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Summary: The most acclaimed novel of South African race relations
Review: The story of Kumalo, a Zulu minister who travels to Johanesburg to look for his son, is a highly charged tale of delinquency, race hatred, prostitution, murder and eventual reconciliation in the big city. Some passages resonate with a lyrical, almost magical quality and the prose is deft and extremely supple. However, the plot is bogged down towards the middle of the book by some ill-timed excursions into South African politics and the ending is telegraphed a hundred pages in advance. These sections, I felt, could have been better woven-in into the novel's dramatic fabric. Though it is highly recommended for being the book that whipped up a worldwide whirlwind of awareness of South Africa and the injustices of apartheid, it is a taxing and artistically disappointing work.
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Summary: a moving and lyrical novel
Review: Somehow this was a classic I "missed" in high school and college. I just finished reading it yesterday and still find myself thinking about many of the beautifully rendered scenes. Others have summarized the plot -- I love the labyrinthine (Dante-esque in scope) descent from the country side into the hell of Johannisburg. As we watch the narrator weave his way in and out of the horrible living conditions, we are presented with a modern day Inferno that would have made Dante proud.The dialogue is rich and detailed and the character's well-developed. There are some gut wrenchingly scenes between a father and his son, not to mention between his other siblings as well. Bitter disappointments, difficult circumstances and a trial that makes To Kill a Mockingbird's look fair add to the book's tension. Overall, a lyrical and stirring portrait of unfairness and oppression (but also beauty and purity) in South Africa and one family's trials and tribulations. It makes one wonder how much things have really changed from Paton's day.
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Summary: Simply put.......
Review: What a book!!! I read this book when I was a senior in High School and that was almost 7 years ago! It was summer reading, and I can still remember thinking oh what a drag! But I am so glad that my instructor added this novel to the list! The views on apartheid especially as seen through the eyes of the black and white men both help make us think about what goes on in the world outside of this country and give us a clue as to how we can stop this from happening here. If you need a good book to read, make this one of your top choices!
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Summary: Truly masterful
Review: Somehow, in my slog through high school English, I was deprived of the reading of Paton's "Cry, the Beloved Country". Unlike many things, though, this was a true deprivation. I first read this several summers ago; though Paton's novel is specifically relevant to an era that is now receding into the past, his prose remains haunting. So deceptively simple is his language, yet flowing, this is almost a book best savoured aloud (well-worth the reading of to a friend).
Though apartheid has now blessedly slipped the scene, leaving South Africa with its aftermath to struggle through, Paton's story of the Reverend Kumalo's search for redemption is enduring. Perhaps most significant though, is the very simple idea at the core...reconciliation...of father with lost son, lost daughter...of murderer with the victim's kin...and...in Paton's time, and still so in our own...of each of us with our fellow humans.
This is a book that moves me deeply every time I read it, and loses nothing in a rereading. Of the thousands of books I have read, encompassing a myriad of styles, of academic fields...this is still the one book that I recommend without hesitation, without prejudice, to any and to every. This is a truly beautiful work.
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Summary: My all-time favorite
Review: Of the (literally) thousands of books I have read in my life, this is still my favorite. I first read it as a freshman in high school (in 1960, when apartheid was still the law of South Africa), and the sheer beauty of the language took away my breath. The words were so powerful that I memorized many portions of the text, just so I would be able to repeat the words aloud whenever I wished. When JFK was assassinated in 1963, I gave a presentation to my senior English class, and began it with the section of this book that starts: "There is not much talking now, a silence falls on them all...." The class was mesmerized at Mr. Paton's eerily appropriate words, and tears were shed. I've always encouraged my own children to read and they are almost as voracious with books as their dad. Needless to say, this is one of the books I highly recommend to them, because of the excellent writing, and I highly recommend it to you for the same reason.
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Summary: Wonderful read.
Review: This novel wraps you up in the fall and redemption of a man reflected in the landscape of South Africa. An absolutely wonderful book.
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Summary: One of the best books around!
