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When Julie Summers' car breaks down in a sleazy street, a young Arab garage mechanic comes to her rescue. Out of this meeting develops a friendship that turns to love. But soon, despite his attempts to make the most of Julie's wealthy connections, Abdu is deported from South Africa and Julie insists on going too-but the couple must marry to make the relationship legitimate in the traditional village which is to be their home. Here, whilst Abdu is dedicated to escaping back to the life he has discovered, Julie finds herself slowly drawn in by the charm of her surroundings and new family, creating an unexpected gulf between them 'As gripping as a thriller and as felt as a love song' IRISH TIMES ... Read more

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Always exploring the boundaries of race, identity, politics, memory, sexuality, and love with fearless insight and deep compassion, Nadine Gordimer has produced another masterpiece of short fiction. From a former anti-apartheid activist’s search for his own racial identity by tracing his great-grandfather’s part in South Africa’s diamond industry to a parrot that scandalizes people with repetitions of their quarrels and clandestine love-talk, this new collection of stories eloquently probes how people are never free from their past nor spared from loss. ... Read more

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Remains best book about Gordimer
There are now a number of critical studies of the Nobel laureate'sfiction, but none replaces Clingman's authoritative guide.The book provesparticularly useful to American readers, as Clingman provides cogentdiscussions of the historical and political setting of Gordimer'sapartheid-era writing. ... Read more

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In an extraordinary period immediately before the first non-racial election and the beginning of majority rule in South Africa, Vera Stark, the protagonist of Nadine Gordimer's passionate novel, weaves a ruthless interpretation of her own past into her participation in the present as a lawyer representing blacks in the struggle to reclaim the land. The return of exiles is transforming the city, and through the lives of Didymus Maqoma, his wife Sibongile, and their lovely daughter who cannot even speak her parents' African language, the listener experiences the strange passions, reversals, and dangers that accompany new-won access to power. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Wonderful read but...
I really like reading this novel.I thought the characters were very well developed.The relationships between all the characters (major and minor) are so complex that it times is somewhat hard to follow, but I usually found this to make the reading more enjoyable.

The reason I gave it three stars instead of more than that is the racial undercurrents.I call it undercurrents because on the surface it is a novel about acceptance and moving to a new life for the country, but there is so much more below the surface here.I actually found that there was quite a bit of racism in the novel, from the author herself.Before I go on I have to say that she has done incredible work through her fiction and voice for equality in South Africa, but she seems to have racism hardwired into her brain.Her white characters consistently patronize the black characters, especially Vera Stark.Vera seems to think she has to take care of the entire racial population, even when working with people that very obviously don't need her.Her black characters that were in exile and have somewhat become heros to the black populace do everything they can to remove themselves from the black culture and black experience in South Africa.Sibonguile even ponders at one point that she puts on her African gard so she can look more African.I don't know how I feel about the Nobel Prize, because I feel like she got it for the politics behind her novels.And I believe that her politics are consistently subjected racist ideas that are mostly sub-conscious.

With all that said it is still an amazing novel worth picking up!

Lost me
I could not get into this book at all.The method of writing was very hard to follow.I couldn't tell who was talking most of the time.If there were more than two people in a conversation, forget it.I often had to go back to the begin of the conversation and try to figure it out.There also seemed to be more detail about the "politics" of South Africa than I cared to know or be able to understand.Granted there may be some that would enjoy this, but it lost me.The only thing that kept me from rating this with 1 star is that I did like the ultimate message of the book.I just would have preferred that the message be given it a bit more understandable fashion.

ReInventing Notions of National Identity
Nadine Gordimer's novel None to Accompany Me was published in the same year of South Africa's first Democratic election. The fact that these events coincided is an important influence on interpretations of the novel because of the personal and political significance of the event in relation to Gordimer. A preoccupation with the conflicting political parties reverberates in the consciousness of the South African characters who populate the novel because of the radical nature of this changing government. The characters are captured in a state of transformation where they must renegotiate their own sense of national identity. Gordimer lived through the age of apartheid in South Africa. She always renounced it, discussing its inherent flaws and misconceptions in her fiction and nonfiction. The fact that she defiantly chose not to exile herself in the face of political conflict while writing novels which were mainly in opposition to the National Party who enforced apartheid shows her unswerving commitment to an identification with being a South African citizen who works actively against racism. In a society such as South Africa that has a highly turbulent climate of racism Gordimer has found that a sense of "home" is an important component upon which to build an environment of equality. The physical nation is what its citizens have in common and, in negotiating boundaries, mental and emotional divides are laid out as well. Therefore, her emphasis on the importance of the land in her writing, how it is sectioned off, claimed and divided, represents the way South Africans have divided their national identity from having any singular meaning. Gordimer has represented in her fiction the levels of these boundaries between people and she has offered a constructive approach to possibly thinking of South African national identity as inclusive of difference while accepting the pragmatism of boundaries. In her early essays of the 1960s she shows a strong resolution that the inherently racist government would be replaced by a power which enforces greater equality. Yet, she also realized that the most important transformation needed to occur in the minds of the citizens of South Africa. They had to recognize the fact of racial difference but also acknowledge that everyone who lives in South Africa is entitled to equal citizenship.

