Review 467: Fever

Fever by Deon Meyer
My rating: 4.25 of 5 stars


Good, but a bit too much with the violence aspect.

As the name of this book implies, there was a vast fever, a pandemic that has an such a fast rate of spread and death that nearly 95% of the world’s population did not survive. It was a coronavirus from bats. (The book was published in 2017, before the real coronavirus pandemic.)

The novel follows a teenage boy and his father, Nico and Willem Storm, just after the worst part, when seemingly no one is left alive. They are traveling around their country, South Africa. After a while Willem tells Nico about his plans to establish a new settlement. They met a few people, a woman who has sixteen orphans with her, a man flying a Cessna airplane.

The first people who arrived form a committee, the house they first live in becomes known as the orphanage where the leaders meet. There are always decisions to be made. One of the first people to join was Domingo, a tough man who Nico was relieved his father let him stay. Domingo becomes Nico’s hero to his 13-year-old-self, and as he grows older. Domingo knows how to defend their community, Amanzi.

From the beginning Amanzi comes against people who live by plundering and taking whatever they can find, or by violence against those who have anything. They group together in gangs, steal and brutalize women. Thus, the KTM becomes the enemy.

The focus in the book becomes of this potential violence, then going on patrols, instead of the community building. Perhaps it does make for a more exciting and fast-paced book.

The ending of the book seemed a bit off to me, considering how many pages are in the book, it actually felt rushed. Then part of what was going on in the world was left undone, so it’s left open for a sequel.

After reading this book I looked into the author’s other books, and most are series. Not sure this one will become one as over six years or more have passed and there is no sign of a sequel yet.

Review 433: Elizabeth Costello

Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Perhaps if I knew what I was in for with this book the rating would be higher...there is little to no plot or character development. It is barely a novel, instead many texts of essays written out, but put into the mouth of the main character, Elizabeth Costello.

The last "lesson" or chapter was the most interesting to me, despite agreeing with several of the premises put forth in the previous "lessons". This last makes you really consider all that she has said before, and so it seemed with sincere conviction. This is a book that will make you think, it does not give you everything. That I do like, just wasn't quite what I was in the mood for when I started reading.

Review 303: Sugar Town Queens

Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The main character Amandla acts fierce, and she has to growing up in a poor area in South Africa called Sugar Town. Her mother has memory and other issues, good days and bad. Amandla wants to know how her mother gets their money, as she doesn't seem to have a job, so follows her one day and discovers a family she knew nothing about.

Unfortunately, her grandfather is a racist, doesn't want a mixed-race girl around, nor his daughter. The grandmother on the other hand, while being very ill does want them around. The story is about how these two come to a resolution, and how Amandla learns her mother’s story.

While I enjoyed Amandla’s fierceness, I wished more of what she said in her head turned into actual words. I didn’t like how much more was inside her instead of in the outside world. I loved her friends and the other people in her neighborhood, well except for the bullies. Nonetheless the story was decent, a good read.

Thanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers/Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Book Review 1: Long Walk to Freedom

I like the idea of posting book reviews: books I've read recently or some that I read some time ago. I had a small web page many years ago, and had some book reviews there as well. I thought I'd start with one of my old reviews, since I find this a meaningful book to read. I haven't looked lately, but I hope there is a sequel. I read this book in 1995 and wrote the review in 1999.

Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
By Nelson Mandella
This book, the autobiography of Nelson Mandella, is just amazing to me that it exists. It is an incredible story of overcoming many hardships. Mandella starts from his early beginning, birth, then ends up at the time of when South Africa first becomes a democratic nation. Nelson Mandella’s story is truly remarkable.

Nelson Mandella’s life is discussed in detail. How he came to understand his position in his own country, takes part in the beginning of the book. He was the first black man to be a lawyer in Johannesburg. Then his political realizations, came along. Mandella makes his life sound as if he just fell into the leadership role. His partner in law practice, Oliver Tambo, surely helped tremendously to bringing international fame to Mandella. His fame peaked the last time he was in jail.

As Mandella became more and more involved in the ANC, African National Congress, he became a leader, and this was very early on. Mandella writes of the protests they planned and carried out and how their movement grew. Mandella is up front with conflicts that arose between members and also when a new political body arose, PAC, which conflicted very much with the ANC. But Mandella is very subdued in writing about the actual harsh brutality that existed in South Africa. He minimized many things and instead focused on just plain facts or who was saying exactly what, and this makes the book occasionally a bit dry. Nelson seems to be continuously apologizing to his family, his very large family. He repeatedly states that he felt his duty was more to his whole country than just his family. I’m sure he feels sorrow in not ever spending enough time with his wives or children. Also he spent 27 continuous years in jail. That must have made it difficult to be a family man! But before he was in jail for that final long stint, he wasn’t home much at all, due to his political involvements – living for a short time underground and for awhile traveling to get support for the ANC and to try stationing a base of any army of sorts.

The book gives some insight in South African culture and tribal ways, since Mandella started his life believing in those things, since that was how he was raised. The main focus to the book is how South Africa slowly became a democratic, free, nation, which was what he dedicated his life to developing.

The last chapters quickly come to the conclusion of the apartheid’s fall. He details a lot of meetings, but I felt some real substance was missing. The ending almost seemed like a flop, when it should be such joy and celebration. But, as I said earlier, his writing is subdued. The book doesn’t discuss any of the new South Africa with him as it’s leader. Really quite amazing to me. Today they have a long road ahead.

Overall it is a very good book, especially if you want to know something about South Africa’s past leader and how South Africa became a free democratic country.