Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters (Reading Rainbow Book)

Book Description

Mufaro was a happy man. Everyone agreed that his two daughters were very beautiful. Nyasha was kind and considerate as well as beautiful, but everyone -- except Mufaro -- knew that Manyara was selfish, badtempered, and spoiled.

When the king decided to take a wife and invited "The Most Worthy and Beautiful Daughters in the Land" to appear before him, Mufaro declared proudly that only the king could choose between Nyasha and Manyara. Manyara, of course, didn't agree, and set out to make certain that she would be chosen.

John Steptoe has created a memorable modem fable of pride going before a fall, in keeping with the moral of the folktale that was his inspiration. He has illustrated it with stunning paintings that glow with the beauty, warmth, and internal vision of the land and people of his ancestors.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Book.......2007-07-21

The illustrations are breathtaking. The story emphasizes the true ugliness of getting to the top no matter what, while at the same time showing the beauty of compassion, empathy, and taking the time to make true connections with others and embracing their essence. These are values that we must instill within our children. I read this story to my own beautiful daughters over and over and it opens the door for deep discussions about the nature of their special bond as sisters and the need to not face one another as competitors, but as lifetime companions and support for one another.

I read this book when I was a kid!.......2006-05-17

Can you imagine my surprise when I encountered this book on Amazon.com!

I am 18 years old and I read "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters" in elementary school and I was enamored with the story then! And I still am. This "African Cinderella" is sure to resonate with young girls and make them curious about Africa.

It is the story of an African King who has two beautiful daughters, only one of them, Manyara, is mean, nasty, and "haughty" (this book is where I learned that word!) while Nyasha is sweet, compassionate and kind. When their father learns that a ruler of another kingdom is to take a wife, he decides that both of his beautiful daughters should go. However, Manyara arrogantly leaves alone to get there before her sister, ever so certain that she will be chosen.

On the way both her and her sister encounter a series of tasks and through these, their true characters are tested.

Other than a great story, the illustration is absolutely beautiful! They are artwork unto themselves. Love this book! I can't wait to purchase this for the little girls in my life! Or, i just may buy it to reminisce!

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters.......2005-12-06

Wonderful book about Manyara and Nyasha, daughters of an African King. This books shows that beauty comes from within. Manyara is a selfish sister and wants nothing more than to be queen and she will stop at nothing to be it. Nyasha is kind and loving and only wants to be happy. She sees the beauty in nature and people. A king from the neighboring town is searching for a wife and immediately Manyara wants to be queen. Manyara gets up early and sneaks to the village of the King but she is met by a little boy who wants food, and a elderly woman whom she is told to be kind too. She doesnt give the boy food and is verbally mean to the old woman. Nyasha goes through the forest and finds the same people but this time she gives food to the little boy. She is met by a woman who points the way to the city and she is kind to her and gives her sunflower seeds. As they approach the city, Manyara runs out and crying saying that she saw a snake with 5 heads and was telling her how rotten of a person she is. Nyasha is brave and walks in only to a find a simple snake for whom she was friends with. He tells her that he is the king and the elderly woman and little boy in the forest. He then asks her to be his queen because she is the most beautiful and kindhearted of them all.

a beautiful African folk tale.......2004-11-13

This story is based on an African tale that is similar in nature to Cinderella. In this story a man named Mufaro had two beautiful daughters, one named Manyara, and one named Nyasha. Manyara is rude to Nyasha, who just calmly bears it. When a call comes saying the Great King wants a wife, Mufaro plans to take his daughters to the palace the next day. Manyara decides to leave in the night to make she is chosen to be Queen. During the journey she is rude to a number of people, who turn out to be the King himself, shape-shifted into those forms as well as the form of a garden snake well-known to Nyasha. When Nyasha passes the next day, she is kind where her sister was rude. Needless to say the King picks Nyasha, and they live happily.

The story is told well, and the language used is wonderful, though not quite as wonderful as the illustrations. They almost look more life-like than photographs. The way lighting is used is amazing, and they are just stunning pictures. Everything about this book is wonderful, with nothing to detract from it.

Loggie-log-log-log

Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters.......2004-09-20

This book is about these two sisters Manyara and Nyasha father of Mufaro. Manyara is the rude sister. Nyasha is the warm loving sister. One of them would be getting married to a king and the other will be their servant. Manyara well she wanted to get a jump start on things so when she was going to find the king she seen a boy (that was in need for food) that she refused to give food to, then she came apon a old lady she didn't listen to, she also met up with some trees that laughed at her and she laughed back at, and last she came upon a guy with his head in his arm.
So if you really think people that are rude won't get far and their rudeness will just catch up with them later as they go threw life. This book has inspired me to be a better person in many ways. This book is an amazing book it not only expresses the persons outside feelings but it expresses the persons inside feelings.

Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind (Readers Circle)

Average customer rating:

the best
ZZZZZZ
This book is good and bad!
Shabanu Got On My Nerves
a lovely heroine, a lovely novel

Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind (Readers Circle)
Suzanne Fisher Staples
Manufacturer: Laurel Leaf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Literature & Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books

Popular Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Book Clubs | Specialty Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0440238560

Book Description

Life is both sweet and cruel to strong-willed young Shabanu, whose home is the windswept Cholistan Desert of Pakistan. The second daughter in a family with no sons, she’s been allowed freedoms forbidden to most Muslim girls. But when a tragic encounter with a wealthy and powerful landowner ruins the marriage plans of her older sister, Shabanu is called upon to sacrifice everything she’s dreamed of. Should she do what is necessary to uphold her family’s honor—or listen to the stirrings of her own heart?

Customer Reviews:

the best.......2007-03-28

A Girls Life and Future

I recommend this book to anyone who loves to read about true life. I loved

this book because I have seen the pain of being married off at the age of 13.

I recommend this book to mature readers because of the descriptive words and

sentences. Shabanu keep me reading and it was impossible to put down.

ZZZZZZ.......2007-03-23

This book stinks. It's about a 12 year old girl named Shabanu who lives in the desert of Pakistan. Her life as been perfect since she was born, taking care of the camels, climbing thorn trees, and running free in the desert. But when an evil landowner murders the person her older sister Phulan was betrothed to. Now she must sacrifice everything she's dreamed of to save her family. Sounds like a pretty okay plot, right? WRONG! This book tries to make you hate it. It's boring, depressing (her life really sucks), and repetitive. There are some really good parts, but they are just drowned out by the badness of the book. And worst of all, it just ends. The plot actually starts getting thicker, but it just stops. It's like: Shabanu did this, Shabanu did that, Shabanu did thi-The end. The moral of the story: don't read this book.

This book is good and bad!.......2007-03-04

This book really changed my life. I was assigned to read this book, and Haveli in 7th grade. Shabanu shows a strong, defiant, girl trying to grow into her womanhood. There is a lot of tragedy for her and her family in this book, and there is a lot of talk about breast size and sex in this book, so if you haven't had "the talk" yet, you probably don't want to read this. I felt that the ending was a little stupid, and it felt like the author ran out of paper or something.
All in all, this book has its good and bad moments.

Shabanu Got On My Nerves.......2007-01-07

Okay, I had to read this book for my Freshman English class, for our unit on the Middle East. I had already read the one by an Arabic author, and reading this, you could tell it was by an American. It was a total cliche: Shabanu is an oppressed girl in Pakistan. Shabanu does not like this. Shabanu complains about being oppressed. Shabanu "rebels" against oppression. Shabanu is beaten. Shabanu cries.
The end.
I've met Pakistani girls before, and they're nothing like Shabanu. They're proud to be Muslim- they are proud to follow the rules of their faith.
Shabanu, however, is not proud. She never stops whining about it.
And then the ending bothered me, too. It was just such an obvious set up for a sequel, it totally disgusted me. It wasn't even much of an ending, really. It's almost like she just chopped the chapter off short and stuck it in the next book.

a lovely heroine, a lovely novel.......2007-01-01

I first read this book as a girl in junior high. As a woman grown, and approaching motherhood, I would like my daughter to read this book when she is old enough. It is a story about a strong-willed, independent young woman who must learn to reconcile her duties with her own impulses. It is a coming of age story, but an unusual one because it is set in the wilderness of the desert plains in Pakistan. Shabanu is not meek or powerless in the iconographic way of Arab women. She is a spirited and warm young woman. But the limitations of her culture force her to grow up, and she must find the ballast within herself to maintain her sense of identity while bowing to the outside demands of her culture.

Average customer rating:

Proper punctuation was created for a reason; USE IT!
Apartheid's Reach
A Delicacy
I have never written a review here before but...
Classic character study

Burger's Daughter
Nadine Gordimer
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Domestic Life | Women's Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0140055932

Customer Reviews:

Proper punctuation was created for a reason; USE IT!.......2006-07-27

I thought this book started very strong; it set up everything very well, and i could start to see the themes emerging from the work. But then the author decides to have these long-winded conversations with herself that are very hard to follow. She uses hyphens instead of quoation marks to represent dialogue. The major problem with this is she combines more hyphens when she breaks away from conversation to describe how the person is talking or to depict a scene taking place. Sometimes she doesn't even bother to start another paragraph when the dialogue starts back up again. So this results in a very confusing read as it's hard to tell if someone is talking, or if it's a scene, or could it be how they are talking, or is it an aside, or is it just a thought, or maybe this is a convo, and who is talking again, oh, maybe she is describing the surrondings....?

It drove me Crazy.

Apartheid's Reach.......2006-07-13

This is a masterful work for two specific reasons: 1. It very realistically displays the depths to which Apartheid pervaded South African society. It goes beyond the simplistic "Apartheid is bad" motif so easily turned out in Paton and Brink.
2. Gordimer is masterful--shame on those reviewrs who call it exclusive or pompous. This is a tremendous work that has blended polemic with prose. Had Mailer, Wolfe, or Brink written this, they would have been hailed genius: why should Gordimer face such scrutiny?
A must read for anyone getting into South African lit.