Review: This is one of the best books of fiction I've ever read in my life, in that it is almost biographical. It is a simple book written in a deceptively simple style that can spawn many imitators but no equals. It easily reminds me of Hemingway's "Old Man And The Sea", but only in its style of language. It is full of poetry, easy language, complex syntax, human emotion and vivid imagery. For me, reading it was really like rowing down a river in an African canoe. It is set in racist, white-monopolised South Africa of the 1940's, at the dawn of Apartheid. It all revolves around Stephen Kumalo, an old Zulu parson living in the country, and his subsequent search for his son [and sister] somewhere at street corners in Johannesburg. He finally finds his son but it is too late, the latter being in police custody -- charged with the murder of a white man, and a "good" white man at that, who devoted a great deal of his time to arguing for blacks[!] Finely entwined with old man Kumalo's seemingly endless search are the little and big occurrences of everyday life, only that they are this time set in racist South Africa, with its crude realities of that by-gone day. It all smells of chaos and derangement in the black townships of the city. For an old man from the country like Kumalo, life in urban Johannesburg is too fast and he is confronted with city experiences and everyday-struggles he never had before. He is mugged, deceived, sees sex and money at work and has further encounters with other strange, tricky and sinful city situations for the first time in his old country life! Mr. Paton's epical story of an old black man's search for his young son gone astray in the city -- and also in search of answers to other societal questions that still persist -- remained an unsolved puzzle to me, after I read his wonderful book the first time. "Cry, the Beloved Country" is one of the few books of fiction I've read that so powerfully combine feeling and a deep understanding of conflicts that permeate across divided society. An excellent book!
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Summary: I wondered what Hell was like, and well, this BOOk is HELL
Review: Holy Mary, mother of God. Please forgive my clueless teacher for forcing her students to step into hell by reading this boooook. Every chapter, every paragraph, every sentence, every word HURT. I've never felt so tortured and mentally abused till I got my hands on this novel. The style of how it was written flustered me. Reading, ahem, trying to read this book was like being awake for 47 hours and hungry for sleep, but not allowed to sleep. Torture I tell you. My question is, WHY. Why was this book even published? Okay, so it informs us about the Zulu people and black and white rejoicing after a series of conflicts, blah blah blah. While the topic was a keeper, the way Paton wrote this sorry excuse of a novel was Horrible. I felt like I was reading a novel from my six year old brother, if he were alive. I'm sorry, but I'm just getting eye and back pains just writing this review. I just had to experience hell again by writing this review. But go ahead, force yourself to read this. I guarantee a safe return, just burn the book afterwards.
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Summary: With all the touching of Humanity
Review: My own grandfather was very close to Alan Paton. They worked together, in South Africa, on the developments of a Liberal Party, the purpose of which was to help the blacks. They wanted, primarily, to create legally equality of the races. Eventually, Paton would come to North America, touring and lecturing. My grandparents showed him Toronto. And so, I myself have a special bias in favour of Paton. Having read his CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY, I can only applaud the man. His very style is mimical of Steibeck's THE GRAPES OF WRATH. There is repitition (individual sentences are said over and over), poetry, and the asking of philosophical questions. The story is of Stephen Kumalo, a black priest. He has lost his family. His brother, sister, and son have left the village. They have gone to Johannesburg, where the white men are. Where industry is. And so the journey begins. In fact, Kumalo will see things he has never seen before. He will be robbed, he will be lied to, he will be tired of walking so many miles, he will see prostitution, crime, hatred. The simplicity of his beautiful village is not found here in Johannesburg. Incidentally, he finds some white men who show compassion to him. I will say no more. The story has depth of passion, brilliance, and love of South Africa. Paton, himself a white man, devoted his life to the helping of blacks. He was a hero to South Africa, and remains a hero even to me. Please read this book.
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Summary: Something Beautiful for God
Review: If there were more stars with which I could rate this book, I would use them all. I have read this book many times, and would like to share my thoughts on one of the most beautiful books in the history of literature and in the English language. It is a story about friendship, humanity, being hurt and being free; it is a story about kindness, forgiveness, sacrifice and perserverence. But most of all, it is a story about a love so amazing that it must die so that the seed which falls can grow again. Although the evil of Apartheid has been finally abolished by justice and righteousness, the lesson that it has taught us must never be forgotten. And Paton's unique diamond of a masterpiece will continue to speak resoundingly to the future about a painful history of mankind that spelt deep tragedy but great poetry and human triumph as well. I cannot begin to extol the beauty of this novel - so profoundly rich in Christian virtues, so poignantly told. If you wish to hear the African grass sing its morning song, to hear a land of blood and tears beat her heart, and to marvel at the integrity which is man - read this wonderful book. It will change your life.
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