Due to the governmentally enforced segregation between the different races, citizens found that living in South Africa under apartheid caused a hypersensitive awareness of his or her own race. Gordimer is no exception to this and has spent much of her writing discussing where white people position themselves in relation to black people. She tries to think out how people can change their frame of mind to assimilate to the idea of a South Africa where people have an equal sense of national identity instead of trapping themselves within terms of binaries. She makes this clear in her statement, "If one will always have to feel white first, and African second, it would be better not to stay in Africa." What she seems to be saying is that to live peacefully in a nation you must accept you are entitled to be a citizen of that nation rather than an outsider who happens to inhabit it. This is a dilemma for white Africans who live under the image of "black Africa". To be African does not necessarily mean that you are black. This is something Gordimer has always vehemently asserted in her writing. It is in the fixed idea of "black Africa" that boundaries within the national identity are laid and Gordimer is committed to writing of Africa as inclusive of all the relations between its people of all colors. Both the National Party and the Inkath Movement stressed physical boundaries between white and black people. The impact they had on South African citizens over the 20th century encouraged the idea of a national identity divided by color. It is only with the end of apartheid and subsequently the first democratic national election that South Africans can evaluate the impact this division has had with hindsight and whether or not they choose to leave it behind.

A major theme of the novel is how to reconcile the ideological transformation taking place politically in South Africa with the personal notions of national identity formulated up to the present time. For people who worked to terminate apartheid, it is difficult to envision any progression when the primary motives of one's actions are committed to ending the politically instituted segregation. Personal actions were planned with thought of a watchful government eye. For the majority of the writing there could be no subject other than the institutionalized racism. It became a polemic for a political position whether direct or indirect that perpetuated itself in all the literature produced. Only now that apartheid has ended and a new political group has succeeded to power can South African individuals envision a future that is not strictly concerned with this national condition. Gordimer is trying to capture in None to Accompany Me the moment of this change through personal transformations: "Perhaps the passing away of the old regime makes the abandonment of an old personal life also possible. I'm getting there." Leaving an old notion of national identity behind may make possible the dispensing of an old sense of selfhood. This illustrates the uncertainty of the people who live under this changing government to decide upon how they will perceive their sense of self now that an essential factor of what they perceive to be their identity has changed. The primary subject of this novel then is the omnipresent transformations taking place in South Africa at that time ranging from the personal to the broadly political. This novel is an important work that captures a nation in the midst of dramatic change. It will teach you about the conflicts in South Africa if you have never read much about it before and prompt you to find out more.

Disappointing, in comparison with Gordimer's body of work
Having read the entire catalog of Gordimer's work, I find None to Accompany Me somewhat disappointing. While it had moments in which the reader could feel at one with the story's characters, I did not feelengaged by the story nor the insights Gordimer offers. Part of what makesGordimer so appealing is her ability to put into words what most peoplejust think and cannot articulate. As well, Gordimer puts fresh perspectiveson various issues that make her work constantly thought-provoking. I felt abit deflated upon discovering that None to Accompany Me was not going tooffer the same sort of stimuli.

Thought-provoking but not always compelling
I do not know quite what to make of Nadine Gordimer's 1994 novel None to Accompany Me. Gordimer, past winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, writes tellingly of her native South Africa, and of the uneasy relationsbetween blacks and whites during the very recent past.This book tells thestory of Vera, a middle-aged married white woman who is employed as alawyer with a "liberal" organization dedicated to obtaininghousing and land for the black majority.While Vera has"relationships" with many in the book, both black and white -including her current husband (a past lover); former husband; grownchildren; and black employees of her organization and political leaders -ultimately she makes herselfa loner, with only her career and transitoryrelationships.I believe this is the source of the book's title - Vera hasnone to accompany her, and the reason for this appears to be her own lackof commitment to all save her cause.Gordimer writes with great insightand intelligence, and I very much wanted to enjoy this book more than Idid.Her characters are finely drawn, allowing the reader to "getinside" their thinking; nonetheless, this novel did not always keep myattention. Because she is such a fine writer in general, and this book hasso many flashes of brilliance and insight, I cannot discourage others fromreading it.Perhaps I just am not the right reader for this book.(Irecommend highly and without qualification her earlier novel July'sPeople). ... Read more

