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4.45 AVERAGE
4.45 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
I'm so glad I finally sat down to read this. Mandela strikes me as the kind of person who pays attention to everyone and everything around him, and as a result Long Walk to Freedom is, in addition to being a portrait of the man himself, a fascinating blend of history/politics/philosophy. Although I had some background knowledge before reading the book, everything was explained in enough detail that I think the book can speak to people with almost no prior knowledge at all. At the same time, it's never patronising or slow, and offers plenty of detail and insight for those better versed in the topics/events the book touches on. While I enjoyed reading every part of the book (and found something educational in each bit), the most interesting part for me was the end, which focuses on negations regarding the new form of government and constitution. The mammoth task of simultaneously dismantling the existing regime and replacing it with something vastly different is explained in detail, with explanations of each consideration made, every decision that goes ahead, every compromise agreed... Reading that about that from the point of view of someone who actually had to make those calls, rather than from the point of view of a distant historian (as one usually does) really brings home the difficulties of it, but was also weirdly reassuring, because Mandela & his allies managed it. South Africa today is, obviously, far from perfect, but when you consider that not long ago the government had members/supporters who were openly Nazis, and were considered by some within the country to be too far left on the political spectrum... it's pretty amazing what was achieved.
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
So so phenomenal! It really takes you through his whole life journey and I learned a ton about the behind the scenes of the struggle to end apartheid
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, Classism, Deportation
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
This is a very long read, but it's a very good one. The movie doesn't do the book justice. Set a timeline for yourself to read it because it really was insightful. The book follows Mandela's life from boyhood all the way through the end of Apartheid.
Mandela’s life story is interesting and he has a compelling voice in writing this book. It was quite informative about both his outlook and the history of South Africa
At the end of the audiobook is an interview with an editor for book and he mentions how it’s as much a biography of South Africa as it is a biography of Nelson Mandela. That is too true. The major flaw of the book is that it’s simply a telling of events as they happened in order with little time spent on how those events felt for Nelson. There is little introspection by Nelson Mandela the man and he seems to be at times only a shallowly defined character instead of the central subject of the book. For example, when relating his divorce, instead of discussing his feelings, he quotes a letter he wrote at the time that reads like an opening statement in a legal trial where he must defend his decision to divorce. Mandela does admit in the book that he is not one to share his feelings and perhaps lacks the ability to intellectualize his feelings, a possible advantage for someone who could have been easily overwhelmed many times throughout his life. Yet I am still curious.