Book Club #6: C, TBC

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “-It was a lingo I knew nothing about, thank God. But he ought to know it, so he took lessons in it, and we went to an Afrikaner farm. He spoke Zulu as you know, but he was talking of learning Sesto. You know these native M.P.’s they have-well, there was talk of getting him to stand at the next election.”	172	·         (R) I have reached part two of the book. In part one the readers see the woe of the father of the killer. In part two, we see the woe of the father of the killed. The people in this part of this book our white, English-speaking South Africans. Everything, like the flow of the book and the way the people talk has changed. The only thing that’s the same is the setting.

Book Club #5: C, TBC

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “-You are in a decent home, my child. ·         -Yes, mother, says the girl with downcast eyes. ·         -And you were brought here by a good and kindly man, so good that there is no word for it. ·         The girl looked up at her eagerly. I know it, she said. ·         -Then if you are content to be brought by him, you will not laugh so carelessly. ·         -Yes, mother. ·         -You are but a child, and laughter is good for a child. But there is one kind of laugh and there is another. ·         -You understand what I mean? ·         -I understand you completely.”	152	·         (R) Alan Paton, you’ve lost me. How can someone have a bad kind of laugh? What is this? Due to the things that happened earlier in the book. I’m assuming that Absoloms baby mama “used to be” a prostitute or something (I think that she is still one- I don’t think she’s pregnant with Absoloms child!) and that when Mrs. Lithebe was talking about her laughter, she meant that she could hear the promiscuity in her laugh. I’m not exactly sure though. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a ‘careless laugh’ being a bad thing.

Book Club #4: C, TBC

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “Or does he weep for himself alone, to be let be, to be let alone, to be free of the merciless rain of questions, why, why, why, when he does not know why. They do not speak with him, they do not jest with him, they do not sit and let him be, but they ask, ask, ask, why, why, why, -his father, he white man, the prison officers, the police, the magistrates, -why, why, why.”	132	·         (R) I’m not exactly sure what Paton was attempting to do with this passage. Does he want the readers to feel sympathetic towards Kumalos son? Because I feel anything but sympathy for Absolom. He stole, abandoned a woman pregnant with his child then shot and killed somebody and wants people to sit around and “jest with him”? He must be out of his mind. It almost seems like the reader was meant not to like him before they were even introduced to him. If this passage was meant to appeal Absolom to the reader, to make it seem like “Oh, he’s caught up in so much stuff, he just needs a break”, then I think the author failed. Miserably.

Book Group #3: C, TBC

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “-You do not understand he said. The child will be my grandchild. ·         -Even that you do not know, said Msimangu angrily. His bitterness mastered him again. And if he were, he said, how many more such have you? Shall we search them out, day after day, hour after hour? Will it ever end? ·         Kumalo stood in the dust like one who has been struck. Then without speaking any more he took his seat in the car.”	100	·         (R) It’s been 100 pages and Kumalo is no closer to finding his son than he was at the beginning. Instead he’s learned how his son has run from place to place, leaving behind a bad reputation. He went from being a possible thief, to being a man that was at the very top of his game at the reformatory, to being the kind of man who would get a girl pregnant, than run away. I am not even sure if Kumalos son is worth all the running around. Honestly, the boy’s father is a reverend. You would think he wouldn’t be so … messed up.

Book Club #2: Cry, the Beloved Country

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “-That is a bad thing, she said, but she spoke as one speaks who must speak so. ·         -It is a bad thing, he said, and I cannot leave you until you have told what you would not tell.”	78	·         (R) Alan Paton, the author of this book, sometimes writes like he is the South African Dr. Seuss or something. He has a habit of repeating things, so just in case you didn’t catch it the first time, you’ll be sure to catch it the third time. This book took a while to get into- I wasn’t really feeling it the first 20 pages or so. It’s getting better though. The characters move very quickly. Their travels from one place to another take about a paragraph.

Book Club Reading Blog #1: Cry, The Beloved Country

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “Already the knees are weak of the man who a moment since had shown his little vanity, told his little lie, before these respectful people. ·         The humble man reached into his pocket for his sacred book, and began to read. It was this world alone that was certain.”	44	·         (R) I’m not exactly sure what to say about this book. I don’t think I like the story so far, but it’s getting better. The way the author, Alan Paton, writes is weird at times. He doesn’t really describe what the characters are doing all that often, so I’m not sure if they are walking, or just sitting in living room or what. I liked the quote though.  In the last sentence it says that Kumalo could only be certain of that world that he’s reading about in his “sacred book” which I took to mean the bible since he is a priest. I just wonder- what world? The world of the biblical days? Or maybe God’s “world”, like heaven? I like how I was forced to think for myself instead of just being told.

Dialectical Journal #40: Something, Maybe

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “’Sorry about the interruption,’ Jackson says. ‘I’ll take care of the travel arrangements, all right? And Hannah-I can’t wait to see the city with you again.’ ·         I don’t say anything, knowing he’ll keep going.  And sure enough, he does. ·         ‘I love you too,’ Jackson says, as smoothly as if I’d actually said it to him first, or at all. ‘I’d tell you how to find me when the limo brings you in from the airport and drops you at the hotel, but then I’ll be easy to spot-just look for all the beautiful women and I’ll be there!’ ·         Then he hangs up. Just like that, like the five years of silence means nothing-and it does, it means nothing to him and I hate that- but I force myself to make a wry fact at Mom and hand the phone back to her. ‘Show crap.’” ·	52	·         (R) So not only is this girl the daughter of an internet stripper (I’m not exactly sure if those exist but I will call her that anyway) but she’s also the daughter of this Hugh Hefner like character. Her father (James Jackson) has his own T.V show, which stars many young beautiful women while showing the life of a 72 year old bachelor. I must say, Hannah is one strong girl. If I was her I would cry myself a river and then attempt to drown in it. Having one of those parents is hard enough but having both is just too much.