A Delicacy .......2005-11-14

Gordimer's style of writing, filled with descriptive writing, layered with both illusions and allusions, and topped off with a coating of metaphors makes reading a delicacy. The main theme in the book was self-identity, which the title, `Burger's Daughter' hints at. A character on a quest to find out who she is was a wonderful way to portray a notion. The theme was clearly presented, as I hoped it would be. The book met my expectations of successful use of descriptive writing, to illustrate the setting, and intricate syntax, to describe the conflict. In my opinion, the novel's biggest strength was its character development. Through the recollection of her past, how she deals with the present, and her hopes and fears for the future, the reader becomes attached to 22 year old Rosa.
~~~ But I must warn you, it is not very filling if you are hungry for information, specifically, details about the government. This is probably its biggest weakness. Nevertheless, it is a great. After reading this, I was left with the positive, yet mysterious thought "Who am I going to let myself become?" I have never read any other books by her, but after this uplifting read, I might just have to read more books by her.

(maggie)

I have never written a review here before but..........2005-05-18

I had to say that I, too, thought this was the worst book I have ever read--hands down. I have a master's degree in comparitive literature, and other than Moll Flanders and Fanny Hill, I have never read a...what did the other reviewer call them "bodice-rippers"?--so it's not a case of lack of taste. The author of this book is self-indulgent, pompous, "in the know, and I'm never going to let you forget it!"--the whole thing is like listening to a half muttered conversation that after time you realize that you are never going to be let into. I did plow through to the end, but only as a test of my endurance. And I cheered at the end--but only because the damned thing was done.

Classic character study.......2004-08-29

I can't understand the reviewers who have downplayed this book. I think maybe they should stick to the thrillers and bodice-rippers in the bus station rack. Gordimer's book is a classic study of the conflicts between ones duty to ones country - in this case, the struggle for a non-racialist South Africa - and ones duty to ones family. The story is told through the eyes of the daughter of a pair of white, South African activists. We watch her as she grows up, hurt and bemused by, then running away from, and eventually coming to her own very personal terms with, the burdens she bears because of her parents commitment. It's a wonderful character study, often enigmatic, due to the ambivalent feelings Rosa Burger experiences, but ultimately very satisfying.

Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society

Average customer rating:

Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society
Ifi Amadiume
Manufacturer: Zed Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0862325951

Book Description

Challenging the received orthodoxies of social anthropology, Ifi Amadiume argues that in precolonial society, sex and gender did not necessarily coincide. Examining the structures that enabled women to achieve power, she shows that roles were neither rigidly masculinized nor feminized.

Economic changes in colonial times undermined women’s status and reduced their political role and Dr Amadiume maintains, patriarchal tendencies introduced by colonialism persist today, to the detriment of women.

Critical of the chauvinist stereotypes established by colonial anthropology, the author stresses the importance of recognizing women’s economic activities as as essential basis of their power. She is also critical of those western feminists who, when relating to African women, tend to accept the same outmoded projections.

Average customer rating:

Good read, but not the best.
Definitely Not One of Ms.Chaikins better.........
A wonderful conclusion to this awesome series!
The Perfect Conclusion
Suspenseful, True.

Today's Embrace (East of the Sun #3)
Linda Lee Chaikin
Manufacturer: WaterBrook Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Mothers & Children | Women's Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Romance | Fiction | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Fiction | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Regency | Historical | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Romance | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1578565154
Release Date: 2005-02-15

Book Description

She gambled with her husband’s trust. At stake is–everything.

Evy Varley's marriage to Rogan Chantry is all she had hoped it would be–until she finds out that she is pregnant with a honeymoon baby. Fearing that Rogan won’t allow her to travel while she is expecting, Evy plots to keep her pregnancy secret in order to accompany him to South Africa. Her thoughts are not only for her husband, but Evy is determined to travel to Bulawayo, the new mission station of Dr. Jakob van Buren–the one man who can help Evy to finally clear her mother’s name.

After she and Rogan set out to sea, however, Evy discovers that she has gone too far in her deceit, and the damage to her marriage may be irreversible. Matters only worsen in Africa, where malaria, murder, and an African uprising all take their toll–and where Rogan and Evy must fight not only for their love, but also for their very lives.

Customer Reviews:

Good read, but not the best........2006-12-30

I enjoyed this series a lot, though I admit that it's flawed. This book is rushed at times, while too descriptive at others. It felt forced at times, and it didn't flow as naturally as the first book did. But I did love it--Darinda's storyline especially interested me, and I found myself wishing Linda had written a spin-off about Darinda and Captain Retford. The storyline with Rogan and Evy was refreshing to read...Evy's mistake in being dishonest with her husband is one we all make, though we hardly ever read about. I would definitely recommend this series, though it's not perfect. If you enjoyed this, check out her Egypt trilogy, starting with "Arabian Winds". You won't be disappointed!

