"G" is for Gordimer

And thus, with Ben Franklin tossed to the wayside (returned to the UWM library) I moved onto G, with Nadine Gordimer. Nadine Gordimer is a pretty famous author of South African literature. I don't know that much about the genre but I decided I wanted to try something new and I had also read Coetzee who is also South African I believe and I like African studies in general so I went with it.

So far, its an up and down book for me. At times I find it difficult to stay engaged, the characters, for me are still developing, I am not wedded (yet) to finding out yet what happens to these characters.

The main character is a Dutch, jewish businessman who buys a farm in the country to entertain himself on the weekends. At first I was very lukewarm with him, he didn't give you a lot to go on, didn't find out much about how he felt about what was going on in his life. Now, Im starting to dislike him because I just read a chapter with a rather, I feel, pervy scene in it. I do though, like that I feel he respects the Africans working on his farm MORE than the other farmers, not to say that he treats them with the utmost respect but he definitely spends time with more different kind of people than the men he works with and farms with.

Jacobus, the African who is in charge of the main guy's (can't remember his name at the moment) farm is interesting. He has to balance between making his boss happy and try to do the best he can for the rest of his community, who needs him to set them up with jobs etc.

There is also an interesting plot developing with the Indian community who is very insular and isolated and a bit adversarial with both the whites and the Africans.

But again, the book is I guess I would say minimalist so far. I couldn't describe a whole lot what has happened plot wise, even though Im like halfway through the book or why its called the "Conservationist". Hopefully next post I can connect these things together.