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Cry, the Beloved Country (Oprah's Book Club) (Paperback)
by Alan Paton
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Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
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¥ 158.00
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| MSL Pointer Review:
A compelling novel that allows people of all cultures to see through the eyes of those that suffer under opression and injustice. |
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Author: Alan Paton
Publisher: Scribner
Pub. in: September, 2003
ISBN: 0743262174
Pages: 320
Measurements: 8.0 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00451
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0743262170
1st Scribner Paperback Fiction Ed edition
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- MSL Picks -
The extraordinary beauty of Paton's best-known novel - the first of many works set in his native South Africa - is not its lyrical prose, its biblical allusions, or its evocative descriptions of Natal and Johannesburg. While all of these elements are striking and original, what truly lends the work its power are the moral questions the author leaves unanswered. Refusing to assign blame and casting an empathetic look both at the ruling white class and at impoverished blacks, Paton offers a far more devastating condemnation of apartheid than if he had written a book with clear-cut villains and saviors. The author's abhorrence of what became of South African society never threatens to overwhelm his love for his homeland.
The novel's two protagonists are Stephen Kumalo, a black pastor in the countryside, and James Jarvis, a wealthy white man. Both men are remote from their sons; Absalom left his rural home to seek a new life in Johannesburg, where Arthur Jarvis fights for racial justice - much to the chagrin of his conservative father. Chance and circumstance throw these two young men into a fatal confrontation, and their fathers struggle to make something from what little remains of their sons' lives.
Paton acknowledged that he began this novel shortly after reading Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath - and the influence is obvious and deliberate. Published as protest novels, both works revealed to an international readership the squalid lives of migrant workers and of the African underclass, respectively. Not coincidentally, both novels are also heavily indebted to the Book of Job. Overall, I think Paton's book improves on its illustrious counterpart; remaining faithful to the traditions of American naturalism, Paton's prose strips away Steinbeck's occasionally excessive verbiage to a leaner, meaner singsong prose.
In this beautifully sad story filled with poetry and symbolism, Alan Paton admirably portrays all the oppression and despair which the people of South Africa endured in the 1950s. And he does so through the eyes of a forlorn old man who tries to make sense of the way the members of his family behave. The author's humanity, compassion, generosity and wisdom are apparent in every sentence he writes and his novel shows with sensitivity the complex social and racial issues in a country where so many had to suffer for so long. The bright, fresh, and positive future suggested by Paton reaches deeper into the soul than the dystopia presented by many 20th century authors. With conviction in God and country Paton illustrates the power of forgiveness and love in changing a corrupt society.
(MSL compilation)
Target readers:
General readers
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Alan Paton was born in 1903 in Pietermaritzburg, in the province of Natal, South Africa. Toward the end of World War II and during his tenure as principal of the Diepkloof Reformatory for delinquent boys near Johannesburg, Paton made a study of prisons and reformatories. He traveled to Sweden, England, Canada, and the United States. It was in Norway that Paton began to write Cry, the Beloved Country, which he finished three months later in San Francisco. He went on to write many articles and essays on South African affairs, and helped form South Africa's Liberal Party. His other fictional works include the novel Too Late the Phalarope and the short story collection Tales from a Troubled Land. Alan Paton was one of South Africa's greatest writers; he died in 1988.
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From the Publisher:
Cry, the Beloved Country is a beautifully told and profoundly compassionate story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set in the troubled and changing South Africa of the 1940s. The book is written with such keen empathy and understanding that to read it is to share fully in the gravity of the characters' situations. It both touches your heart deeply and inspires a renewed faith in the dignity of mankind. Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic tale, passionately African, timeless and universal, and beyond all, selfless.
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Chapter 1
There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it. The road climbs seven miles into them, to Carisbrooke; and from there, if there is no mist, you look down on one of the fairest valleys of Africa. About you there is grass and bracken and you may hear the forlorn crying of the titihoya, one of the birds of the veld. Below you is the valley of the Umzimkulu, on its journey from the Drakensberg to the sea; and beyond and behind the river, great hill after great hill; and beyond and behind them, the mountains of Ingeli and East Griqualand.
The grass is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil. It holds the rain and the mist, and they seep into the ground, feeding the streams in every kloof. It is well-tended, and not too many cattle feed upon it; not too many fires burn it, laying bare the soil. Stand unshod upon it, for the ground is holy, being even as it came from the Creator. Keep it, guard it, care for it, for it keeps men, guards men, cares for men. Destroy it and man is destroyed.
Where you stand the grass is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil. But the rich green hills break down. They fall to the valley below, and falling, change their nature. For they grow red and bare; they cannot hold the rain and mist, and the streams are dry in the kloofs. Too many cattle feed upon the grass, and too many fires have burned it. Stand shod upon it, for it is coarse and sharp, and the stones cut under the feet. It is not kept, or guarded, or cared for, it no longer keeps men, guards men, cares for men. The titihoya does not cry here any more.
The great red hills stand desolate, and the earth has torn away like flesh. The lightning flashes over them, the clouds pour down upon them, the dead streams come to life, full of the red blood of the earth. Down in the valleys women scratch the soil that is left, and the maize hardly reaches the height of a man. They are valleys of old men and old women, of mothers and children. The men are away, the young men and the girls are away. The soil cannot keep them any more.
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James Ferguson (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
Alan Paton certainly had his heart in the right place but couldn't disguise his paternalistic feelings of the plight of the native South African, bringing down what was otherwise a good novel. While Paton recognized the vast injustices being committed in his nation, he failed to recognize the ability of the African to address these concerns. Instead, he created dramatic contrasts between the rural countryside and the City of Gold, Johannesburg, which drew these rural natives into its teeming midst, only to find pain and heartache. In this case it is a father looking for his son, Absalom, only to find that his son has killed a white man. The book resonates with Biblical allusions, taking on the form of a parable, but Paton did not explore the complexities of the situations he created too deeply. He used them more for effect. This is what is most disconcerting about the novel, as it seemed aimed more at a liberal white reader, forcing him to identify with one of his own in the victim he created in Arthur Jarvis.
