Scan barcode
A review by willowbiblio
July's People by Nadine Gordimer
4.0
"They had fled the fighting in the streets, the danger for their children, the necessity to defend their lives in the name of ideals they didn't share in a destroyed white society they didn't believe in."
------------
I finished this in about 12 hours. I'm always quickly taken in by any book about South Africa, especially one that examines the dynamics between whites and Africans during the Apartheid. This novel imagined an alternate future wherein South Africa was invaded by Mozambique and other neighboring nations. The privileged white family is forced to rely on the care and secrecy of their servant, July, who hides them in his rural village.
As the novel progresses, Bam is forced to acknowledge that he cannot thrive in this new world despite his talents of hunting and fixing mechanical items. Maureen experiences a kind of awakening, in part due to her ongoing tete-a-tete with July himself. July begins the novel by bringing his employers coffee and milk- continuing his subservient role. However, as the novel progresses, he begins to shift and he becomes more assertive. This forces Bam and Maureen to confront their complicity in a society that separated him from his people for 2 years at a time but allowed them to pat themselves on the back for their progressiveness in "allowing" him certain basic human rights.
Ultimately the parents are forced to face that they were miserly and cruel in their own way and upheld a system of subjugation. Their children quickly adapt to life in the village and grasp much faster that the Africans they oppressed are just as individual in their natures as the whites who held power.
------------
I finished this in about 12 hours. I'm always quickly taken in by any book about South Africa, especially one that examines the dynamics between whites and Africans during the Apartheid. This novel imagined an alternate future wherein South Africa was invaded by Mozambique and other neighboring nations. The privileged white family is forced to rely on the care and secrecy of their servant, July, who hides them in his rural village.
As the novel progresses, Bam is forced to acknowledge that he cannot thrive in this new world despite his talents of hunting and fixing mechanical items. Maureen experiences a kind of awakening, in part due to her ongoing tete-a-tete with July himself. July begins the novel by bringing his employers coffee and milk- continuing his subservient role. However, as the novel progresses, he begins to shift and he becomes more assertive. This forces Bam and Maureen to confront their complicity in a society that separated him from his people for 2 years at a time but allowed them to pat themselves on the back for their progressiveness in "allowing" him certain basic human rights.
Ultimately the parents are forced to face that they were miserly and cruel in their own way and upheld a system of subjugation. Their children quickly adapt to life in the village and grasp much faster that the Africans they oppressed are just as individual in their natures as the whites who held power.