Our next meeting will be a house-warming too - at Mas del Sol at 12pm. We're making a welcome return to South African literature with André Brink's "Before I Forget".
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- Monday, Mar. 24, 2008 @ 19:52:49
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- Thursday, Apr. 03, 2008 @ 12:16:23
I'm sorry the book was such a disapointment to all of you. I fully agree that Mr. Minnaar (Dutch for lover) is quite presumptious in the way he writes about his women. But he convinced me that he does love them in his own, for me curious way. And I do read books to get to know the unknown. And Brink writes well, but alas, not about physical love.
Very sadly, this man has to write about his past loves because, what else has he got left? He is disapointed and alone in both his personal and his public life. The friendship with Ruth and George is peculiar and dishonoust. The society he helped create is falling to pieces (and literary, so is he). I found the politics, life under apartheid, the conversations with his mother, his relationship with his father, his uncle, all very interesting.
I believe the sixties and the morals of that time also to have quite an impact on this man's sex life.
Anyway, I'm afraid I had quite forgotten how tedious this book is at times. Next time around I'll make my choice more carefully, promised!-
- Friday, Apr. 04, 2008 @ 17:24:21
different man,real man,the same continent.the same political problems,but closer in time and reality
eter godwin.
Books title:when a crocodile eats the sun.
First published 2006,but so up to date!!!Elections in Zimbabwe.Amoving meditation on the nature of family and bravery amid disaster,madness and betrayal...
thanks ms for lending me the book. -
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jujulilo
- Monday, Apr. 07, 2008 @ 10:18:52
You don't need to apologise! We all like to encounter the unknown too, it just so happens that this was an unknown no-one wants to revisit! I did like his writing though, so I will try some other books of his. We have to move out of our comfort zones occasionally..........
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jujulilo
- Monday, Apr. 07, 2008 @ 10:27:29
I didn't make it to the end either, although I had been keen to start and found the opening very well written and exciting. However, I, too, got fed up with the constant sex and referring everything back to it. I found the writing very graphic and powerful at certain points (certain scenes very difficult to get out of my head) and I certainly think that with another subject matter I could enjoy his work more. I'm afraid all the other aspects were overshadowed for me and the political and social matter took too much of a back seat. Still, a striking reading experience, so positive from that point of view!
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I am afraid that I didn' quite make it to the end of this one;by the time i stopped i had long since ceased to care how many women he had slept with or what his fantasies were.
Initially i found the politics interesting but it was never enough to maintain my interest.