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lisaortiz1221's review
4.0
1989 was not a good year to fall in love – at least not in South Africa, and certainly not with a white man.
with that opening line, we are thrust into the life of Chioma, a young orphaned black woman who has a fierce hatred for everything about white people. and yet, she finds herself drawn to Andrew, a white man and the son of her employers. when Chioma’s brother Masozi is carelessly murdered by one of Andrew’s friends, the cultural imbalance and danger of apartheid is made vividly clear and the choices that they both make set a series of unexpected events into motion that will change the simplicity of life as they know it.
He was an Afrikaner, and he knew his place. He was white; Chioma was coloured. Nothing else needed to be said.
the narration hopped between the various characters and offered vastly different perspectives of the same series of events. this allowed Macias to really explore the prejudice, injustices, and religious convictions of each individual from a more personal place, and to provide insight to the strengths, weaknesses and development of each of the characters. i thought this was very well done and created a highly readable page turner that was difficult to put down. i also appreciated that although the book was published as Christian fiction and as a romance, that none of it was overdone. everything was presented tastefully in a way that makes this book accessible to readers across many genres.
Chioma - She thought of her name and wondered, as she had so many times through the years, why her parents had labeled her so inappropriately. She could understand Masozi’s name, as tears were a familiar phenomenon to her people. But Chioma – “God is great”? She nearly snorted with contempt. If there was anything great about the gods, she had yet to see it, and certainly didn’t expect to any time soon.
however, considering its Christian ties, i was surprised that there was as much conviction in the writing in regards to the violence and hypocrisy. i had naively expected something light and fluffy and Godly, but there were no pulled punches here. we see the actions of the militant group led by the fierce and aggressive Themba, as well as the often misguided intentions of the devout plantation owner Pieter and although they were on opposite sides of the hostility, the sincerity of their actions made them both seem accessible and honest.
my favorite moments in the reading were those that explored the cultural history of South Africa through the militant groups and activists, like Chioma’s parents, that sacrificed their lives for the cause. the voice within her father’s journal actually felt the most tangible to me of all the characters and it really made me sympathize with Chioma and the plight of her people.
I have come to the sad conclushen that sometimes vilence is warented.
if i were to offer any criticism, it would be that i would have liked to have seen more depth and variety in the voices presented during the various narrators, but i thought that the presentation was sufficient. my only sort of nagging criticism is that in certain passages, there tended to be strings of rambling questions based on the characters stream of consciousness. it seemed to be an odd technique that distracted from the flow of the story for me. yet, at the same time, it was a very intimate look at the characters thought process, so i can’t really fault it either.
all in all, i really enjoyed No Greater Love and would definitely recommend it to those looking for a good piece of Christian fiction, or even possibly for people who are just looking for an interesting cultural piece on South Africa. the mix of historical and cultural fiction with the romance and Christian aspects actually panned out to make a very nice read.
catrev's review
4.0
No Greater Love by Kathi Macias is the first book in the Extreme Devotion series about Christians around the world facing the ultimate test of faith. In 1989 South Africa is still under apartheid. No one knows that better than Chioma. Now a servant on the Vorster farm, she watched her parents slaughtered by the white authorities for insurrection, then her brother murdered by friends of the Vorster's son Andrew. She's tried to fight her feelings for Andrew, but his knowing blue eyes force her to see him as more than just the color of his skin. After yet another tragedy, Chioma lives on the run, hiding with rebel forces known as the ANC. Meanwhile, the Vorsters, Anana and Pieter are forced to reconcile their deep faith with apartheid and how it has affected their family. Macias does a wonderful job portraying the complicated emotions of the Vorsters as they struggle with their faith, as well as with Chioma's wavering loyalty. She puts the reader in the middle of a story that can have no happy ending, but forces us to sympathize with Chioma's suffering as well as the Vorster's confusion. Macias makes the characters come to life and refuses to take the easy way out. It's a powerful novel that will force readers to think deeply about what true faith looks like.
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