Crimes of Conscience was the first contact I had with Gordimer's work. I found these stories to grab my attention- by focusing in on the happenings in fictitious individual's lives she comments in a profound way on life in South Africa before and immediately following apartheid rule. I gave the book four stars rather than five because as you read more and more stories the startling nature of her story telling becomes a little repetative and loses its effect somewhat. After reading this book I was interested enough to pick up more and more of Gordimer's books- she is an excellent writer. Definitely worth reading.

A select group of 20th century South African Jewish writers are incorporated into this delightful and literary expressive book. The life experiences of the writers represented, are within the context of recent South African history and in part the tragedy of the racial divisions and "apartheid" that characterized it. The majority of the contributors born and reared in Johannesburg, reflect the liberal thinking of that community and their concerns and anxieties as they live their experiences. A couple of the writers have either been born or are immediate issue of Jewish communities in Latin America, later transplanted to South Africa. One or another express their disapproval of the American firms operating in the region at the time, but in general terms these are well written short essays and interesting at that. It is worth hearing these voices.

This collection of short stories gives a view of one woman's observations of the people and culture of South Africa. The stories are cleverly written and very thought provoking. The first story I read, The Catch, was a little difficult to understand. After reading one more, The Bridegroom, I was hooked and enjoyed many more.

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 minutiae of daily life in 1950s South Africa. Gordimer juxtaposes the dim sameness and shallow veneer of the lavish excess of white South African society life with the restricted and sometimes chaotic lives of the South African blacks. Gordimer contrasts these polarities facilely, telling the story through the eyes of her reluctant protagonist, Toby Hood, an outsider who arrives from England to work in South Africa. Toby slides in and out of the two realities, noticing the differences from the point of view of someone who is never quite on the inside.

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

Gordimer's lasting impression lies in the voices of her characters. All multidimensional and playing key roles in Toby's life. Anna Louw, an attorney, voices parts of Toby's conscience. "`What had you expected?' she asked with patient interest. With her you felt that your most halting utterance was given full attention .This scrutiny of the cliches of perfunctory communication, the hit-or-miss of words inadequate either to express or conceal, embarrassed me. Like most people, I do not mean half of what I say, and I cannot say half of what I mean; and I do not care to be made self-conscious of this. Much that is to be communicated is not stated; but she was the kind of person who accepts nothing until there has 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 of Toby's life, the one of all too human desires. He cares for her, makes love with her, is part of her life, but even so, she is not really a part of his because there is so much of himself that he cannot convey to her.

Most important 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's thoughtful meanderings are only idle thought. Toby never reevaluated his life and how he lived it until a tragedy forced Toby to see things in a new way.

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

Jump starts off with a complicated short story and follows up with a series of diverse pieces which make you question our society's values. Although she never outright accuses us of anything, she forces us to consider our cultural practices and beliefs in an attempt to make us sensitive to the world around us.

Nadine Gordimer's writing in Jump was amazing. As an English Major, I can honestly say that this book was one of the few that actually had me anxious to turn the page. The way that Gordimer leaves the endings wide open for interpretation has the reader questioning the intent of the author as well as the characters.

N. Gordimer writes with a very gripping style. I found myself engrosed in many of her stories. Some critical and polemic issues are treated with an approach that will leave a reader with many a deep thought.

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.

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 feel engaged by the story nor the insights Gordimer offers. Part of what makes Gordimer so appealing is her ability to put into words what most people just think and cannot articulate. As well, Gordimer puts fresh perspectives on various issues that make her work constantly thought-provoking. I felt a bit deflated upon discovering that None to Accompany Me was not going to offer the same sort of stimuli.

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.

_My Son's Story_ is told by Will, the son of a former schoolmaster, a light skinned, "colored," anti-Apartheid activist in South Africa. Will and his family live in an uneasy peace amongst white Afrikaans. Will's father is known by his sobriquet, Sonny, by the blacks who admire him and depend upon his leadership against the virulent racism endemic in South Africa in those years. The family has to endure Sonny's intermittant jailings related to his political struggles as well as Sonny's love affair with a white woman, named Hannah, who also shares Sonny's anti-Apartheid commitment. Later on, Sonny's beloved daughter, called Baby by everyone, also becomes involved in the anti-Apartheid movement. The most sympathetic person in the book is Aila, Sonny's quiet, dignified wife and mother to Will, who seemingly inadvertently, but inevitably, surplants Sonny as the political activist in the family. Will's particular closeness to Aila and his resentments toward Sonny are the stuff of Greek tragedy.