Definitely Not One of Ms.Chaikins better................2005-10-31

Though it's an interesting tale,...I couldn't help but be disappointed. I loved the first two books... and I feel somewhat disappointed in the third. I felt that Rogan and Evy were not the same characters than in the previous two books. Your focus is no longer on Evy and Rogan,.. but on other characters.(Which is a good thing,... but I almost stopped caring as to what happens to Rogan and Evy!) Though it's an interesting mystery and I enjoyed that aspect of it, I can't say it's an equal to Ms.Chaikin's previous works.

A wonderful conclusion to this awesome series!.......2005-04-29

"Today's Embrace" appropriately titled will grip you until the end of the story. As Rogan and Evy prepare for their trip to South Africa to the land where Evy was born and rescued long ago, they first experience marital bliss in which soon Evy finds herself expecting their first child. Determined to make the trip anyway to Bulawayo with her husband, Evy plots to keep her pregnancy secret so Rogan will let her travel. But while on their journey, Evy realizes her deception have gone way too far and her marriage could be damaged beyond repair. Rogan leaves Evy at her uncle Jakob's mission and sets out on his quest to find Henry's mysterious gold deposit while at the same time trying to dodge his uncle Julien's efforts to stop him. Not only has this book have the mystery and suspense of Rogan's journey, there is the potential uprising by the natives, murder and malaria that threaten both Evy and Rogan's lives. Will they repair their marriage before it's too late? Linda Chaikin did an awesome job with this series which is unlike I ever read by her. I am really looking forward to her next series....

The Perfect Conclusion.......2005-04-01

This is the perfect conclusion to the East of the Sun trilogy and captures perfectly the very nature of people at their best and particularly, at their worst. After laying a fine foundation in the first book, Tomorrow's Treasure, and pulling the story along in the second book (Yesterday's Promise) with sweeping descriptions of Africa and the diamond business, following Evy and Rogan into what starts out as the perfect marriage is emotive and exciting - what every girl dreams of. To step with them into the small compromises that send them spiralling to the depths of grudges and regret is portrayed in such a realistic way that at times I found myself relating against my will!
Another reader I know likened the ending to a bag of peas with a hole in it that had been spilling out peas one by one, until finally the bag gave way and everything tumbled out in a stunning conclusion, leaving the reader both shocked and greatly satisfied.
If you make it this far, you will NOT be sorry. I give this book 5 stars, and highly recommend it. Although we experience some of the facets Linda Chaikin has used several times, such as slave uprisings and mission stations, it's completely unlike any other book this author has ever brought her readers. Snap it up today and kick back as the ride takes full force.

Suspenseful, True........2005-02-25

After reading the other two books in this series, I could not wait for the third installment. I was not disappointed. It provided me with a detailed looked into married life as God wants it, and the conflicts that arose between Evy and Rogan by not following God's will. I enjoyed the fast pace of everything that has happened so far culminating in South Africa and how my knowledge of each character was enriched. The story is not sugar-coated and light. I would recomend this to anyone interested in romance, history of South Africa, and an understanding of God's loving will in our lives.

Average customer rating:

Good book for Immigrants and those working with them.
Faraway Home
A Child's Fears of Loss Are Eased

Faraway Home
Jane Kurtz
Manufacturer: Gulliver Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Picture Books | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Issues | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0152000364

Book Description

As her father prepares for a trip back to his childhood home in Ethiopia, Desta begins to worry. Where does her father truly belong--in the village of his youth or here in America with her? What was growing up in Ethiopia like? And will her father's love for his family be enough to bridge these two worlds and bring him back to her? •A powerful portrait of a contemporary American immigrant family •From a Coretta Scott King Honor-winning artist •Portrays a heartwarming father-daughter relationship •Junior Library Guild Selection

Customer Reviews:

Good book for Immigrants and those working with them........2002-01-01

It must be really strange for a child of immigrants to understand what their parents are feeling about their other country and culture. Some may or may not understand their parents first language. I am eager to share this book with my students and see what they think.

Faraway Home.......2000-11-21

Faraway Home is the story of a young girl whose father must go away to his home land to see his mother. The girl (Desta) isn't very happy about this. The illustrations (by E. B. Lewis) are simply stunning. This is a truly spectacular book

A Child's Fears of Loss Are Eased.......2000-07-08

In this beautifully illustrated story, a young girl comes to terms with her immigrant father's plans to visit his country of birth, Ethiopia. In the process, she learns about the differences and similarities between his childhood and hers and, more importantly, about the enduring strength of the love between parent and child. This wonderful book is perfect to share with the child facing similar fears about whether a parent will return from a journey to a distant place or the child perturbed by immigrant parents' longings for an unknown and strange land. For every parent and child, it is a great introduction to a family discussion of "when I was your age, we ..." Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

not fun but a classic
An exploration of relationships of many types
Disappearing author
Graceful 'Disgrace'
The modern disgrace of being old, white and learned.

Disgrace
J. M. Coetzee
