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3.31 AVERAGE
3.31 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2023 - 52 Weeks of Short Novels, A Buddy Read
From the book: A Year of Reading - Briefly Great Short Books by Kenneth C. Davis
Week #23: The writing style totally took me out of this one.
From the book: A Year of Reading - Briefly Great Short Books by Kenneth C. Davis
Week #23: The writing style totally took me out of this one.
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Classism
Minor: War
This was not my type of book. The language was really flowery, the story was hard to follow at times because of it. There were other times where the language was SO vivid and beautiful that it felt like it was perfectly able to describe how I have felt. The ending was brutal for me - I had to read online to understand what it meant... just too symbolic for me
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
What is life like for a white person whose home is South Africa? Can you ever really belong? However open-minded & empathetic you may be, how will you react when your privilege is taken away and the power dynamics with the natives shift? Will you still willingly call this place home or flee? How about when you add the woman boss-man servant dynamic to the equation? What happens to a marriage when your life is uprooted and your family is suddenly following a drastically different day-to-day life?
Nadine Gordimer's "July's people" is short, but packs a punch - albeit, in the kind of way a glacier carves a mountain - slow, methodic, not in a hurry to get anywhere. Despite being only 160 odd pages, this is not a quick read. Gordimer takes time to really paint pictures of places, people and their minute expressions when they interact with each other. It is not an exaggeration to say that I really FELT the heat of Africa and the relentless sun and dust while reading the chapters - Gordimer truly does transport you.
We also get a window into multiple points of view with POV chapters (but the primary voice is that of the white woman boss). It is hard not to empathize with every single character in the book - the white people desperately looking for a way out of the bad situation they are in, as well as the black natives who bring various aspects of a people on the path out of subjugation into the equation (the default mode of being servile, the occasional reaching forward to take what isn't yours, "righteous" theft, just make some money in the process from the whites etc.)
I'd recommend this book only to people comfortable with reading slow books that have no plot per se. This book has a series of incidents and interactions between people, but the story doesn't "move forward" and there is no "beginning-middle-climax-resolution" etc. There is also no clear ending to the book - there is an open-ended incident, because - well, Gordimer had to end the book somehow. The lack of an actual conclusion is a flaw in the book; but I don't see how else the author could have wrapped up the narrative in a way that does justice to the open-ended questions raised in the rest of the book.
Gordimer does well in taking no sides in her narrative - there is no right/ wrong, just different points of view. Overall, an interesting window into overlooked aspects of race relations from a South African Nobel laureate.
Nadine Gordimer's "July's people" is short, but packs a punch - albeit, in the kind of way a glacier carves a mountain - slow, methodic, not in a hurry to get anywhere. Despite being only 160 odd pages, this is not a quick read. Gordimer takes time to really paint pictures of places, people and their minute expressions when they interact with each other. It is not an exaggeration to say that I really FELT the heat of Africa and the relentless sun and dust while reading the chapters - Gordimer truly does transport you.
We also get a window into multiple points of view with POV chapters (but the primary voice is that of the white woman boss). It is hard not to empathize with every single character in the book - the white people desperately looking for a way out of the bad situation they are in, as well as the black natives who bring various aspects of a people on the path out of subjugation into the equation (the default mode of being servile, the occasional reaching forward to take what isn't yours, "righteous" theft, just make some money in the process from the whites etc.)
I'd recommend this book only to people comfortable with reading slow books that have no plot per se. This book has a series of incidents and interactions between people, but the story doesn't "move forward" and there is no "beginning-middle-climax-resolution" etc. There is also no clear ending to the book - there is an open-ended incident, because - well, Gordimer had to end the book somehow. The lack of an actual conclusion is a flaw in the book; but I don't see how else the author could have wrapped up the narrative in a way that does justice to the open-ended questions raised in the rest of the book.
Gordimer does well in taking no sides in her narrative - there is no right/ wrong, just different points of view. Overall, an interesting window into overlooked aspects of race relations from a South African Nobel laureate.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes