Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Mixed feelings, April 3, 2007
I enjoyed this book very much, but I'm finding myself viewing it as a guilty pleasure, in the same way I enjoy "Raiders of the Lost Ark," Tex Ritter's "Blood on the Saddle," and PDQ Bach--not great art, but a lot of fun. Courtenay is fluid, unsubtle writer, quite easy to follow, but he exploits his ability with a sentence to create almost non-stop action, much larger-than-life characterizations, and blatant moralizations. Such writing can be, of course, genuinely entertaining and can serve the purpose of bringing home lessons to a popular readng audience that they might otherwise ignore, but at the cost of avoiding the complexity of the social issues and the deeper horrors of policies like Apartheid. The ending, in particular, was a junior high school boy's fantasy and not the behavior of a bright, sophisticated, now mature young man who had been mentored by series of compassionate, thoughtful adults, and who had the presence of mind to remain in control of his emotions when he was attacked. Peekay, by that point in the book, should have been better than to end the fight as he did, or, at the very least, to admit his loss of control and some regret over the final act. The Peekay we had come to know in the book would have seen the Judge as the drunken loser he was, defeated him as efficiently as possible, and thereafter dismissed him.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
what an exiting book, February 7, 2007
A Kid's Review
The Power of One was a fantastic book. It held a lot of compelling moments while teaching us to never give up on our goals and dreams. It was exiting and I could not put the book down because it was to good. I can't wait to read Tandia as I want to know if Peekay can reach his dream. For Bryce Courtenay's first book it was better than I expected and I can't wait to read more of his books. I would reccomend this book to anybody who wants to achieve their dreams.
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0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
CEO Blog view, May 22, 2006
The Power of One by Bryce Courtney is a novel about a young white boy growing up in aparthied South Africa. At 500 slow but captivating pages, it took almost 5 hours to read. Like all books that I read, someone suggested it was a good read. It was well written. Pure recreation. Highly recommended for fun but the business lessons are few and you need to stretch a bit to get them.
One quote from the book (used in a boxing context) was "Lead first with your head then with your heart". Does that apply to business? Without the logic and head, there can be no heart.
Another good quote was "I was cultivating a habit of winning. Winning is a state of mind that embraces everything you do, so I found I won in other things as well.". This quote definitely applies to my life philosophy.
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