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Allisobro, April 20, 2013 (view all comments by Allisobro)
Although I hadn't read this book until recently (in my late 20s) I always had this faint understanding that is was a book about Apartheid, and I was surprised, after reading it, that the focus of this story was much less clear. While the issues with civil rights and the treatment of your fellow human being are based on Apartheid, the book deals with broader issues that this. It was hard not to apply a lot of the thoughtful quotes in the book to issues of unequal treatment to similar issues we deal with in the world today.
However, being the reader who is picky about formatting, I found it frustrating to read at times, because Paton's writing of dialogue made it difficult to distinguish which characters were speaking. Come on otherwise extremely talented authors, can we get some paragraphs and quotation marks?
Cait, January 3, 2012 (view all comments by Cait)
Alan Paton's masterpiece is pure poetry disguised as historical fiction. No other book is as beautifully constructed or delves into issues still so relevant to humanity today.
sammy4eva3, August 4, 2006 (view all comments by sammy4eva3)
this book gives a great insite into south africa and makes you relise how much people were fighting for a better s.a.
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Cry, the Beloved Country
Used Trade Paper
Alan Paton
0 stars -
0 reviews
$3.50
In Stock
Product details
320 pages
Scribner Book Company -
English9780743262170
Reviews:
"Review"
by The New York Times,
"A beautiful novel, rich, firm and moving...to read the book is to share intimately, even to the point of catharsis, in the grave human experience treated."
"Review"
by The New Republic,
"The greatest novel to emerge out of the tragedy of South Africa, and one of the best novels of our time."
"Synopsis"
by Netread,
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand 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."
The most famous and important novel in South Africa's history, and an immediate worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1948, Alan Paton's impassioned novel about a black man's country under white man's law is a work of searing beauty. The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, "We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from poets, almost all thin. In Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony."
Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.
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