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This volume collects three decades of interviews with Nadine Gordimer. In the interviews, she presents her attitudes toward her art and its interconnection with the oppressive, volatile politics in her native land. She has traveled extensively to other countries only to discover that no matter how white her skin she is indeed African and the only country she can call home is South Africa. "If you write honestly about life in South Africa, apartheid damns itself," she says. She is ruthlessly honest, and her fiction has played the vital role of communicating in detail to the rest of the world the effects of apartheid upon the daily lives of the South African people. To maintain her integrity, she writes as though she "were dead," without any thought of how anyone will react to what she has written. She remains heroically undaunted both by the banning of three of her novels by the white government and by the protests of radical blacks who assert that whites cannot write convincingly about blacks.She is concerned neither with the image of blacks nor with the image of whites, only with revealing the complexity, the full truth. This truth condemns the racism upon which apartheid is built. In her nine novels and eight volumes of short stories, Gordimer digs deeper and deeper until she has "thematic layers." These include "betrayal-political, sexual, every form" and "power, the way human beings use power in their relationships." Her accounts in these interviews of how she works and of which writers she admires will fascinate readers, scholars, teachers, and students alike. ... Read more

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Toby Hood, a young Englishman, shuns the politics and the causes his liberal parents passionately support. Living in Johannesburg as a representative of his family's publishing company, Toby moves easily, carelessly, between the complacent wealthy white suburbs and the seething, vibrantly alive black townships. His friends include a wide variety of people, from mining directors to black journalists and musicians, and Toby's colonial-style weekends are often interspersed with clandestine evenings spent in black shanty towns. Toby's friendship with Steven Sithole, a dashing, embittered young African, touches him in ways he never thought possible, and when Steven's own sense of independence from the rules of society leads to tragedy, Toby's life is changed forever. ... Read more

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How to reconcile a life lived in two worlds...
If ever a writer told things as they were, without the trappings of self-righteousness, romantic illusion or overwrought interpretation, it is Gordimer. In A World of Strangers, she is a keen reporter of the minutiaeof daily life in 1950s South Africa. Gordimer juxtaposes the dim samenessand shallow veneer of the lavish excess of white South African society lifewith the restricted and sometimes chaotic lives of the South Africanblacks. Gordimer contrasts these polarities facilely, telling the storythrough the eyes of her reluctant protagonist, Toby Hood, an outsider whoarrives from England to work in South Africa. Toby slides in and out of thetwo realities, noticing the differences from the point of view of someonewho is never quite on the inside.

In a general sense, Toby embodies butalso exposes the hypocrisy of South African society: he recognizes itsinjustices but accepts them nevertheless. After reading a tourist pamphlet,Toby observes,"I felt as if I were reading of another country, fromseas away. But then the country of the tourist pamphlet always is anothercountry, an embarrassing abstraction of the desirable that, thank God, doesnot exist on this planet, where there are always ants and bad smells andempty Coca-Cola bottles to keep the grubby finger-print of reality upon thebeautiful." Toby is conscious of the plastic unreality of the societylife but like a tourist chooses not to involve himself deeply in thereality.

Gordimer's lasting impression lies in the voices of hercharacters. All multidimensional and playing key roles in Toby's life. AnnaLouw, an attorney, voices parts of Toby's conscience. "`What had youexpected?' she asked with patient interest. With her you felt that yourmost halting utterance was given full attention .This scrutiny of thecliches of perfunctory communication, the hit-or-miss of words inadequateeither to express or conceal, embarrassed me. Like most people, I do notmean half of what I say, and I cannot say half of what I mean; and I do notcare to be made self-conscious of this. Much that is to be communicated isnot stated; but she was the kind of person who accepts nothing until therehas been the struggle to body it forth in words."

By contrast,Toby's lover, Cecil Rowe, a vain and shallow society woman,is the gloss ofToby's life, the one of all too human desires. He cares for her, makes lovewith her, is part of her life, but even so, she is not really a part of hisbecause there is so much of himself that he cannot convey to her.

