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paul_cornelius 's review for:
When the Lion Feeds
by Wilbur Smith
Having only read a couple of other Wilbur Smith novels, I didn't know about this Courtney Family series. I picked up When the Lion Feeds completely cold to its place in Smith's work. It turns out that it's a massive collection of some seventeen novels detailing the lives of the Courtney family from the seventeenth century until the late twentieth century. It's very much in the same vein as the multi-generational fictional histories that James Michener, James Clavell, and, of late, James Carlos Blake created.
For some reason, I've never cared much for novels set in Africa, apart from Haggard and Talbot Mundy. And they are adventure works. This novel purports to be much more than that. I suppose it is. For it has an organic feel to it. That is, the story seems to come from within a cultural tradition and a national history. And unlike much contemporary South African literature, it is not a reaction against history. Thus it avoids spilling anarchic energy and replaces the experience of the Courtneys with a validation of their trials, hardships, and tragedies. What sort of legitimacy such a view has for contemporary South African readers, I don't know. Likely, it's problematic. But it's still an epic tale, a history of families writ as large as the horizon against which it takes place. The justice of that point of view, I'll leave to others to evaluate.
The story itself is sweeping, encompassing two brothers' lives during the Anglo-Zulu War. Garrick becomes a hero due to his actions at Rorke's Drift, while Sean survives the massacre at Isandlwana. Later Sean goes into the business of gold mining and stock speculation in Johannesburg. Fortunes are made--and lost. For what it's worth, Smith's book came out the same year as the landmark film, Zulu, with Michael Caine and Stanley Baker. So 1964 was a good year for Zulus. They come off as heroic and honorable in both Smith's novel and Cy Endfield's film.
For some reason, I've never cared much for novels set in Africa, apart from Haggard and Talbot Mundy. And they are adventure works. This novel purports to be much more than that. I suppose it is. For it has an organic feel to it. That is, the story seems to come from within a cultural tradition and a national history. And unlike much contemporary South African literature, it is not a reaction against history. Thus it avoids spilling anarchic energy and replaces the experience of the Courtneys with a validation of their trials, hardships, and tragedies. What sort of legitimacy such a view has for contemporary South African readers, I don't know. Likely, it's problematic. But it's still an epic tale, a history of families writ as large as the horizon against which it takes place. The justice of that point of view, I'll leave to others to evaluate.
The story itself is sweeping, encompassing two brothers' lives during the Anglo-Zulu War. Garrick becomes a hero due to his actions at Rorke's Drift, while Sean survives the massacre at Isandlwana. Later Sean goes into the business of gold mining and stock speculation in Johannesburg. Fortunes are made--and lost. For what it's worth, Smith's book came out the same year as the landmark film, Zulu, with Michael Caine and Stanley Baker. So 1964 was a good year for Zulus. They come off as heroic and honorable in both Smith's novel and Cy Endfield's film.