I started reading this novel Sunday evening, and I'm about halfway through now, so it's been a fairly quick read. I want to say nice things about this book. I want to like it, even. Despite the style of Gordimer's writing. In particular her punctuation is irritating me, but I'm trying to accept it as a legitimate artistic choice. Really, I am. Especially since I realize that it is a choice many writers of " literature" make, although I'm honestly not sure why. There is nothing "wrong" with the story, and I want to like it. But the truth is, I'm not really sure what the story is.
I know what has happened so far in the novel, it's not as though I've been reading on auto-pilot, suddenly twenty pages on without knowing what I've read. It's just that I'm not certain of what point Gordimer is trying to get across to me. I put off writing this post for a couple days because I really hoped the story would become clearer to me, but so far no luck. Maybe I'm ten or fifteen pages away from clarification and tomorrow I'll regret this post. For now, though, I feel a bit lost.
The novel is a 'modern' work, set in South Africa of the early 1970's. There is, of course, racial tension, and also interesting environmental observations. Before I started the book I toyed with the title, wondering whether the conservation would be of a social status quo or environmentally based. It seems to me, so far, that it is in fact an ecological conservation - the main character owns a hobby farm and appears to be interested in maintaining native flora and fauna, to a certain degree. It is a bit of a contradiction, however, because it is still an operational farm, and his main business seems to be mineral sales. So, that's interesting.
The issue of race in a novel set in South Africa is a given. The opening chapter has the discovery of a black stranger murdered on the farm. The police response is partly horrifying, and partly comical. The man is briefly referred to throughout the novel, but never really as a man just as an object. It's a very alien concept to me, but at the same time it's really not that different from sex workers 'disappearing' in mainland British Columbia with no one raising an alarm. Once a society stops recognizing the humanity of any group, it's not a huge leap before they are being disposed of like a stray dog. It's very sad, but it's good to be reminded of how our 'group think' can lead us to commit horrible crimes.
The Indian family is also quite interesting. I don't have strong grasp of South African history, and it never actually occurred to me that society was even further divided. Not just 'white' and 'black' but also 'non-white' - living in a sort of limbo where you can own property and run a business, but not entirely legally, always with the threat of an eviction requiring constant bribe payments. It's definitely a situation where you can feel the pressure building, so I'm very interested in how that is resolved.
I'm aiming to be finished reading this novel by Thursday. I was hoping for tomorrow, but there's no way I'll make that. Currently all I really want is for this novel to coalesce in a coherent manner, and realize the potential of all these interesting aspects. I would love that.
*Almost forgot to include a photo!
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