Cry, the Beloved Country in Reading 1001

Mar 07, 2017 Lynn L rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-challenge, audio-book

I enjoyed this book. The characters were beautifully written.

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Oct 20, 2018 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books, oprah-bookclub, read-the-world-2018-2020, read-the-world, africa-or-african

At times this book brought me to tears and at other times I felt filled with joy and hope. Mr Paton wrote a story of pain, and difficulty, with beautiful, poetic and often lyrical words that made me stop reading and review the words just to experience them again. I finished it a few days ago and have avoided writing a review because it is one of those books which I have no idea how to review. I didn't really enjoy the story but I don't think that one is meant to enjoy something which exposes so ...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Sara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, 1001-books, africa, modern-classics, pbt100

Few words could be used to describe this novel and the impact it has made on me. I wish to go back and read it again, immediately following my first reading. I wish to read each word slowly, savor them, taste them. I wish to consider deep and long that of which the author speaks. I wish to gain a deeper understanding of the fear, the sorrow, the anger, the love, the hope, the courage, the compassion, of which Mr. Paton writes with a passion and power that moves me tears.

The plot itself is simpl Few words could be used to describe this novel and the impact it has made on me. I wish to go back and read it again, immediately following my first reading. I wish to read each word slowly, savor them, taste them. I wish to consider deep and long that of which the author speaks. I wish to gain a deeper understanding of the fear, the sorrow, the anger, the love, the hope, the courage, the compassion, of which Mr. Paton writes with a passion and power that moves me tears.

The plot itself is simple. The story is that of an old South African parson, a Zulu, who finds he must go to Johannesburg to find his son, who is lost. To find his sister, who is lost. To find his brother, who is lost. To find the daughter of his tribesman, who is lost. What he finds, in that great and terrible city, is not what was hoped for. He finds friendship and knowledge and truth, but he also finds deceit and fear and anguish. In the end he returns home, having been able to save only a small portion of those he had left for. He returns home in despair, with more questions than answers. Yet it is here, in his most desperate time of need, that he is uplifted. Uplifted by his tribe, uplifted by God, and uplifted by the most unlikely of friends.

This novel is heartrending in a fashion that no other novel before or after it can hope to achieve. For while it is the story of Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, it is written for South Africa. It is written for every man, woman, and child who inhabits this nation - English, Afrikaaner, native Africans, colored (of mixed race, not to be confused with the Africans), and Indian. This novel has awakened something inside me. It has made look deep into my heart and my soul. Yes it is the story of a father and a son, yes it is the story of a nation and a people, but it is also the story of all of us, of all fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, all nations, all races, all people. It is the story of all mankind.

"The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that they are not mended again." ...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Kristel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-challenge, 1001-books, apartheid, south-africa

This book is about the land of South Africa and starts with 鈥淭here is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills鈥�..鈥� It tells the story of South Africa鈥檚 tragic history. Alan Paton was a principal of a South African reformatory for young offenders. He began writing the book while on a tour of correctional facilities. He began writing in Norway and finished in the United States. It took him only three months to write it. It was his first novel. The title tells us that there is a tragedy. T ...more

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Apr 11, 2018 Jgrace rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, read-in-2018, jgrace, play-book-tag, judithg, africa, audio, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, faith-philosophy, pbt100-fiction

Cry,The Beloved Country - Paton
Audio performance by Michael York
5 stars

So very beautiful and so very sad. Nearly every review I鈥檝e read of this book includes the word 鈥榣yrical鈥�. That鈥檚 it exactly. It was like listening to music. I wasn鈥檛 surprised to read that Paton was somewhat influenced by Steinbeck鈥檚 The Grapes of Wrath. It makes sense. Both authors portray the poor and oppressed realistically and with great compassion. Both books end with deep tragedy, but are, somehow, still optimistic.

T ...more

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