Tandia
Registered by Shahrun of Dagenham, Essex United Kingdom on 5/19/2017
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
Really enjoyed The Power of One, so was delighted to find there was a sequel. Really looking forward to reading this.
This book was very unexpected, I felt the blurb on back of book rather misleading, it made it sound like an uplifting romance? I recently read The Power of One, which was a really magical uplifting journey (with a few dark places). This book was the opposite! It is a real dark & gritty journey into the shameful and shocking recent history of South Africa and Apartheid. The plot never did what you thought it might. I'm not sure I'm happy with the ending... and was the author leaving it open for a sequel which I don't think materialised?
So the first part of the book is all about Tandia - right from the word go it was such a truly shocking shocking tale!
Then we rejoin Peekay. His tale is picked up seamlessly from where we left him - down the mines - at the end of the last book.
And finally their lives join in a most unexpected way. In fact, there are many surprising character links from one book to the next. The author is genius in crafting such varied & interesting characters. The names he gives them are fabulous - Juicy Fruit Mambo! Too Many Fingers Bembi! Love it! Peekay's fabulous granddad was sadly largely absent. As is his father (again), I can only conclude Peekay was illegitimate? Really love the Twins Dee & Dum, what beautiful souls! The you have the pure evil Geldenhuis, who is the perfect nasty villain to Peekay's uniting character. I couldn't help thinking that Gideon Mandoma was inspired by (not pretending to be) Nelson Mandela.
But the truly shocking thing about this work of fiction, which will haunt me, is that it must have been inspired by things the author witnesses or researched about his own country! The things that must have gone on during apartheid just defies belief to some one like me, who is of mixed heritaege and was lucky enough to have had the freedoms and relative peace to be me in England. This book has given me plenty to think about.
With The Power of One, there are some fabulous little nuggets in there that I just have to share. (Page numbers are from the edition I read ISBN 0 7493 0576 2).
Page 432 - 'I don't love Jackson, I just don't hate him because he's black. Give me another reason to hate him!'
Page 433 - I'm sorry, but I can't build up an emotional reaction to Jackson based on his colour. My life, my future life, is dedicated to the proposition that all men should be born equal. What happens to them after that is up to them. But they must be given equal social and intellectual opportunity based on their minds, their skills and their personalities. When you declaire a man or a woman inferior, second class, because of pigmentation, then you sin beyond any possibility of redemption.
Page 545 - When I went overseas, I mean to the university, I thought I'd find people, maybe even a whole nation which was free from prejudice. But, of course, I was wrong. The English were no better than the rest of us. The English working-class mother points out the runny-nosed kids from the Irish fmaiky who live further down the lane and warns her children not to play with them. When her kids ask "why, mummy?" She replies, "They're dirty, you'll catch something bad. Stay away from them, they're different from you!" Or if it isn't the Irish, it's the middle-class mother talking about the working-class family at the end of the street. Prejudice is a universal condition, whether it's the colour of your skin, the difference in your accent, the length of your nose, the way you dress or the food you eat.
Page 545-546 - anybody can be the target for prejudice, all you have to be is too something. Too short, too fat, too clever, too big, too small, too slow, too new, too different from what others think of as normal.
Page 546-547 - The only way to eliminate prejudice is to eliminate the differences which create the fear, and with the fear gone, the hatered will go too. We must integrate society.
So the first part of the book is all about Tandia - right from the word go it was such a truly shocking shocking tale!
Then we rejoin Peekay. His tale is picked up seamlessly from where we left him - down the mines - at the end of the last book.
And finally their lives join in a most unexpected way. In fact, there are many surprising character links from one book to the next. The author is genius in crafting such varied & interesting characters. The names he gives them are fabulous - Juicy Fruit Mambo! Too Many Fingers Bembi! Love it! Peekay's fabulous granddad was sadly largely absent. As is his father (again), I can only conclude Peekay was illegitimate? Really love the Twins Dee & Dum, what beautiful souls! The you have the pure evil Geldenhuis, who is the perfect nasty villain to Peekay's uniting character. I couldn't help thinking that Gideon Mandoma was inspired by (not pretending to be) Nelson Mandela.
But the truly shocking thing about this work of fiction, which will haunt me, is that it must have been inspired by things the author witnesses or researched about his own country! The things that must have gone on during apartheid just defies belief to some one like me, who is of mixed heritaege and was lucky enough to have had the freedoms and relative peace to be me in England. This book has given me plenty to think about.
