thetoreadlistpodcast's review against another edition
5.0
"People are lining up at Borders, because the new Paton is DROPPING." - Episode 127, CRY, THE BELOVED HYPOTHESIS
https://sites.libsyn.com/150491/cry-the-beloved-hypothesis
https://sites.libsyn.com/150491/cry-the-beloved-hypothesis
nglofile's review against another edition
4.0
re-read several times, including 11/98
re-read (audio) 10/10: Though the story is just as lyrical and engaging many times over, I wasn't as impressed with narrator Michael York's interpretation. Still this remains one of the most hauntingly beautiful stories of forgiveness, perseverance, understanding, and character that I've ever read.
re-read (audio) 10/10: Though the story is just as lyrical and engaging many times over, I wasn't as impressed with narrator Michael York's interpretation. Still this remains one of the most hauntingly beautiful stories of forgiveness, perseverance, understanding, and character that I've ever read.
16swest's review against another edition
4.0
This book had a big impact on me when i discovered it in high school. At the time it was published, apartheid began, and it would another 40 years or so before it’s end.
Never had I read such a beautiful ending so filled with hope and courage, it brought me to tears. I experienced the rising sun through Paton’s words. I don’t remember much but I remember that, and think of it often.
Never had I read such a beautiful ending so filled with hope and courage, it brought me to tears. I experienced the rising sun through Paton’s words. I don’t remember much but I remember that, and think of it often.
seeceeread's review against another edition
2.5
💭 "I have lived my life in destruction."
Stephen Kumalo, a Zulu pastor, treks to Johannesburg to find his sister and his son.
Paton's ethics are a bit facile; he's insufficiently attentive to context and realistic motivations, and reaches pat moral conclusions. The secondary details of the book are much more interesting to me than the central characters or their plot lines. In particular, Kumalo's brother has abandoned the church and finnagles his own son out of charges. He's tossed out as selfish and dangerous, yet I'm drawn to his political oratory on the power of South African laborers to demand change. The author mentions mining and a bus boycott and challenges with housing, but obliquely – our MC mostly doesn't grapple with these.
Paton's misogynoir is hard to overlook. Black women are terribly depicted. As he opens, he literally likens Kumalo's wife to a beast of burden, telling us she's like an ox in "mute and patient suffering." Other women are expendable for any whisper of sexuality ... or virtuous only when they patronizingly patrol other women's behaviors, including laughter and eye contact.
The introduction sang of a bold, critical novel on South African apartheid. Not quite.
Stephen Kumalo, a Zulu pastor, treks to Johannesburg to find his sister and his son.
Spoiler
He finds the first easily; Gertrude is a prostitute with a young son and accepts his invitation to return to their childhood home. His son, Absalom, is harder to track; they finally reunite because the youth is detained for the accidental death of a man whose home he planned to rob. After some deliberation, Absalom is sentenced to death and Kumalo must go home with his new, pregnant daughter-in-law instead of his son. There, the umfundisi finds that the father of the man his son killed has had a dramatic change of politics and orchestrates new investments in the land and people of his desolate valley.Paton's ethics are a bit facile; he's insufficiently attentive to context and realistic motivations, and reaches pat moral conclusions. The secondary details of the book are much more interesting to me than the central characters or their plot lines. In particular, Kumalo's brother has abandoned the church and finnagles his own son
Spoiler
(also present at the murder)Paton's misogynoir is hard to overlook. Black women are terribly depicted. As he opens, he literally likens Kumalo's wife to a beast of burden, telling us she's like an ox in "mute and patient suffering." Other women are expendable for any whisper of sexuality ... or virtuous only when they patronizingly patrol other women's behaviors, including laughter and eye contact.
The introduction sang of a bold, critical novel on South African apartheid. Not quite.
dan_oyei's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
really enjoyed this book, especially the prose and the way it flowed. the beginning chapters of the first two parts and they juxtaposition really vividly set the the scene. i also admired how, akin to wole soyinka's writing of yoruba speech in death and the king's horseman, zulu is heaver and richer with proverbs than other languages despite the novel being written in english.
i also like that even though this book is clearly pro-Christianity, it didn't shy away from the fact that in times of trouble in a community, the church should not just sit back but instead take the right stance, and how not doing that could stifle progress. the black people who criticised the church for not doing anything in the fight to end apartheid were completely right, and i wish they had been given more of a voice.
this book did not have an overwhelmingly complicated or heavy plot, which i appreciated. in its simplicity, it was able to transfer the atmosphere of the story and the behaviours of the people in it. the ever-present backdrop of apartheid taught me a lot about the period of time in south africa and how people lived under it.
overall, this book was really an experience to read, and i would recommend it as it's a short but poignant read.
i also like that even though this book is clearly pro-Christianity, it didn't shy away from the fact that in times of trouble in a community, the church should not just sit back but instead take the right stance, and how not doing that could stifle progress. the black people who criticised the church for not doing anything in the fight to end apartheid were completely right, and i wish they had been given more of a voice.
this book did not have an overwhelmingly complicated or heavy plot, which i appreciated. in its simplicity, it was able to transfer the atmosphere of the story and the behaviours of the people in it. the ever-present backdrop of apartheid taught me a lot about the period of time in south africa and how people lived under it.
overall, this book was really an experience to read, and i would recommend it as it's a short but poignant read.
emma_lynn_writes's review against another edition
5.0
Cry, the Beloved Country is one of my favorite classics. Paton manages to capture both the beauty and the darkness of South Africa in the 1940s with this story of two fathers and two sons whose stories begin to interweave when the worst happens. If you love beautiful writing, this book is for you. If you love compelling yet flawed characters, this book is for you. If you love books that engage with serious social and political issues, this book is for you.
wifeslife's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
kemunto's review against another edition
5.0
If there's anything I'll never forget about this book, it'll be how beautiful Alan Paton writes. Just like Wole Soyinka, Alan Paton has quite the exceptional ability to use words in a way I rarely see. I also found it rather folorn( it made me cried a little)