Reviews

• Good condition

  It was in good condition. No damages were done to the cover. And it arrived early too.

• A compelling story

  A challenging work on race relationship in Apartheid South Africa from the colour-blind angle that allowed light to settle on the sweet energy of a progressive South Africa . The dream of a rainbow nation must have cannot be dissociated from this book. Gordimer joined the ranks of Achebe, Tisi and Patton in contributing to the jolting nature of Africa’ s jolting literature. In different ways, JULY’S PEOPLE also reminded me of DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, A BLADE OF GRASS, which are African novels with wake up call story lines.

• Five Stars

  Woww

• A nice read

  Well written and pleasant to read. The book arrived in perfect condition.

• Thought provoking

  a thought provoking book - Nadine Gorimer takes you with her - you can feel and sense the tention

• a coherent fiction of a historic what if?

  Nadime Gordimer is of course hardly unknown...and with reason. The book achieves an atmospheric, emotionally charged, perspective of a fictive situation where a white family escapes the city threatened with attack by black resistants to apartheid, by being driven by their house boy to his distant 'home'. Seen through the perspective of the white mother, their coherent, but highly subjective view of the 'order of things' is revealed, as is their desire to remain in control... A good read for anybody interested in South Africa specifically, ex-colonies in general, and / or challenges to assumptions of white superiority. Suni, MA student of SOcial Anthropology

• A fine book but an uncomfortable read

  This 1981 novel by this Pulitzer Prize winning South African novelist was an uncomfortable read. I felt this way and so did the 40 other people in the reading group at my local bookstore. This is not to say that the book was a not good one. In fact, it displayed the skill of the author because this feeling of unease was clearly what she intended. Told from the point of view of a white woman who, with her husband and three children, fled the city as it erupted in violence during an uprising of black Africans, the family is saved by her loyal native servant, July, who has served her family for the past 15 years. He brings her to his village in the countryside to protect them and the family now has to quickly adapt to the way of life for these natives. Clearly, this is a culture shock for them. Their world has now turned upside down. When their car is now being driven by July and the their gun is taken away the power politics of everyone are laid bare. The old order is dying; a new one seems to be replacing it. The woman feels isolated, alone and trapped. Her husband feels emasculated. The book is rife with claustrophobic tension and it seems as if there will be no resolution. The ending is open ended. The resolution is not clear. But the book sure shed a light on a little-known part of the world and life in South Africa. This was a very fine book. I am giving it a high rating. But that doesn't mean that I enjoyed reading it.

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