July's People in Reading 1001

Jun 23, 2016 Pip rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-challenge

This is the first Nadine Gordimer I have read and I was looking forward to it with relish. The subject matter interested me greatly and it began with a lot of promise. I wasn't sure when it was written (1981, i discovered when I had finished) but it was clearly a fictional account of how apartheid might end. 1981 was the infamous year of the Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand, when half the country wanted to watch the rugby and tritely proclaimed that rugby and politics don't mix and the other ...more

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Feb 07, 2017 Rosemary rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books

At the height of the Soweto uprising, a white South African couple with three small children flee Johannesburg with their black servant July, taking refuge in his home village hundreds of miles away in the bush. But once there, the balance of power between the whites and their servant slowly begins to shift.

This is an uncomfortable read for many reasons, but mostly for me because it points up the prejudices that still govern even people who think they are liberal and non-racist. The Smales under ...more

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Jan 05, 2017 Jen rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001, 1001-challenge, africa-or-african-literature, south-african-literature, race

I listened to the audio of this book which was quite dry but overall I found it to be a well-written and interesting book. Full review to follow on blog.

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Jul 09, 2016 Anna Fennell rated it liked it

This is a quick read because it is a rather short book. It is an imagined end to the apartheid in South Africa. A civil war has started and the white family (the Smales) escape to the village of their servant July. It is interesting to see how village life changes the family as well as opens their eyes to their treatment of their servant before and after rescuing them.

I found this story difficult to read at times because although it is written in English it is South African English. You would th ...more

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Jul 01, 2016 Beverly rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-bymrbyd, 2016, july-book-count

This is the story of the dissension in South Africa. Now that the situation has finally come to a head, it is no longer safe to be white in the city. July, who works for the Smales family, has helped them to leave the trouble behind--at least temporarily. July drives Mr. and Mrs. Smales and their 3 children to his own small village. They hide the car in the bush and began living their lives as well as they can under such challenging conditions. I found this to be an interesting character study. ...more

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