While Paton struggled admirably to get into the mind of Stephen Kumalo, the berieved father of the son who was an accomplice in the murder of Jarvis, Kumalo is forced to turn to a benevolent white lawyer to represent his son in court. This relationship reinforced Paton view that utimately it was the white man who would save the black man by attacking his own system of government. While this served as an indictment, of sorts, against the apartheid system, it had a hollow ring to it, not taking into account the vast number of protests and other forms of non-violent demonstrations Black, Colored and Indian South Africans held in defiance of apartheid laws. Instead, Paton reduced apartheid South African to the most simplistic of terms, unable, it seemed, the understand, or at least come to terms with, the number of gradients in the system.
Still, it is a moving novel, especially when Paton deals with what he understands most, the anguish of the conscientious white man in reconciling himself with a corrupt system of government. This is seen mostly through James Jarvis, whose son was murdered by Stephen Kumalo's son. One gets the sense that Paton put a lot of himself into Jarvis.
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
The Reverend Kumalo is at the center of a social experiment that has destroyed tribes, families, societal values and human beings. He is a poverty-stricken minister, caring for his flock of villagers living in a drought-stricken area of South Africa. The drought and its devastating effects on the capacity of the already-poor to farm and provide for their families seem to be a metaphor for the human drought born of racism and emerging apartheid.
The land will no longer feed them, the young flock to already-teeming Johannesburg and they then get swallowed up in the further degradation of thievery, murder and prostitution. And the majority Afrikkaners then satisfy themselves with the proof positive that blacks are inherently weak, untrustworthy, lazy and are beneath dignity.
This novel both paints a devastating picture of everything that's wrong with racism and the ensuing apartheid while holding out hope that there are some among the white who see the problem as clearly as Reverend Kumalo and strive to do something about it. Unfortunately, however, those who advocate for the despised sometimes get destroyed in the process.
And that is exactly what happens to one idealistic young man, the son of a wealthy Afrikkaner landowner, who writes extensively and publicly advocates for those who have no power. But the young man is not destroyed by one of his own, who fears a change in the power balance, but by one of those for whom he advocates.
Each father mourns the loss of his son; the father of the murdered knows the white man's justice will prevail but will still leave him childless and the black man's father knows he has lost a son on two counts. One, he lost his son when Absalom left the village and broke all communication with his heartbroken parents. Two, for a black man who killed a white man, there is only the white man's justice.
Reverend Kumalo meets the good, the bad, the indifferent, the greedy and the generous. His dialogue is that of a humble man, loved by his townspeople, deeply respectful of others. While his demeanor is very self-deprecating, he cannot be mistaken for one who is servile. Reverend Kumalo's deep understanding of human beings, with all their inherent imperfections and machinations, is awesome. Despite this, he forgives.
Thankfully, despite his great personal losses, Reverend Kumalo witnesses a number of small miracles thanks to an unexpected source. His benefactor, and that of the village's, is the father of the young man who was murdered.
This is an eloquent book written by one who truly understood the evil and great destructive powers of any system that strips a people, any people, of their basic and fundamental rights to be respected, independent and self governing.
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D. Smolarek (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
Alan Paton writes eloquently about personal struggles, triumphs, and losses. Almost biblical, the lyrical dialogues and descriptions draw you into the reality that is South Africa and don't let you go. Stephen Kumalo becomes a hero and a friend to empathize with and admire. As a college student, I have read this book 5 times and written papers on it for English, History, and Sociology classes. (I got A's on all of them!). I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys great literature and a great story. The 1995 movie with James Earl Jones was superbly done and was the first of the three versions made to be filmed in South Africa. The last scene with Kumalo on the mountaintop was so beautiful and moving it made me cry. |
Leslie Nelson (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
This is a powerful book. The theme is universal. If the names were changed it could have been about native americans or any oppressed peoples. In parts of it I felt a Grapes of Wrath type quality. People go to the city with hope looking for a better life. There they loose their hope and turn to vices and crime. They disappear into the woodwork not making contact with their former lives - almost like a loss of innocence.
The only problem I had with the book was that the progress and improvement experienced in the valley occured because of a tragic murder. I almost got the feeling as I was reading that it was a good thing this man was killed. That bothered me. I am sure that is not what the author had in mind. Otherwise, it is a very worthwhile book to read - especially the first two books. (An American reader)
Have you ever set up dominoes on their end all in a line, then once they
are all set up you touch the first one and it sets off a cascade effect
knocking them all over one at a time? The beginning of the game is slow
and tedious, but the cascade effect is worth it. Some classics are like
setting up dominoes. They begin slowly, and the unfortunate reader will
put the book down in disgust and never return to it. A more persistent
reader is richly rewarded for their patience. Cry, The Beloved Country is
that kind of a classic, others are Tale of Two Cities by Dickens and Jane
Eyre by Bronte.
The language is beautiful, I don't enjoy flowery descriptions of scenery, but in Cry the descriptions helped you feel as if you were there without being too lengthy. The characters are well developed, and some are people I would really love to know. However, because I did care about the characters, the story in the beginning, is just so sad that I almost fell into that catagory of unfortunate readers who quit reading early and miss out on the treasure. I'm grateful that I didn't.
Inspite of the difficult beginning, this has become one of my favorite books. It carries you from despair to hope. It is a story about South Africa and its people, but it is also a story that has something for each of us.
Cry, The Beloved County leaves you a better person when you put it down than when you started it. It is a journey not to be missed. |
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