The Conservationist (Paperback)

by Nadine Gordimer (Author) "Pale freckled eggs..." (more)
Key Phrases: third pasture, freckled eggs, guinea fowl eggs, South West, Christmas Club, New Year (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature paints a fascinating portrait of a "conservationist" left only with the possibility of self-preservation, a subtle and detailed study of the forces and relationships that seethe in South Africa today. 6 cassettes. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From AudioFile
Nadine Gordimer observes South Africa's decay largely through the internal monologues of a wealthy businessman disconnected from life. He cultivates empty affairs and the land he owns with an eye toward profit and loss. Perhaps Nadia May's straightforward narration reflects the flat, detached quality of this existence too well; her voice scarcely changes pace or emotional intensity. While this reading style suits the story's mood, it drags. Fortunately, May provides relief by skillfully adapting her mild British accent to the dialects of the various social classes. While not exciting, this presentation certainly seems true to Gordimer's vision. D.J. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 24, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140047166
• ISBN-13: 978-0140047165
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #463,507 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Into the mind of an unsympathetic man, August 10, 2002

By	Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

It has been several years since I read this novel, and what sticks in my memory vividly is the portrait Gordimer creates of a self-satisfied, white property-owner in apartheid-era South Africa. We see the world through his eyes, and we see how well it serves him, keeping him wealthy and comfortable. While he may notice that some suffer and are oppressed, he is not moved to do anything that would make a difference for them. Instead, he justifies his indifference with a sense of racial and class superiority.

Gordimer captures the mental framework of someone who feels little or nothing for the misfortunes of others. What is interesting for the reader is that it requires an effort to step out of his mind and see his thoughts and behavior for what they are -- insensitive, self-serving, and at times brutal.

Gordimer finds him at a time in his life when he is middle-aged and living alone, no longer married, his grown son estranged from him, and his mistress not all that endeared to him. While money, property, and influence keep him at a safe distance from the political troubles slowly encroaching on his private world, Gordimer reveals his physical and emotional isolation. His defense is to cut his losses and retreat even farther into his solitary world. It's a fascinating, well-written character study.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars South Africa's "Sound and Fury", June 12, 2006

By	Steven Davis (Rowlett, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"The Conservationist" resembles William Faulkner's masterpice "The Sound and the Fury" in several ways: It's subject matter is a dying culture based on racial stratification, the author uses a stream of consciousness style, the story is told from the perspective of three individuals, and it is a magnificent and defining novel.

The principal character is Mehring, a middle-aged white businessman who has purchased a farm outside Johannesburg as a weekend getaway and hobby. Mehring's marriage has failed, he can't relate to his son who is in college, and relations with his lover are intermittent. He is increasingly driven to seek casual sex with younger women. His only attachment is to the land. But it is a hollow love for something he no more understands than he does the people around him.

The other major characters through whose eyes we see South Africa are Josephus, Mehring's black overseer, and an Indian shopkeeper. In each case we see members of a patient older generation fearing change, willing to accommodate, successful in bending the system to their advantage, and fearful of losing what they have.

The story was written and set in the 1970s when South Africa was still very much under an apartheid social system. Gordimer's novel is a protest against that system, but a subtle and sensitive one. It would be a mistake, though, to categorize the novel as political or to assume it is dated. It is a richly symbolic novel about the futility of legislating values and the emptiness of a life based on lies. Its message is portable to any place and time.

The style of "The Conservationist" is difficult to characterize because it shifts from a traditional third person perspective, into an occasional first person, and then into a stream of consciousness mode. The major events occur in chronological order, but a fair proportion of the narrative is spent in flashback. This may make it sound more difficult to read than it is. In a few instance the shift of perspective or time is confusing, but on the whole it is not an especially challenging book to follow, and is definitely easier than "The Sound and the Fury." I would say it is about on a par with Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" as far as difficulty is concerned.

Finally, we can't overlook what will appeal to many readers - the setting, both physical and cultural, of South Africa. Mehring's farm has the universal appeal of rustic serenity with the added dimension of the exotic. No, there aren't any lions charging from the bush, but Gordimer, in very economical prose, evokes the harsh majesty, the sights sounds and smells, of the African veldt. And every bit as fascinating as the landscape is the cultural pastice of African, Indian, Boer and English cultures, each seeing the land - and each other - through the lens of its unique values and myths.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unparalled story of an African farm, March 28, 2000

By	Jill Piggott (Wells, Maine) - See all my reviews

Gordimer's Booker-prize winning novel is one of the least overtly political of her works--at least in the most traditional understanding of "political fiction" (fiction about the machinations of state power). Yet the book remains a forceful, intricate exploration of power, as timely today as it was in 1974, as relevant to contemporary America as it was to minority-ruled South Africa. I have read--and written about--each of Gordimer's novels, and The Conservationist remains a favorite. Nowhere else in contemporary English-language fiction have I found such memorable passages about landscape; nowhere else have I found such a subtle exploration of self. I recommend the novel to anyone remotely interested in the modernist novel, to anyone who has ever sat under the spell of Virginia Woolf (Gordimer, too, is a Woolf reader), to anyone who turns to literature for both Beauty and that old hound Truth.