Reviews

A story of two families as different as they could be, and a court that wasn't as wise as Solomon when asked to choose between two women claiming the same child. Fiela Komoetie, living on the open veld, raised her white "hand-child" (adopted child) Benjamin with all the love she gave her other children, and then some, though half-knowing that the government wasn't going to allow the child to stay with her when they found out. At the other end of a landscape of contrasts, in a dark forest, lived Barta Van Rooyen who would eventually claim Benjamin. The contrast between Fiela's pride and dignity and Barta's family's scrabbling, violent, fearful lives was equally great.

This was a memorable portrait of the natural world of 19th-century South Africa, with its forests, elephants, ostriches, and birdsongs, already passing away under the axes and plows. As a depiction of the social world of the time, it was more particularistic, taking in only a few families. The author was more interested, I think, in exploring Benjamin's identity crisis, unable to identify with the family he'd been told was "his" when taken to the forest; a crisis she brought to a height by the rather obvious plot device of having him fall in love with his "sister". She was also interested in reflecting on "the power of a woman", the instinct of love and protection as she sees it, so lacking in weak Barta.

aggieags17's review

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4.0

Okay, this is a first for the books I've read for high school--I really really liked this one. I was 8 chapters behind for my next class and was catching up over break, but then I wasn't able to put it down and just finished the whole thing. I loved the ending--the book hurt me, got questionable, had some resolution to the weird stuff, and was overall really powerful and insightful. And when Benjamin came back home to the Long Kloof for the first time, Fiela's reaction killed me.

"Benjamin. A tall, beautiful man in dirty, tattered clothes but with so much pride in his blue eyes. He was no longer Benjamin, her hand-child--he was a man. A white man. Her hands wanted to reach out to him but kept hanging at her sides. Never had she thought of him as white--as grown up, yes, but never as white.

'Aren't you going to welcome me, Ma?'

Ma. He had called her ma.

Praise the Lord, O my soul! It was a dream. Selling was crying and making the most awful sounds. No--it was her." - page 302

Benjamin's identity struggle was portrayed so eloquently--there was a perfect balance of dreamy, symbolic descriptions and the simplicity of his truth. And his realization of who he was--or, who he could be--in the last chapter filled me with relief and joy.

"Who was he? What was the good of asking? There was no answer...Still, he was someone. He was somewhere. Not in his legs, not in his arms, not in his body--wait! He walked slower. He was in his body. It was like a revelation. He was in his body--and bigger than his body too: he stretched as far as the horizon, to the blue of the sky. He was trapped within a body but at the same time he was free. Lukas Van Rooyen and the seaman were dead, but he was alive and he could be whoever he wanted to be. From deep inside him surged a feeling of power that frightened him." - page 349

nosurprisethere's review

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tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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