Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully written!
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful prose tells heart-wrenching story of hope.
Review: The opening chapter of this book is the most beautiful English-language prose I have ever read. It begins a sad
tale which is full of the hard truth but full of hope and
forgiveness as well. The dialogues among people who
are in different worlds in South Africa are simple and moving.
You will not only not permit yourself to put it down before
you finish; you will feel the same way again when you pick
it up a second, third, and fourth time. It is a book to
own, to put on your coffee table, talk about, cry over, and
rejoice at.
Rating:
Summary: Sensibility and political accuracy
Review: Whenever we finish a great book we feel a deep sorrow, just as we were leaving behind good friends. When you finish
this specific book, you'll feel like crying, for the loss
of friends like Rev. Kumalo is very hard to take.
"Cry, the beloved country"is one of the best books I have
ever read. You can feel the passion for South Africa that
Mr. Paton felt, you will be touched by the Rev. Kumalo's
search, and will feel frail, just like he did.
But that is not all this book has to offer. It is also
an accusation agains the prepotent owners of the power and
an accurate description of Apartheid long before it has
become legal. You will become involved with this story and will not be
able to put this book down. If you want to read an excellent book, pick this one and I can assure you will not be disapointed.
Rating:
Summary: How could anyone NOT like this book?
Review: I feel truly sorry for anyone who couldn't find the goodness in a book such as this. Stories of inspiration on this magnitude are few and far betweeen, and as if that weren't enought, the excellent writing is beyond most other "bestsellers" out there. If I had to choose one Oprah pick that made my head spin, this was it. Would also recommend "Bark of the Dogwood" and "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter."
Rating: 
Summary: White Man's Burden
Review: 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, Coloured 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.
Rating:
Summary: A gripping story
Review: It is a blessing for a booklover to come across a story which is so deep like Cry the beloved country. The characters are dissected and made so real. The plot is awesome and the pace of the story is fast moving. Plotted in the depth of Apartheid South Africa, this story brought out the lamentation of a soul of a nation, a lamentation that is felt by all the different ethnic and racial groups involved. I watched the movie on the story "Amok" and it gave the full visual presentation of the story. I will recommend this book to all booklovers with a curious mind about an era, a people and a nation that stared at disaster straight in the eyes and chose the option of peace. Also recommended: Disciples of Fortune,Animal farm
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL, HEARTBREAKING, UPLIFTING, AMAZING, OUTSTANDING
Review: Hi. I'm a high-school student, a 9th grader to be exact. I was not assigned this book, but did pick it from a list to read for a report. I am EXTREMELY glad that I did. I do admit that it is hard to get into. In the beginning, I was quite annoyed at Paton for blatantly ignoring correct grammar on quotes, and if you don't get it, i would suggest just reading the first few chapters a couple times in a place where you can concentrate. If you can be patient this long, it will suddenly click. I picked up and put this book back down about twice in two weeks,just to read the first five chapters, but then i was able to get into it, and finished it within two days.
If you can perservere, get ready for a passionate, wonderful, brilliant ride. The characters are incredibly sincere, in both their good and bad sides. Paton does not try to make anyone a hero, even priests loose their temper at some point. What he does manage to do is make you laugh, open your mouth wide with astonishment, anger you, make you cry, and finally leave you with a sense of hope. This is an amazing book that captures the essense of South Africa's struggle for balance, in a time when white people were ripping away any structure the black Africans had, and expecting them to deal with what ideas and technology were brought from the western world. We read Kaffir Boy earlier this year, and it is very interesting to see the difference of opinion on little things like the Afrikaans language when a book is written by a white South African, and a black South African. (I...just don't know if i would recommend Kaffir Boy.)
This is...I've run out of adjectives. But this is a simply marvelous book, which EVERYONE needs to read. And understand. And enjoy. Because it's very hard not to.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story--really heart warming and tragically sad
Review: This is one of my all time favorite books. I cried and I smiled at the same time. The story is very well written and tells a story about a wonderfully gentle man who does his best to help everyone he meets. Without telling too much of the story, he goes from a small village in the midst of incredible change and goes to the large city in search of two members of his family. Several situations arise, not always with a happy ending, but he faces them with sincerity, compassion, and a commitment that is inspiring. I took from this story the lesson that the worst situation that a person might ever have to deal with in their life that love can shine through and prove that there is a powerful goodness in man that is only waiting to be discovered and revealed.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: I can yet to fathom how some people gave this book 1, 2 and 3 stars out of five. Most of the people giving these low scores admitted that they were being forced to read the book at high school, and found it boring and dull. Please dont corrupt these reviews with those opinions.
The biggest problem is that most of the people rating the book low took it right out of the context for which it was intended. It was not written as a 'novel' in the conventional sense. It was a social commentry, a cry out to the hatred, the demise and the vehement degradation of the times. The book was to showcase the plight of the black South Africans on an international level. It had no intention of providing a source of entertainment for ignorant, naive, myopic minds of 15 year old some 55 years later.
Paton writing style has been criticized greatly in this forum. Remember, Paton was a poet- not a novelist. Most poetry is difficult to understand, and hard to read for long periods of time- but it is the imagery and flow that captures the imagination. Think of Cry, The Belovered Country as a poem- not a Michael Crichton or Tom Clancy thriller.
While probably NO-ONE will ever be able to understand Cry in the same way as those in the context and time it served, it will go down as one of the classic literature endevours of our time.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Book!
Review: This book is amazing. It is by far the best book I have ever read. The story is heart-warming. I could not put it down. The characters come alive on the pages. Alan Paton handles a sensitive situation with compassion. I would highly recommend this to anyone. I hope you too find as much enjoyment as I did.
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