G is STILL for Gordimer

So I just finished reading "The Conservationist". What an odd book. That is my main impression. I feel like I should have gotten more out of in, in that I feel like there were plot elements that I just didn't get.

The book is very famous because it was written at the height of the apartheid and it contrasts the experience of a rich, white Afrikaaner with the blacks who works on his "hobby" farm in the country.

I found it a bit hard to follow.

There was also a lot of sex weirdly entwined in it. This made the book creepy and confusing at times.

I did like though, the way the landscape/the land was almost a character itself in the book. All of the people in the book, even through their vastly different cultural and economic experiences had connections with/ feelings for the land, though in very different ways. So I liked that. It was also short.

I never got into any of the characters, except for being grossed out by the main character, but I think that was the point (he thinks hes above the whole apartheid thing, just looking out for himself, apolitical my ass).

I wish I had more to say about this book but it just never really grabbed me and I had a hard time following it.

In any case, Im onto my next book, yay!