With The Power of One, there are some fabulous little nuggets in there that I just have to share. (Page numbers are from the edition I read ISBN 0 7493 0576 2).
Page 432 - 'I don't love Jackson, I just don't hate him because he's black. Give me another reason to hate him!'
Page 433 - I'm sorry, but I can't build up an emotional reaction to Jackson based on his colour. My life, my future life, is dedicated to the proposition that all men should be born equal. What happens to them after that is up to them. But they must be given equal social and intellectual opportunity based on their minds, their skills and their personalities. When you declaire a man or a woman inferior, second class, because of pigmentation, then you sin beyond any possibility of redemption.
Page 545 - When I went overseas, I mean to the university, I thought I'd find people, maybe even a whole nation which was free from prejudice. But, of course, I was wrong. The English were no better than the rest of us. The English working-class mother points out the runny-nosed kids from the Irish fmaiky who live further down the lane and warns her children not to play with them. When her kids ask "why, mummy?" She replies, "They're dirty, you'll catch something bad. Stay away from them, they're different from you!" Or if it isn't the Irish, it's the middle-class mother talking about the working-class family at the end of the street. Prejudice is a universal condition, whether it's the colour of your skin, the difference in your accent, the length of your nose, the way you dress or the food you eat.
Page 545-546 - anybody can be the target for prejudice, all you have to be is too something. Too short, too fat, too clever, too big, too small, too slow, too new, too different from what others think of as normal.
Page 546-547 - The only way to eliminate prejudice is to eliminate the differences which create the fear, and with the fear gone, the hatered will go too. We must integrate society.
Bruce Bonus time! Hope you enjoy this little book ;).
What a lovely and unexpected surprise that was waiting for me when I got in from work. A brucie bonus which I look forward to reading I'm just not sure when. Thanks for sharing.
The story is full of twists and turns, there is a mixture of hope and despair, love and hatred, politics and witchcraft. One can only imagine South Africa during the 1950s and 60s, where the Afrikaner population is willing to defend their way of life at any cost, the subjugation of the black population and the brutality that is inflicted upon it. I have always been interested in history and in particular social history, so, not that I would ever condone it, found myself being drawn into the apartheid mentality and how the Afrikaners justified it. This makes it all the more remarkable that the country has managed to reform itself without imploding into sectarian retribution. You can only stand back and admire the willingness of people like Nelson Mandela and the other black leaders who have been willing to work with their oppressors, for the better good of the country, rather than simply drive them into the sea.
Due to it's length and scope I found this novel to be not quite up to the standard of it's predecessor and, as with the former, could have benefited from a little judicious pruning, as parts of it was excessive and repetitive. The ending came as a bit of a shock and overall I enjoyed reading it.
Due to it's length and scope I found this novel to be not quite up to the standard of it's predecessor and, as with the former, could have benefited from a little judicious pruning, as parts of it was excessive and repetitive. The ending came as a bit of a shock and overall I enjoyed reading it.
Journal Entry 6 by 4evagreen at Station Waiting Room in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Released 4 yrs ago (8/27/2019 UTC) at Station Waiting Room in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire United Kingdom
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
To the finder:-
Welcome to bookcrossing -you have found a travelling book. Please make a journal entry now to say where you found the book in case it has been moved. Then, when you have read it, please come back and make a further entry saying whether or not you enjoyed the book and why. It is now yours to do as you like with it, pass it to a friend or just leave it somewhere different for someone else to find and help it with its' journey. Of course if you can't bear to part with it at the moment then keep it, but please let me know that you have found it. If you join bookcrossing, which is free and spam-free, you can follow the book on its' travels as you will get an email each time it changes hands, but if you prefer to remain anonymous, that's fine too. Please also say what you intend to do with the book next. Thanks for coming onto the site to let me know you have found the book.
Welcome to bookcrossing -you have found a travelling book. Please make a journal entry now to say where you found the book in case it has been moved. Then, when you have read it, please come back and make a further entry saying whether or not you enjoyed the book and why. It is now yours to do as you like with it, pass it to a friend or just leave it somewhere different for someone else to find and help it with its' journey. Of course if you can't bear to part with it at the moment then keep it, but please let me know that you have found it. If you join bookcrossing, which is free and spam-free, you can follow the book on its' travels as you will get an email each time it changes hands, but if you prefer to remain anonymous, that's fine too. Please also say what you intend to do with the book next. Thanks for coming onto the site to let me know you have found the book.