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0670887315

Amazon.com

David Lurie is hardly the hero of his own life, or anyone else's. At 52, the protagonist of Disgrace is at the end of his professional and romantic game, and seems to be deliberately courting disaster. Long a professor of modern languages at Cape Town University College, he has recently been relegated to adjunct professor of communications at the same institution, now pointedly renamed Cape Technical University:

Although he devotes hours of each day to his new discipline, he finds its first premise, as enunciated in the Communications 101 handbook, preposterous: "Human society has created language in order that we may communicate our thoughts, feelings and intentions to each other." His own opinion, which he does not air, is that the origins of speech lie in song, and the origins of song in the need to fill out with sound the overlarge and rather empty human soul.

Twice married and twice divorced, his magnetic looks on the wane, David rather cruelly seduces one of his students, and his conduct unbecoming is soon uncovered. In his eighth novel, J.M. Coetzee might have been content to write a searching academic satire. But in Disgrace he is intent on much more, and his art is as uncompromising as his main character, though infinitely more complex. Refusing to play the public-repentance game, David gets himself fired--a final gesture of contempt. Now, he thinks, he will write something on Byron's last years. Not empty, unread criticism, "prose measured by the yard," but a libretto. To do so, he heads for the Eastern Cape and his daughter's farm. In her mid-20s, Lucy has turned her back on city sophistications: with five hectares, she makes her living by growing flowers and produce and boarding dogs. "Nothing," David thinks, "could be more simple." But nothing, in fact, is more complicated--or, in the new South Africa, more dangerous. Far from being the refuge he has sought, little is safe in Salem. Just as David has settled into his temporary role as farmworker and unenthusiastic animal-shelter volunteer, he and Lucy are attacked by three black men. Unable to protect his daughter, David's disgrace is complete. Hers, however, is far worse.

There is much more to be explored in Coetzee's painful novel, and few consolations. It would be easy to pick up on his title and view Disgrace as a complicated working-out of personal and political shame and responsibility. But the author is concerned with his country's history, brutalities, and betrayals. Coetzee is also intent on what measure of soul and rights we allow animals. After the attack, David takes his role at the shelter more seriously, at last achieving an unlikely home and some measure of love. In Coetzee's recent Princeton lectures, The Lives of Animals, an aging novelist tells her audience that the question that occupies all lab and zoo creatures is, "Where is home, and how do I get there?" David, though still all-powerful compared to those he helps dispose of, is equally trapped, equally lost.

Disgrace is almost willfully plain. Yet it possesses its own lean, heartbreaking lyricism, most of all in its descriptions of unwanted animals. At the start of the novel, David tells his student that poetry either speaks instantly to the reader--"a flash of revelation and a flash of response"--or not at all. Coetzee's book speaks differently, its layers and sadnesses endlessly unfolding. --Kerry Fried

Book Description

From the author of Waiting for the Barbarians and the Booker-Prize-winning Life & Times of Michael K, a dazzling new novel--his first in five years

Disgrace--set in post-apartheid Cape Town and on a remote farm in the Eastern Cape--is deft, lean, quiet, and brutal. A heartbreaking novel about a man and his daughter, Disgrace is a portrait of the new South Africa that is ultimately about grace and love.

At fifty-two Professor David Lurie is divorced, filled with desire but lacking in passion. An affair with one of his students leaves him jobless and friendless. Except for his daughter, Lucy, who works her smallholding with her neighbor, Petrus, an African farmer now on the way to a modest prosperity. David's attempts to relate to Lucy, and to a society with new racial complexities, are disrupted by an afternoon of violence that changes him and his daughter in ways he could never have foreseen. In this wry, visceral, yet strangely tender novel, Coetzee once again tells "truths [that] cut to the bone." (The New York Times Book Review)

"The kind of territory J.M Coetzee has made his own. . .By this late point in the century, the journey to a heart of narrative darkness has become a safe literary destination . . . Disgrace goes beyond this to explore the furthest reaches of what it means to be human: it is at the frontier of world literature."--Sunday Telegraph (UK)

Download Description

Set in post-apartheid Cape Town, Professor David Laurie attempts to relate to his daughter, Lucy, and to a society with new racial complexities. But that is disrupted by an afternoon of violence that changes him and his daughter in ways he could never have foreseen. Coetzee is the only writer awarded the Booker Prize twice, and this work is a finalist for the National Book Critic Circle Awards.

Customer Reviews:

not fun but a classic.......2007-10-01

This book is somewhere between an under graduate text and a book I'd actually like to read. The fact that I actually finally read "Disgrace" is more attributable to my spying it at my parent's house (i.e. for free) then any other factor. I raced through it in about two hours, it's hardly a slog. More like a high lit version of a "beach book" then anything else. Which is not to characterize Disgrace as a beach book- far from it.

The subject matter- the story of a disgraced South African professor (non tenured) who is expelled from his life in Cape Town after a brief, benign affair with a student, only to land with his lesbian back-to-the-earth daughter in the east of South Africa, is a total bummer, but the writing is excellent and the message- the kind of an obverse version of a colonialist text- sits on the mind.

