Rating: 
Summary: Can't relate
Review: The main character of the story, Stephen Kumalo, is very well developed. Reading of his journey brought me to think of Kumalo as a real life character. What interested me most in the story was the strong influence of religion in life. One example would be Mr. Carmichael, who does an incredibly genorous deed in the name of god (I won't ruin the story). The story brings out the best while at the same time showing how bad people can be. It shows how power and society can affect anybody. Personally, I feel that religion was used too much in the story, although it may be somewhat important to the plot. I could not relate on a personal level, but it is a great story and the author uses quite a poetic language and style in writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Book review
Review: Cry,The Beloved Country is a very descriptive book about Steven Kumalos family being torn apart.Steven Kumalos sister gets sick due to a life of prostitution. He had to use all his money to go and visit her while she was sick. I thought that the book was not very entertaining. Nothing exciting happens. Some parts of the book are descriptive and give good details. The story line is good, Steven is a priest who does not have very much money, but is willing to sacrifice what he has for his sister. Even though his sister has become a prostitute and ruined her life, he still loves her. Before receiving the letter that told him about his sister being sick, he did not even know where his sister was, he had not heard from her for years. It turns out that she was only a few towns away. The story takes place in South Africa during the years while apharteid was present. It shows some of the ways blacks were suppresed during those years. Steven and his family were very effected by apharteid. They stugled through many things. Even though they went through so much they got through it all because they were a very strong family. Even though i thought the book was boring, it did have some good points in it. Like how much you need your family in hard times and how you should stick together with your family no matter what. I personally would not read this book again, but its up to you to decide if you want to.
Rating:
Summary: Cry the Beloved Country
Review: i didn't like it, it was very boring and slow.
Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful, beautiful book
Review: This is one of the most graceful and thoughtful portrayals of the tension in South Africa I have ever seen. The story is well told and the lush descriptions of the land itself will make you see it clearly in your mind's eye. I cried at the end, for Absalom, for his father, for the country. A must read book!
Rating: 
Summary: The great SA novel
Review: Being South African, this book touched me like few others. Some may say it is slow, but I found the prose lovely, with Paton's descriptions coming near to capturing the beauty and sadness of the country. Paton also avoids falling into the trap of portraying all Black people as noble, and all White people as evil settler types, making the story much more subtle and realistic than many others dealing with South Africa.[...]
Rating:
Summary: Culture Shock In Apartheid South Africa
Review: Paton's acclaimed tale about a pastor in Johannesburg looking for his son is South Africa's finest literature. Kumalo's struggle with faith in man, in god, and in himself is a compelling look at what happens when fear and hate dictate what happen in any government or group. In addition to describing the evil apartheidist regime, it lays bare the fundamental spirit of man. Paton apparently fashioned his novel from The Grapes of Wrath, and while it is tedious at times, it is a valuable historical document and a wonderful story, and important too.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent
Review: Cry, the Beloved Country is an authentic expression of hope in a bleak climate of despair. The characters are human. Their experiences are sheer misery, and their responses are not particularly heroic. Through it all, the reader is sustained by the vision of a redemptive truth at work in one of the deepest hells of the present century. Alan Paton unquestionably attributes this truth to a personal God. At the same time, Paton believes that his God expressed Himself in the lives of weak and selfish creatures like ourselves. Thus, even if the reader prefers to maintain a humanist stance, Cry, the Beloved Country will resonate as its characters grapple with the primal struggles of all humanity. Cry, the beloved century. I did.
Rating:
Summary: best way to learn is through masterful historical fiction
Review: This book is very touching, and wonderfully written. It is a book that will stay with you for a long time. It will make you think.
Rating:
Summary: Cry, The Beloved Country
Review: Cry, the Beloved Country is an enthralling story of a priest who's efforts are endless in the struggle of his own family, and the struggle outside. The way Paton details the scenes is to me, what made the book what it was. I felt as though I was looking at pictures while reading. He is so thorough in describing the lack of life in the valleys, that you can understand the significance in the title. What struck me most about this book, was Stephen Kumalo's efforts in forgiveness and the reconstruction of his family. His own family life struggle subtly reflected the outer stuggle, the black man's struggle. The last line of the story is most powerful when summarizing... "But when that dawn will come, of our emancipation, from the fear of bondage and the bondage of fear, why, that is a secret." That line points out a major theme in this book, and really gives the reader a sense of history, and a sense of what still remains, not as severe, today. I positively enjoyed reading this book. I found it to flow through the three books smoothly and coherently. It wasn't a burden to pick it up and read sixty or seventy pages at a time. My fascination with South Africa may have had an impact on choosing this book, but with that in mind, I knew I could enjoy what Paton hopes every citizen should be aware of. His powerful message would touch anyone who reads it, aware of apartheid or not. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for some relaxed pleasure reading that won't boggle your mind or frustrate you in a confused sense.
Rating:
Summary: A MASTERPIECE!!!
Review: this is my favourite book of all time! it is poetic, haunting, tragic, hopeful, beautiful--every range of human experience is covered. i can understand one reviwer's complaint that it is slow, i read it in high school and hated it, but iread it again years later and it blew my mind. it's rare that you see a truly original style among all the novels you'll read, i mean REALLY fresh language; case in point: "Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of oure fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the waters run through his fingers nor satnd too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much." i memorised the first chapter and recite it sometimes, amust read i think, it desrves to be read with patience and care, for its plot AND style. It rewards you every time you pick it up and you find something new to admire with each read.
|
