Take a photo of a barcode or cover
macloo 's review for:
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
This story amazed me. I felt that I had entered another world. Kumalo, an elderly Christian pastor in a South African village, is one of the most real and emotional characters I've ever encountered in a book. I felt empathy with him from the beginning, as he rides a train to the unfamiliar big city of Johannesburg, where he encounters unexpected and terrible things. Later the point of view switches to Jarvis, a wealthy white landowner, and I felt sympathy for him and his family. I feel as if I have met so many people in this book. The clueless state of Kumalo's grown son reminded me of so many young people who act without thinking. The great kindness of Kumalo's new friend Msimangu made me weep. The small bright boy (Jarvis's grandson) and his conversations with Kumalo spread hope for the future. It is a hopeful book overall, and maybe that hope still exists for South Africa -- I don't know. This was published 42 years before Nelson Mandela was freed from prison (1990). In this book, the song "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" is not yet well known -- it is mentioned several times. There are so many wonderful scenes. One near the end of the book, where a bishop comes to visit Kumalo and asks him to resign, is unforgettable (I wanted to cheer and cry at the same time). South Africa is a complicated country, and this story gently but confidently reveals many pieces that make up the whole.