Unfortunately, Ms. Gordimer's overly convoluted and intellectualized style of writing caused me to often feel distanced from her characters. The result is a novel that frequently falls dead in its tracks. Fortunately, Ms. Gordimer does occasionally write forcefully. It is in these places that her message is communicated clearly and effectively.

Nadine Gordimer deserves her Nobel Prize, her books are wonderful and terrifying and frustrating and enlightening all at once.

Gordimer's world is the world of the white anti apartheid activist (at the time of this book). She writes what she knows and it's an unusual and interesting perspective. My Son's Story is a political book no doubt but told from a very personal space, which is the mark of a great story. Thing is, Gordimer doesn't always write in the most accessible of ways, it is often difficult to get to the larger point she's trying to make, you know it's there but you have to work hard to get it and frankly, there were times when I wasn't sure I was seeing what she wanted me to see. Gordimer likes to use literary tools to make these macro points, lots of metaphor and at times, it's tiring to try and keep up, I did quite a bit of going back and re-reading. That said, I believe this to be a great book, it's worth the work I put in but frustrating as well.

I encourage others to read Gordimer for her insights into a culture which is thankfully nearly dead by now. Just go into it knowing that this is not a casual beach read, but you know, a good book sometimes takes work.

Gordimer's intricate tale of an educated black family struggling with the evils of apartheid is most noteworthy for its rich characterization. The story is told primarily by Will, the teenage son of anti-apartheid activist Sonny. Will acknowledges the horrors of the political situation around him but is painfully affected by the domestic consequences of social change (first his father's affair with white activist Hannah, and later his mother's imprisonment).

The complexity of the writing is necessary for conveying the emotional weight of the story. The chapters alternate (roughly) between the first person narration of Will and a third person account of the unfolding situation. This allows the reader to experience the pain and ambivalence Will feels, while also making the reader aware of the secrets that the family members keep from each other.

I disagree with the other reviewers that Gordimer's work is overly cerebral (if you want to see pretentious, dry, and overintellectualized, check out fellow African author J. M. Coetzee... yawn). My Son's Story is brilliantly realized in terms of both form and content. Without its complexity, the book would not be as believable, heartfelt, or utterly tragic... although I probably wouldn't have appreciated it in the ninth grade either.

As it was already mentioned, this book is very complex and difficult to read. It takes a while for you to get used to the odd style. I think it was a good book for showing the problems and misunderstandings between whites and blacks and the fact that it showed you the daily, everyday life in the village. I did not like the ending at all, it leaves the reader asking "What actually happened?", although this is not uncommon in this book. I would recommend this book for people who want to be challenged and want a good read about South Africa and their people.

The legendary Ms. Gordimer has - again - produced a superb novel - easily the equal of her other works - with the added feature of a completely unique - and utterly delightful - approach to the use of punctuation - which consists of using dashes - and plenty of them - in place of the usual punctuation marks - with this highly interesting approach - Ms. Gordimer indulges her sense of adventure - and challenges the reader - this is a stroke of pure genius - and firmly re-establishes her as one of the finest authors in the world -

As an expatriate south african, I can safely say that Nadine gordimers' "July's People" has had an impact that I have not felt since Brink's "Dry White Season". Gordimer captures perfectly the energy, volatility, and sweet sadness of the African experience, and I speak of that experience from a colour-blind place. The fluid prose and Doctorow-like economy of punctuation gives the reader the true flavour of the culture. I cannot recommend Ms. Gordimer more highly. Her contribution to the expansive and glorious solemnity of African literature puts her in much the same league as Credo Mutwe and the luminary Laurens Van Der Post.
Read July's Children. Give yourself time, because you will be stopping to weep at regular intervals.