The Conservationist: Nadine Gordimer
30 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Books I Started But Didn't Finish Challenge 2012, Completion Note, Find the Cover Challenge 2012, Outdo Yourself Challenge 2012
This was not an easy read. I drifted away from it about half-way through simply because other books, more shiny and more instantly rewarding, came my way; but I was attracted back to it, not least because of the “Books I Started But Didn’t Finish” Challenge, and am glad that I got into it again and read to the end.
Two things stood out for me. The first was the way that Gordimer gets us inside the mind of Mehring, the rich white man in South Africa under apartheid, so that we see things from his point of view, and – as one Amazon reviewer puts it, “What is interesting for the reader is that it requires an effort to step out of his mind and see his thoughts and behavior for what they are — insensitive, self-serving, and at times brutal.”
The second thing I will remember from this book is Gordimer’s way of writing about the countryside – her slow, patient way of building up metaphors and luring us into a sense of the countryside of which she writes.
Image from www.goodreads.com
FIND THE COVER CHALLENGE 2012: 2/17
OUTDO YOURSELF CHALLENGE 2012 2/40
