Nadine Gordimer: Get A Life

[chika]

Just read Nadine Gordimer's Get a Life. I started off really liking it but about fifteen pages in, I had had enough of its experimental stlye. It has no dialogue and the writing draws too much attention to itself, so much so that the story is almost lost. The ordinary is rhapsodized to the extent that one no longer recognizes it ( believe me, not always a good thing). for example, when a daughter-in-law and a father-in-law go out for dinner, Gordimer tells us,
His father had chosen what he thought would be her kind of place.She wanted to respond to this wish to please, to divert- and- was it - console both the father and herself by breaking breas, drinking wine in a cobenant of those invidsible lines that must exist, unthought of, unrecognised in the Christmas pecks on the chjeek, between the one who generated from his body, the son, and the one who receives the son in hers.

And on and on it goes.

On a somewhat related note ( I think (-:)I am at the Mantuva festival ( massive!) and having a wonderful time. I was on a panel with nadine Gordimer yesterday and I have another panel on Saturday. The festival kit includes a pair of designer sunglasses (-: and met my Italian editor for the first time yesterday

[Daniel del Real]

Chika, I had the same problem when I tried reading Gordimer. I started reading Burger's Daughter, and although I tried I stopped at page 100 aprox. However I'd like to try with another one of her novels, maybe July's People.
I'm open to any recommendations so I can re-start with Gordimer.

[Stewart]

Chika, I had the same problem when I tried reading Gordimer. I started reading Burger's Daughter, and although I tried I stopped at page 100 aprox. However I'd like to try with another one of her novels, maybe July's People.
July's People (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/african-literature/51-nadine-gordimer-julys-people.html) is the one I'd suggest. I remember little of Get A Life, which I read when it was Booker longlisted a few years back, and found to be a bit of an unrewarding read.

[Beth]

And I'd suggest The Pick Up. It's been a few years since reading it, but I found the story, that of a wealthy girl who becomes involved with a man who is both outside her social class and nationality, to be authentically and memorably told. The last few pages are tremendous and the novel has remained one of my favorites.

[ferns_dad]

I thought the House Gun was pretty good

[ferns_dad]

and Jump.........

[Stiffelio]

Chika, I had the same problem when I tried reading Gordimer. I started reading Burger's Daughter, and although I tried I stopped at page 100 aprox. However I'd like to try with another one of her novels, maybe July's People.
I'm open to any recommendations so I can re-start with Gordimer.

Gordimer is a challenging, sometimes cryptically difficult writer to read but ultimately, once you get into her rhythm, she is very rewarding. Once you finish one of her books it will stay in your mind for a long time. Burger's Daughter is perhaps her darkest book and the subject matter maybe dated (it was published in 1979 and soon banned in South Africa). Maybe it was a wrong choice as a first approach to Gordimer. She's a die-hard social realist type of writer and, although I not always agree with her messages, I find she's piercingly intelligent. Her best books from that period (and I should say her best overall) are The Conservationist and July's People. Other books of hers I liked very much were My Son's Story and, more recently, None to Accompany Me. Her stories are wonderful too. Her best collections are IMO Something out there and Jump. But don't rush through them; take your time, read one story, put the book to rest for a while and then read the next one. So....don't give up on Gordimer. I hope you enjoy this fabulous writer next time.

[ferns_dad]

again, recco's for The House Gun. Pretty nice book about the transitions happening in S Africa. Told thru the story of an interesting murder story, pretty hard for me to put down. Especially recco'd for beachtime/vaction lit

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_H/house_gun1.asp

[chika]

Thanks for all the recommendations.
Gordimer- of course- is very important for the issues she has chosen to deal with, especially at the time she began writing.

[Daniel del Real]

Gordimer is a challenging, sometimes cryptically difficult writer to read but ultimately, once you get into her rhythm, she is very rewarding. Once you finish one of her books it will stay in your mind for a long time. Burger's Daughter is perhaps her darkest book and the subject matter maybe dated (it was published in 1979 and soon banned in South Africa). Maybe it was a wrong choice as a first approach to Gordimer. She's a die-hard social realist type of writer and, although I not always agree with her messages, I find she's piercingly intelligent. Her best books from that period (and I should say her best overall) are The Conservationist and July's People. Other books of hers I liked very much were My Son's Story and, more recently, The Pickup. Her stories are wonderful too. Her best collections are IMO Something out there and Jump. But don't rush through them; take your time, read one story, put the book to rest for a while and then read the next one. So....don't give up on Gordimer. I hope you enjoy this fabulous writer next time.

Thanks for the tips Stiffelio. I had the opportunity to see Gordimer live in a conference three years ago and she is a very clever and intelligent woman. I really loved her speech and immediately ran to get one of her books. As you said ( and I've always thought the same), it was maybe the wrong approach, maybe the book, time, etc. Of course I'm not planning to abandon her works. I'll get July's People next time