It's hard to really "review" a novel without giving away significant plot points- something that other good reads reviewers should take note of (like the other reviewers of this book) but the brevity and alarcity of the writing in Disgrace makes it a worth while read.

An exploration of relationships of many types.......2007-09-27

Boy, does middle-aged, twice-divorced, would-be ladies' man Professor David Lurie change over the course of this story! He beds one of his students and is denounced by his university. The resulting fallout sees his arrogance eroded and his power removed. His life is seemingly altered for the worse. By the end of the book I felt this turning point may have done him some moral and spiritual good.

Lurie moves out to his adult daughter's land allotment where a savage attack, and the resulting emotional fallout, further press in on his fragile state.

The book, set in 1990s South Africa, explores relationships of many kinds: lustful, unrequited, dissolved, passionate, tepid, familial, racial, those of victim and perpetrator. There's much to think about in this multi-layered story, written in deceptively simple language, charting the complicated, yet 'ordinary', lives of a handful of people struggling through their existence. It's easy to see why it won the 1999 Booker Prize.

Disappearing author.......2007-09-01

Coetzee achieves the amazing feat of disappearing in this book. The writing is neither brutally stark nor ornate; it's neither discursively descriptive nor abstract. It is just a stoy, plainly told. The characters are, mostly, neither heros nor villians. The story is clearly told, yet the story and its lessons are far from clear. To me, it seem like Hemingway without ego (imagine!) or a more narrative, story-telling, and hopeful DeLillo. 100% recommended.

Graceful 'Disgrace'.......2007-08-30

Many reviews here have described the novel. I, however, just want to comment on a few essential reasons as to why this is a 'must read' for anyone interested in literature.

1. An extremely 'gracefully' written book, on some of the most 'disgrace'ful events that can occur in a man's life.
2. An in depth insight into the sufferings of the people of Africa, especially women. An eye-opener.
3. A non-animal lover turning into someone who cares for animals. How beautifully the transformation 'occurs - occured'.
4. Philosophy written with a fine touch of dark humor.
5. Some scenes are abhorable, you "should" hate the main character in the book, but there is something so enchanting about his personality that you actually end up liking him. He is not trying to please anyone. He is who he is and most importantly, he does not care what people think about him.

I could not put the book down once I started it. The Booker Prize was well-deserved.

As for J.M. Coetzee, he has a unique style of writing. A person who completely deserved the Nobel Prize (2003).

This book and its author have won a spot on my 'favourites' list.

The modern disgrace of being old, white and learned........2007-08-21

In this novel, Coetzee reveals that he is one of those all too few contemporary authors unafraid to address uncomfortable contemporary issues. A South African author who fought against the injustices of apartheid, he nonetheless paints a frank portrait of the society that has emerged in its aftermath. But this book is not simply about South Africa. Here, it is simply the most apt setting for a portrait of the world-wide death of white, male authority, and with it European high culture and art as the supreme social good. Coetzee explores what it means for a world not to be built on these values but for the only agreed thing of worth to be that of the equal right to pleasure of each individual. He exposes the absurd contradiction of such a world, in which reason and learning count for little, and yet which continues to treat animals with shameful barbarity. The learned professor and lover of romanticism discovers painfully what happens when an entire civilisation puts feeling before reason and not simply a few priviliged 19th century aristocratic rebels such as Byron or indeed present day white male professors of literature.

The juxtaposition of the professor's charge of sexual harrasment with the brutal gang rape of his daughter is not easy to interpret, or rather it can be read and interpreted in many ways. On the one hand, the actual rape of his daughter Lucy serves to show how vindictive and ridiculous the charge made against him of simply having consenting sex with an adult student was. It can also be read as an attempt to understand such viciousness in contemporary gender and racial politics, the excessive yet inevitable wish to redress the historical abuses wrought by the power of the white man.

In the end, language is seen to be a human tool, one which we use to justify and rationalize our all too animal needs and resentments. Language is indeed used to cover the bare human soul, not in order to sing but to allow ourselves to be in denial over our animal natures. That the professor finally learns to recognise the souls of the abused animals in his daughter's shelter is the novel's graceful moral.

Nadine Gordimer's Burger's Daughter: A Casebook (Casebooks in Criticism)

Average customer rating:

Nadine Gordimer's Burger's Daughter: A Casebook (Casebooks in Criticism)

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Women Writers & Feminist Theory | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

African | History & Criticism | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Women Writers | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Burger's Daughter

ASIN: 0195147170

Book Description

South African writer Nadine Gordimer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991. Her seventh novel, Burger's Daughter, focuses upon the daughter of a white, communist Afrikaner hero. Based partly on fact, successively banned and unbanned by the South African authorities, the novel has also become something of a test case for feminist critics of Gordimer's writing. This casebook includes an interview with and an essay by Nadine Gordimer on the novel, classic and recent critical essays, an introduction discussing biographical and historical contexts and the literary reception, and a bibliography.

