with such attention to description that I was fully absorbed in it. James is a small time film maker who was born in South Africa but is raised in England. When he find out his son has died at a young age he begins to review his life. His mother is sick and dying at home in South Africa and he goes to be with her. While there he discovers the country he still loves and uses its natural beauty to help heal him. Of course nothing goes smoothly for James. Even his relationship with his pet baboon Piet is oddly compelling. I won't give any more away because quite frankly its too odd to tell you and then you would never want to read this book. Read it you should however!
I loved it fully and completely.

Another writer neglected in the States, this book never found an American publisher but is well worth chasing down. "White Lightning" explores the transitions of life and unfulfilled promise. James Kronk returns to his Native South Africa to tend to his ailing mother, and in the process deals with the thoughts and emotions of confronting his past in his birth home and the so called promise of living abroad in London. Through a series of actions recalled through memories an the truism that life is a summation of little decisions reveals itself. A homecoming is an opportunity for redemption, and that's where the story unfolds.

The circumstances and plot elements of the story are real and identifiable giving the story power, ok the baboon isn't so identifiable. But don't let that deter you from a first rate book.

White Lightning is a beautifully written novel about the clashes within the human community and between the animal and human culture. At times passionate, and certainly erotic, White Lightning is ultimately sad in that there is a series of completely believable and interlocking betrayals. Expatriates and the native born vie for supremacy and survival comes at a terrible price. The hero achieves his dream of buying a small farm back in the land of his birth and revels in his new freedom and the gradual liberation of a baboon who becomes an unlikely friend. Memorable and therefore quotable lines on almost every page. An exhilarating read for anyone interested in Africa. Highly recommended author in Canada and UK.

This is a lovely book. One becomes totally absorbed into the narrator's life - his hopes, his disappointments and trials, his windfalls and his loses. It is beautifully told and finally satisfying - really a brilliant book!