Mostimportant in the fabric of Toby's life is an African friend, Steven Sitole.Sitole's refusal to abide by the rules white society dictated for him,inspired Toby to thought. Until something unexpected happens, Toby'sthoughtful meanderings are only idle thought. Toby never reevaluated hislife and how he lived it until a tragedy forced Toby to see things in a newway.

Toby's exploration of the two sides of life in South Africa as wellas the balancing act of reconciling each of them is an exploration wellworth reading. Gordimer never strays from the deft and subtle style andanalysis which characterizes all of her work. ... Read more

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“It is an inexplicable lapse on the part of literary scholars and critics,” writes Nadine Gordimer in her Introduction, “that Turbott Wolfe is not recognised as a pyrotechnic presence in the canon of renegade colonialist literature along with Conrad.” Indeed, William Plomer’s astonishing first novel, which first appeared in 1926, ignited a firestorm of controversy in his native South Africa. At the novel’s center is Turbott Wolfe, a British trader who opens a general store in Lembuland. He befriends many of his black customers but has less luck ingratiating himself with the bigoted whites who have lived in the area for generations. Eventually, Wolfe and his comrades embrace miscegenation as the key to Africa’s future—the Young Africa, where the races have blurred. Provocative and deeply questioning, Turbott Wolfe remains a powerful chronicle of the intimate human consequences of racism. ... Read more

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i can't believe this isn't famous
an absolutely brilliant novel, concise and intense and thought-provoking while allowing for occasion bits of wry humor and, towards the murky conclusion, outright hysterics.plomer tells the story of w.p. telling the story of a dying turbott wolfe telling the story of a young turbott wolfe as he interacts with native south africans.the superficial theme of race relations my have gotten this book reprinted and heralded by nadine gordimer, but its real worth is in the character of wolfe, a bizarre combination of gatsby and prufrock (and a possible genius), ultimately failing in a great attempt of re-creation.pay special attention to plomer's cat-thought descriptions; they're fleeting but brilliant. ... Read more

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Situated at the intersection of the colonial and the postcolonial, the modern and the postmodern, the novelists Christina Stead, Doris Lessing, and Nadine Gordimer all bear witness to this century's global transformations. From the Margins of Empire looks at how the question of national identity is constructed in their writings. These authors--white women who were born or grew up in British colonies or former colonies--reflect the subject of national identity in vastly different ways in both their lives and their work. Stead, who resided outside of her native Australia, has an unsettled identity. Lessing, who grew up in southern Rhodesia and migrated to England, is or has become English. Gordimer, who was born in South Africa and remains there, considers herself South African.

Louise Yelin shows how the three writers' different national identities are inscribed in their fiction. The invented, hybrid character of nationality is, she maintains, a constant throughout. Locating the writings of Stead, Lessing, and Gordimer in the national cultures that produced and read them, she considers the questions they raise about the roles that whites, especially white women, can play in the new political and cultural order. ... Read more

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In 1991, Nadine Gordimer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Infused with the intensity of political conscience and commitment, her writings are invaluable illuminations of life in South Africa during the latter half of the twentieth century.

This is the first study to approach Gordimer from an analysis of the major thematic motifs and concers that have characterized her writing throughout her career. Andrew Vogel Ettin sees Gordimer's work as a tool not of propaganda but of understanding, a means of sharpening our perceptions of one another's lives. The thoughtful and sympathetic readings offered here, as well as the clarity and accessibility of Ettin's style, make this book an indispensable addition to the relatively small body of criticism devoted to Gordimer.

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This book should be of interest to primarily students, and anyone inte rested in contemporary fiction. ... Read more

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This is an analytical survey of the works of three notable female writers of post-colonial societies: South Africa's Nadine Gordimer, India's Nayantara Sahgal, and Nigeria's Buchi Emecheta. The author contends that the three novelists tend to subsume social and economic categorizations under one dominant mode. For Gordimer, race dictates political identity and behavior; for Sahgal, class determines the appropriateness of political leadership; while for Emecheta, gender power controls and dominates political action. The implications of this for the nature of post-colonial political fiction, according to the author, are that narrative voice and political identity are in a state of flux. The three novelists are articulate and expressive with regard to race, class and gender, and in examining them together, this book shows that the post-colonial woman is part of a plurality or continuum in which she moves in various positions, depending on what ideology is imposed on and by her. The post-colonial woman is represented as a figure that is being constantly displaced or a voice that perpetually resists within a discourse that is evolving and shifting. She is at once elite and powerless, at once subversive and exploitative. This book analyzes the attempts of these three novelists to come to terms with the neo-colonial and patriarchal ideology that surrounds and limits them. ... Read more