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The Pickup Nadine Gordimer Books

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The Pickup Nadine Gordimer Books

I have only read a few books by Nadine Gordimer so I am not sure what her style is. I have found that she starts out to tell a good story and then gets bogged down in her ideals while the story and character dissolve. This was slightly less the case in this book, although I found the principal character unbelievable and unlikeable. This book, like the others of hers I have read, lacks immediacy. She breaks the rule I have always heard from my English teachers about writing, which was , " Show it to me, don't tell me about it." Gordimer is telling, in the third person, much of the time. I found the detailed description of the uncle gynecologist completely unnecessary as well as the pointless diversion of the lawsuit against him. My last difficulty with the book is probably not fair as it was written at an earlier time, but I find it difficult to believe that an independent Westernized woman like the one in this book would be so welcome, or so safe in the nameless community that is depicted here, wherever it might be. I think she would give grat offense by the failure to cover her head or otherwise dress properly and the failure of even a fictional character to behave with simple respect makes her unpleasant for me.


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The Pickup Nadine Gordimer Books Reviews

The book discusses the situation of illegal immigrants from third world Countries via the intimate and rare relationship between such an immigrant, working in a garage, and a local girl from a well to do family. The author combined her insights and views in statements rather than directly via the characters. Thus, very little is known about their inner world of emotions and thoughts. This made me feel remote and unengaged since I couldn't identify or truly understand them. It seemed to me ideas were conveyed rather than a story was told.
Filled with insight about identity and its dependence on context. A novel of existential freedom unlike any other. Beautifully crafted. A narrative of emigration and immigration.
I read this through almost in one go, it was so very interesting and amazing to read about how these cultures came together, remarkable was the ease with which she could move between countries and the utter terror and frustration that he was forced to live with.Wonderful writing, I had to look up many of the words though.
Gets the reader to think about opportunities that present themselves from a wholly different perspective. I understand the 3rd person writing style - especially in the beginning of the book was to bring the reader to understand the perceptions of the characters, but was somewhat distracting and annoying to read in the early chapters. In the end, I found the book a good choice for book club discussion - and as a point of thinking about other's choices and assumptions.
I'd never read Gordimer before but must say, I expected more. My read was from a edition and I wondered if the conversion process had screwed up the syntax, but I gather from other reviews this word placement can't be blamed on electronics.

The story started out well enough and I was able to tolerate the protagonist even though some of the plot design seemed contrived which along with the ending somehow just did not ring true. Sorry Nadine, don't think it was a great success, but I will try one of your other novels anyway just because I don't like making decisions based on one example.
A white South African beauty raised with privilege and black servants drives an old heap that breaks down in a busy intersection. At a nearby garage the beauty arranges for repairs to the old heap. Then the Nobel Laureate author works the old heap metaphor into an entrancing novel of paradise found as the garage owner assigns an overstayer (mechanic) to the repair work. You, dear reader, are very unlikely to see the ending coming as the novel crosses continents of lifestyle, racial prejudice, religion, social mobility and geography.
Two people, in lust, eventually love, knowing almost nothing about each other's culture or how people think in the other's language system, marry and move to the man's home. The man, Abdu/Ibrahim, wants to leave his home, his powerful Mother and large supportive family and seek a life elsewhere in the world. BUT, which country would take a man from this country so impoverished that no other country could/will possibly want him--what in the world would/could Ibrahim contribute to the new country? Julie, white, from a weathy family, living in rebellion in her own country, accommodating herself to Ibraham's family, culture, language, loving though unable to understand her husband's system of thinking, wants to stay with Ibraham's family, not immigrate. Within this complex story, written in sentences that burst with information, with emotion, with explanations of varying cultural and personality differences, gets to the reader. What will happen next? How do we live, knowing just the surface of each other, wanting to love and NOT to hurt our beloved, also needing to be a couple yet trying to satisfy our own personal needs? This book was for me, a most unusual immigration story, and I have read many immigration stories in my long lifetime. To understand the way in which Nadine Gordimer wrote the book, her sentence structure, her ability to move back and forth from personal to cultural thinking and back again, to give us the essence of a person in just a few words, one must read this book to appreciate its structure and its power. I wish that I were better able to express to you how powerful I found this book, which I am sure will stay with me for a long, long time. NanS
I have only read a few books by Nadine Gordimer so I am not sure what her style is. I have found that she starts out to tell a good story and then gets bogged down in her ideals while the story and character dissolve. This was slightly less the case in this book, although I found the principal character unbelievable and unlikeable. This book, like the others of hers I have read, lacks immediacy. She breaks the rule I have always heard from my English teachers about writing, which was , " Show it to me, don't tell me about it." Gordimer is telling, in the third person, much of the time. I found the detailed description of the uncle gynecologist completely unnecessary as well as the pointless diversion of the lawsuit against him. My last difficulty with the book is probably not fair as it was written at an earlier time, but I find it difficult to believe that an independent Westernized woman like the one in this book would be so welcome, or so safe in the nameless community that is depicted here, wherever it might be. I think she would give grat offense by the failure to cover her head or otherwise dress properly and the failure of even a fictional character to behave with simple respect makes her unpleasant for me.