monica_green_64 's review for:

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

5.0

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This is one of those books that restores your faith in human kindness. It shows weak people who choose wrong, but are humble enough to see their error and change. Even as old men, both Kumalo and Jarvis learn new things and become better people. I love Mrs. Lithebe's servant heart: when thanked for providing food and "always [being] our helper," she replies simply, "For what else are we born?" This book is full of admirable characters who inspire me to be kinder, more loving, less selfish -- Msimangu, the greatest man Kumalo ever knew, who gave all his worldly wealth to Kumalo to help his family and church; the lawyer who defended Absalom pro deo; the red-haired Englishman who was willing to do anything to help Kumalo; the man who worked in the reformatory, investing his entire life's work to help criminal boys get back on the right track; Kumalo's friend that carried his bags when he got off the train, who said, "I have never thought that a Christian would be free of suffering, umfundisi. For our Lord suffered. And I come to believe that he suffered, not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear suffering. For he knew that there is no life without suffering"; and most of all, Kumalo himself, who welcomed his fallen children back into his home with complete forgiveness and unconditional love, and offered a loving home and family to his grandson and to the unmarried woman carrying his son's child, without one thought of the expense it would be to him and his wife. Such a moving and inspiring story! And so simply and beautifully written.