| It's South Africa in the 50s, and John is a first-in-his-class high school student with an afrikaner last name in a classroom of English boys. He feels different in many ways. He's not a lonely kid, he just happens to have different preferences, such as liking the russians more than the americans. He's got problems with his father, he doesn't love him, and the struggle with his mother is of a love and hate relationship.
This memoirs soon become a rich-in-details story of a boy growing up in the country of apartheid. There's discrimination for being white, black or afrikaner, for speaking English or Afrikaans, and for living in the province or Cape Town. There are not many hints of John as the future author of 'Waiting for the Barbarians' or 'Disgrace', but the young John is seen going frequently to the public library and even faking illness to read books (borrowed from there) lying in bed. Shakespeare's 'Titus Andronicus', 'Coriulanus' and 'Macbeth' are among his readings here, along with an 'Encyclopedia for Children'. | ||
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Plot & Themes Kids growing up/acting up? Yes Kids: - general coming of age story Ethnic/Relig. of subject (inside) Ethnic/regional/gender Yes Period of greatest activity? - 1950+ Subject of Biography Gender - Male Profession/status: Ethnicity - White Nationality - British Setting How much descriptions of surroundings? - 4 () Africa Yes Kind of Africa: - White Enclave Century: - 1930's-1950's Writing Style Book makes you feel? - concerned How much dialogue in bio? - significantly more descript than dialog How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life? - 0-25% of book |
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