The Devil that Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest

Average customer rating:

I usually never take the time to review a book
Beautifully & movingly written blend of memoir. journalism, history
Compelling, but....
Gripping introduction to Sierra Leoneýs convoluted politics
Making sense of the senseless

The Devil that Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest
Aminatta Forna
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

Sierra Leone | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

West Africa | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0871138654

Book Description

Aminatta Forna's intensely personal history is a passionate and vivid account of an idyllic childhood that became the stuff of nightmare. As a child she witnessed the upheavals of postcolonial Africa, danger, flight, the bitterness of exile in Britain, and the terrible consequences of her dissident father's stand against tyranny. Mohamed Forna was a man of impeccable integrity and enchanting charisma. As Sierra Leone faced its future as a fledgling democracy, he was a new star in the political firmament, a man who had been one of the first black students to come to Britain after the war. He stole the heart of Aminatta's mother, to the dismay of her Presbyterian parents, and returned with her to Sierra Leone. But as Aminatta Forna shows with compelling clarity, the old Africa was torn apart by new ways of Western parliamentary democracy, which gave birth only to dictatorships and corruption of hitherto undreamed-of magnitude. It was not long before Mohamed Forna languished in jail as a prisoner of conscience, and worse to follow. Aminatta's search for the truth that shaped both her childhood and the nation's destiny began among the country's elite and took her into the heart of rebel territory. Determined to break the silence surrounding her father's fate, she ultimately uncovered a conspiracy that penetrated the highest reaches of government and forced the nation's politicians and judiciary to confront their guilt. The Devil that Danced on the Water is a book of pain and anger and sorrow, written with tremendous dignity and beautiful precision: a remarkable and important story of Africa.

Customer Reviews:

I usually never take the time to review a book.......2007-05-12

This book is fabulous. It is fabulous because it is accurate, interesting, and well-written. I am just a little older than the author and grew-up in Sierra Leone during much of the period described. I recall the Siaka Stevens years as a teen, I vaguely recall the execution of her father. Interestingly, I read another book about the first year that I was there and in that book, there was a reference to that hanging. I am a nonfiction junkie and read mostly books on mathematics--my field, but Aminatta has a keen way of describing Sierra Leone and the interactions of the politics. I read this book very quickly, in a few days during the work week. I have also read her other novel. I must say that this memoir is the best, in my opinion. Compared to the memoir A Long Way Gone about the Sierra Leonian boy soldier, this book by Aminatta is at a much higher level. It holds a longer period of time over which the plot is developed leading up to that war. It is her search to understand and in that respect the reader is searching right along with her. Read it!

Beautifully & movingly written blend of memoir. journalism, history.......2005-08-15

Finding/discovering a vanished father. Untangling a terrible and terrifying, deeply saddening history of a place, personal and poltical, on which colonialism, broken promises, fear, racism, and inter-tribal rivalries and conflicts have all trod. What happens when ideals, hope, and education run up against such a history. The close-up, precise remains of a child's memory, feelings, and confusions overlaid with an adult daughter's detailed investigative and journalistic skills. All of these are part of this compulsively readable book, which tells the story of a family, a country (Sierra Leone), and a world torn apart and painstakingly, to whatever extent possible, reconstructed --- at least in the author's own hard-won understanding. I am a white American who happened on this book by accident. I love and respect memoirs where the author is transparent of heart and mind, especially in the context of a larger societal, political, or situational challenge. This book met these criteria with stunning precision. I could not put Aminatta Forna's courageous book down, and have been recommending it to everyone I know.

Compelling, but...........2004-10-15

It is a difficult topic to write about, that relationship between father and daughter. In this case, the narrative is compelling and intensely personal, so much so that it is difficult to get a sense of who Mohammed Forna actually was. Sierra Leone, contrary to its image in the media, was a complex society, and the whole relationship of the Creoles and the 'upline' people is at the very centre of the post colonial struggle. Ms. Forna treats very very lightly with that.

On the whole, even though she documents her hurts and slights growing up as a child of colour in the United Kingdom, for me, a child of Ghana and to a lesser extent, Sierra Leone in the same time frame as Ms. Forna, there is a sense that she had little or no idea of what was going on, apart from the hero worship of her father, which is , of course , understandable.

Through her prose, though, I am able to relive those times in Sierra Leone - who can forget Mile 91, Kissy Road, Connaught Hospital, Lumley Beach! The diamond smuggling which is at the very heart of the tragedy. It is easy to forget that no one in Sierra Leone, especially not the rural poor, is capable of making a bullet, let alone a gun. So who profits? And for what? That is at the very centre of the tragedy. The Tiny Rolands, with their footprints all over Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Botswana - they are the ones who do.

Gripping introduction to Sierra Leoneýs convoluted politics.......2003-10-21

As a gripping introduction to Sierra Leone's convoluted post-Independence politics, this book is unmatched.

