It did not capture my interest or enthusiasm, but I was curious about why I did not like this book. NZ as another colonized country, has always been politically (it wasn’t just sports) tied with/to SA and this book did not inform me in the way that it might do for people of other nations/ countries. In no way would I claim that NZ is not racist but when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s my parents boycotted SA products in protest against the regime there. I’m quite a few years older that the author and I’m a NZer. It’s sense of authority and it’s lack of emotional engagement, which is in this case, I’m aware, a literary device. It certainly speaks to me in that way the very epitome of an apartheid “voice”. My impression is that this is a very masculine reading which seemed at odds with its main character - unless of course you think of SA as the main character. I have never felt quite so strongly about how much a reader can influence one’s appreciation. Had I actually read this book, I may have felt differently about it. This story was deeply affected by the reader’s voice.
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