Reviews for Cry, the Beloved Country

The average rating for Cry, the Beloved Country based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-10-29 00:00:00 Mary Jo Birgensmith Alan Paton - image from The South African - photo by Terence Spencer This is a classic, written by a white South African about a time before apartheid. Two fathers, one white, one black and their sons. It is stylistically unusual. Quotes are not used, for example. Conversation is indicated by leading dashes. Also the speech is quite formal most of the time, which conveys some of the culture of the place, I expect. Dark forces are abroad, but hope shows its face here as well, as there are leaders trying to prevent a descent into the madness to come. Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absolom are the focus. Absolom, as an adult, leaves to go to the big city, Jo’burg. He falls in with a bad crowd and is involved in a robbery. He unintentionally shoots a man who surprises them. The man, an idealistic white, is the son of Kumalo’s neighbor out in the country. Kumalo goes in search of his missing son, only to find him, and this horror, at the same time. Characters are portrayed sympathetically, white and black. There is much shared fatherly pain, much humanity here. It is indeed a classic.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-11-04 00:00:00 Jonathan Blakeman A few years ago, after twenty years out of high school, I made a point to start rereading all of the classics assigned to me in school. It has been an arduous yet uplifting task as I have experienced these classic books again through an adult mind. In this the third year that I am participating in classics bingo, I took the opportunity to revisit another high school book for the classic of the 20th century square. Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country seventy years later is still considered the greatest South African novel ever written. It exposes worldwide readers to the race relations that the country has experienced during the modern era and the gap that still exists today. The message that Paton writes can go along way toward the issues that modern nations experience to this day. Stephen Kumalo is a simple parson who lives in the village of Ndotsheni. Although he and his wife have always been happy with their lot in life, his siblings John and Gertrude as well as his son Absalom were enticed by the bright lights of Johannesburg. Paton describes Ndotsheni with breath taking prose, and the people of the region till the land, hoping to make due with their station. Yet, the land is parched, and as readers find out later on, the church is falling apart as well, as this is what the white man has allotted to the native Zulu and Sesuto people. Thus, Johannesburg beckons. Yet, as Paton so eloquently writes, bigger isn't always better. Problems upon problems befall native Africans from curfews and bus boycotts to wages in the diamond and gold mines and the unfortunate case of being black in a country ruled by whites. Kumalo's daughter and son have fallen upon hard times, and it is up to the parson to use his influence within the church network to bring them to safety. Paton through his characterization of Absalom Kumalo and Arthur Jarvis, the man he is accused of murdering, reveals the disparity between generations in South Africa. The younger generation is working toward change in racial relations, a change in which whites and blacks live side by side in peace and prosperity and Nkosi Sikelele Afrika becomes a reality. The older, entrenched generation might respect these viewpoints, but for the most part, they are not ready for these changes. Arthur Jarvis' father James admits that his martyred son was of a brilliant mind, but he is not ready a unified South Africa in which blacks and whites live respectfully together. That Paton wrote this novel in the years following World War II and the defeat of fascism show how slow the rest of the world was to change. I appreciated how the older generation in the characters of Msimangu, Stephen Kumalo, and James Jarvis showed magnanimity toward the end of the novel. Even though a heinous crime had been committed, the fathers were not going to stand for the crimes of their sons and might even accept that a change is coming to a new South Africa. In this era where race relations is unfortunately not a thing of the past, perhaps Cry, the Beloved Country would be an appropriate novel to discuss in high school English classes. Yet, with the exquisite prose and mature topics addressed, I achieved more from this book through adult eyes than I ever had during my high school years. Classics bingo has given me the chance to revisit these lovely novels, and I am happy for the opportunity to do so. 5 full stars