Through the story of her own life, as the daughter of an influential and key political figure in newly independent Sierra Leone, we are led through the details of how Sierra Leone made its gradual descent from one of the most promising countries in West Africa, the place that used to be called "the Athens of Africa", to what is today considered euphemistically a "collapsed state". While one has heard of Foday Sankoh and the RUF, and one has an idea that diamonds are involved, Aminatta Forna takes us back to the very beginning of the process of decay. From the imprisonment of the victors in the 1967 elections, to the eventual rise to power of the rightful victor of that election, Siaka Stephens, and his consolidation of Sierra Leone into a one-party state completely under his own control.

The book is divided into two parts. In part one, we read about Aminatta's first ten years, as she moved between Scotland, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, according to the political situation in Sierra Leone, and the state of her parents' marriage. Consumed by politics, and not fully accepted by Forna's very traditional Sierra Leonean family, Mohamed Forna and his Scottish wife Maureen quickly grew apart. By the time Aminatta was eight, she had lived in six different homes, in three different countries. Part one ends when Mohamed Forna is taken away by state security, imprisoned, and his children never see him again.

Part two begins some 25 years later, in the year 2000, when Aminatta has started to research the death of her father. As a child she was told he died of stomach ulcers, which she always knew was not the truth. She returns from England to war-torn Sierra Leone where she seeks out everyone involved in her father's arrest, trial, and execution. She interviews scores of people, reads the complete trial transcript, and uses her own memories of the day he was taken away to try to piece together what really happened. What she finds is a blatant perversion of justice. Bribed and tortured witnesses, manufactured evidence, a jury of government stooges, and a judge obviously in the pockets of the state, together find her father guilty of treason and condemn him to death.

The narrator, Aminatta Forna herself, who writes in the first person, is not completely trustworthy, however. Particularly in the beginning of the book, she makes so many polemical statements about the nature of states' corruption, in the midst of which she states as fact a contested interpretation of history-who really killed Patrice Lumumba-that one is thenceforth wary of her claims.

Coming to the book with very little knowledge of Sierra Leonean history, and again recognizing her bias towards her father's goodness, his achievements, after a while, become somewhat incredulous. We are repeatedly told how brilliant Mohamed Forna was. At medical school in Scotland he was top of his class. The clinic he opened in a rural Sierra Leonean town was the model of Sierra Leonean healthcare. He won his parliamentary seat by the largest margin ever, he had the most support of all the politicians, as finance minister his budget was the most sensible that Sierra Leone had ever seen, and Sierra Leone enjoyed a fiscal surplus for the first time while he was minister. Sometimes it seems a bit too good to be true. Then she lets us know that he does have a weakness. Mohamed Forna's only shortcoming, according to his daughter's account, was with women. He carried on an extra-marital affair openly in front of his children, as he betrayed their stepmother who had spent the previous four years of her own life looking after his own children in England, while he was in prison. Yet the incidental treatment that Aminatta Forna gives this aspect of her father's life leaves the reader not fully understanding why Forna has included this in her account, as she does not use it to help us to understand her father and his choices.

However, I must confess that I couldn't put the book down once I had started reading it. Even amongst my quibbles about style and some of the content, I was compelled to keep turning the pages until I had finished, in a virtual non-stop two day reading marathon. Indeed these drawbacks that I cite, by the end of the book, are either forgotten or forgiven, as the account is so detailed and well researched, and too, moving.

The point is that once democracy, and democratic institutions and processes get corrupted, it tends to be a slippery slope, with a very unpleasant end, that exacts its tolls not only on countries, but on the lives and relationships of individuals. Aminatta Forna's book is a pithy and personal account of exactly how this happens.

Making sense of the senseless.......2003-08-14

From a certain point of view Africa seems like such an enigma - the forgotten continent. Through an amazing memoir--detective story this book brings light and understanding to a so much of what is going on there - as well as being an exceptional read. The story of the author's father (a political dissident) and his fate at the hands of a corrupt regime is meticulously researched and compelling told. No stone is left unturned, no detail ommitted. For all people everywhere it is a fascinating study of corruption and what it does.

Average customer rating:

Great bittersweet story, deeply moving

Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter
Pamela Jooste
Manufacturer: Black Swan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0552997579
Release Date: 1999-01-02

Book Description

Through the sharp yet loving eyes of eleven-year-old Lily we see the whole exotic, vivid, vigorous culture of the Cape Coloured community at the time when apartheid threatened its destruction. As Lily's beautiful but angry mother returns to Cape Town, determined to fight for justice for her family, so the story of Lily's past—and future—erupts.

Customer Reviews:

Great bittersweet story, deeply moving.......2005-08-04

This is a great book showing how the women of a family support each other, faults & all. How families can sacrifice their need for love of a child to enable it to have a great future.
Also how friendships can be made between the most unlikely people.
One of the books I will never lend or give away!

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books