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A review by moviebuffkt
The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
1.0
I read a comment on GoodReads that said something about this being the kind of book where you read each sentence multiple times and still have no idea what is going on.
Another commenter said "This book makes you feel stupid while you read it, but smart when you tell every one of your friends that you finished it." This is the comment I most agree with. I just... did not get this book. At all. And I was frustrated because I felt like I was missing something. In The Guardian review, it is noted that this is "a book that demands respect, but is hard to love." I feel much the same way about the main character, Mehring. Although... I don't think he deserved respect. He's just hard to love...
Mehring was a sexual predator, and his vanity and isolation set the tone for the book. Themes of death, and a return to the earth were poignant, as were the issues of cross-cultural racism found in S. Africa, but through the frame of the novel, I could not easily cull these story lines.
Another commenter said "This book makes you feel stupid while you read it, but smart when you tell every one of your friends that you finished it." This is the comment I most agree with. I just... did not get this book. At all. And I was frustrated because I felt like I was missing something. In The Guardian review, it is noted that this is "a book that demands respect, but is hard to love." I feel much the same way about the main character, Mehring. Although... I don't think he deserved respect. He's just hard to love...
Mehring was a sexual predator, and his vanity and isolation set the tone for the book. Themes of death, and a return to the earth were poignant, as were the issues of cross-cultural racism found in S. Africa, but through the frame of the novel, I could not easily cull these story lines.