Cry the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
I have been privileged to just read an incredible, award-winning, novel that beats with the pain and beauty that encompasses this beautiful country of South Africa. It was written in the 1940's just as South Africa was on the brink of the apartheid regime, and it is haunting in its prophecy. The story is of two men and how their lives are brought together by tragedy, what they and their communities believe is the greatest tragedy that could even be imagined. It is heartbreaking and still filled with hope and vision for a new future. If you love literature, or stories, or learning, or falling in love with a book, or reading something that is a treasure, then I really recommend this book. You won't regret it!
This quote comes when a friend and minister, Rev. Msimangu, speaks to one of the main characters, Stephen Kumalo, about his fears about future relations between black and white people in South Africa.
"I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating."
Grade: A+
2 comments:
"But there is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power. I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it.
"He was grave and silent, and then he said somberly, I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating."
(page 34)
"Call, O small boy, with the long tremulous cry that echoes ove rthe hills. Dance, O small boy, with the first slow steps of the dance that is for yourself. Call and dance, Innocence, call and dance while you may. For this is a prelude, it is only a beginning. Strange things will be woven into it, by men you have never heard of, in places you have never seen. It is life you are going into, you are not afraid because you do not know. Call and dance, call and dance. Now, while you may."
(page 199)
Love that book. Give you a totally different perspective while reading it in RSA, doesn't it? :-)
PS: have you read The Poisonwood Bible? If you haven't, I will send it.
Post a Comment