"Cry, the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton: A Classic Tale of South African Struggles

Mr. G. J. Duff: Important and, to me, an unusual book in which Alan Paton describes experience from both a black and white man's perspectives, using the language that presumably he knew so well. First published in 1948, it is in many ways a a book that captures both the tragedy and beauty of South Africa while giving some signs of hope (and warnings) of the society that is to be shaped over the coming years. He draws partly on his experience of working in a reformatory. He testified on behalf of Mandela at the Rivonia Trial.

United Kingdom on Sep 04, 2023

DUVAUCHELLE: Livre à lire impérativement

France on Aug 20, 2023

Miss.Vicky: This provides an opportunity to better understand South African apartheid. Each character gains a new self understanding as the story marches to its conclusion.

United States on Jun 27, 2023

Michael Flanagan: This book appeared the year after I was born, but it has taken me seventy-five years to read it. I Ann sorry that I was not aware of its importance before now. It speaks of deeper truths than people often consider nowadays. It would be well to promote its popularity again in this age. Mr Payton had a wonderful ability to bring the feelings that he described into the direct experience of the reader.

United States on May 25, 2023

Michelle Stevens: Cry the beloved country. This book takes place during the apartheid in South Africa. It is a classic book and it is well written. I would recommend it for slightly older children, such as high schoolers. There are certain themes that are suggested or followed that our little little old for young children. On the flip side it really did happen, even though the story is not true. The circumstances behind the story did occur and it is a hard read when you grew up and did not hear that much about what was going on. As an adult I only remember hearing about Nelson Mandela and that name. I didn't really know who he was, or some of the great things he had done. It is sad that in America we don't learn some of the absolutely crucial or important things going on around the world. It is a good book to read.

United States on Apr 26, 2023

theta: This is written lyrically, with a studied simplicity that I found just slightly precious and cloying. The plot is just a bit too pat. It’s nevertheless well worth reading and far superior to most of what gets published these days.

United States on Apr 01, 2023

JaquiP: The prose and beautiful descriptions of South Africa are divine. I read a lot of it softly out aloud savouring the writing, which powerfully evokes place and character. It felt to me ike reading the bible if that doesn't sound too soppy, or poetry. For the language is very poetic. "There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass covered and rolling and they are lovely beyond any singing of it. The road climbs seven miles into them, to Carisbrooke, and from there, if there is no mist, you look down on one of the fairest valleys of Africa." And that is just the opening words. The book is moving and fair and I can quite see why people have said it is the greatest novel to emerge out of the tragedy of South Africa. It is impossible not to fall under the spell of Stephen Kumalo (the Umfundisi- or priest). I read this book extremely slowly taking my time to absorb myself in the story, the characters and the haunting imagery, images of the land and people and above all the language. It is a very beautifully written book. It makes you feel like you want to strive to be a better person. It is wonderful.

United Kingdom on Feb 27, 2020

Nick Butcher: During the 19th century aggressive and competitive colonial expansion by the British and the Dutch Afrikaaners from the Cape Colony into the interior had substantially dispossessed the indigenous native populations of their territory, with a subsequent consolidation of power through a series of legislative provisions following the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910.

The discovery of diamonds and gold led to the rapid development of mining industries set up to harvest the vast natural resources the country had to offer, and the creation of enormous wealth in the hands of those with the enterprise, capital and know-how to extract those resources.

These entrepreneurs relied on unskilled labour to extract the minerals. Young men and women abandoned their rural communities and headed for the towns in search of a new life away from the poverty and hardship of subsistence farming at the mercy of drought and the failure of the traditional way of life to adapt to modern methods of cultivation.

The streets of Johannesburg were not however paved with gold, any more than the streets of London and other major cities had been in the course of our own Industrial...

United Kingdom on Feb 11, 2016

Kersi F. Munshi: This book was written in the year of my birth, 1948, and it has moved me as no other in my 66 years. It is not only a novel, it is a public statement on the system of government which existed in South Africa in that period, and the society it had created - divided, segregated socially as well as economically and, therefore, rendered a permanent tinderbox. It would have been impossible to have lived in Apartheid South Africa and not thought that, somewhere along the way, the system would explode, for it gave the illusion - on the surface - of order which barely covered a roaring disorder underneath.

It is a book on human nature, man's inhumanity to man, man's kindness to man, and on the philosophy of life - especially, its frailty and fatality. It is a book on how the poor build that which the powerful destroy. How the poor work, and the rich enjoy. How the poor get poorer and the rich try harder to keep it so.

The characters are realistic: the humble village parson of Ndotsheni, Rev. Stephen Kumalo, his sincere and helpful newfound friend, Rev. Msimangu, the most accommodating Mrs. Lithebe whose philosophy in life is, "Why are we born if not to help each other?" Then...

United States on Jan 14, 2015

Katharine Kirby: Getting involved in this and moving along with it was surprisingly leaden; I didn't think it would be such a demanding, long, `heavy' read or as terribly grim and sad as it turned out to be. The short sentences, the lack of punctuation, and the simplicity of the text were, for me, sometimes tedious rather than engaging. It felt like reading miles of Dr. Seuss. Or, probably more intentionally, the chapters and verses of The Holy Bible.

The book was written in 1946; and fiction, even that based on fact, has altered so much since then. Alan Paton was a forward thinking man of his time, a Liberal politician, a racial and environmental campaigner and philosopher as well as a writer. He used the fame and fortune gained by writing Cry the Beloved Country to live the rest of his life as he wished. He pays tribute to the positive effect the book had on his life in the forewords.

I know it is a classic and we read it at school in the sixties. Then it was `cool' to be Anti Apartheid and to hold righteous strong views. Sanctions such as not buying South African fruit and other SA produce were usual but high-minded assertions were obviously never tested in the way they would have...

United Kingdom on May 29, 2012