Title: Tsotsi
Author: Athol Fugard
Genre: fiction
ISBN: 9780802142689
Length: 226 pages
Published: 1980
Source: public library
Rating: 3/5
Challenges/Resolutions: Around the World in 12 Books Challenge (2012); Years of Books Resolution (2012); Years of Books Goal (lifetime)

Summary (from Goodreads):

Set amid the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto, where survival is the primary objective, Tsotsi traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader. When we meet Tsotsi, he is a man without a name (tsotsi is Afrikaans for hoodlum ) who has repressed his past and now exists only to stage and execute vicious crimes. When he inadvertently kidnaps a baby, Tsotsi is confronted with memories of his own painful childhood, and this angry young man begins to rediscover his own humanity, dignity, and capacity to love.

I haven’t ever really read a book quite like this. Firstly, the beginning of this book shocked me more than any other book beginning I’ve ever come across. There was a gruesome and ruthless murder of a quite innocent man by Tsotsi’s little gang. Secondly, the story was a little hard to follow at some points, as far as the flow of the story went. I have to be honest that reading this before bed was difficult because it’d put me to sleep. That’s not because it was boring or uninteresting. While I was interested in the overall story, the way it was written made me uninterested in actually reading it.

I read this book to complete the first month of Shannon at Giraffe Days’ Around the World in 12 Books Challengefor 2012 which was South Africa. To discuss the book a little more, here are some questions Shannon came up with for the challenge:

1) What did you learn about the country’s culture, history etc. from reading this book? Any new insights, any shifts in your perception, or did it align with what you knew/understood already?

2) How did land, geography, flora and fauna feature in the book? Did it have a distinct feel that helped you visualise and made you feel like you were there, or was the story more focused on plot?

3) Did the story make you want to visit/revisit the country, or explore it in a new way if you live there already; did it make you want to read more stories set in the country?

1) Unfortunately, I don’t think I really learned that much about South Africa, or even about Johannesburg. The setting of the story could have the book taking place in any larger city in a “poorer”, post-colonial country. The “white man’s money” alluded to a society of non-white people and “Native Administration” (as a governmental department) told me that it was a post-colonial society. (Why would they say “native” if there had never been a majority–or ruling class–of non-natives at one point?) But this doesn’t even mean the story would have to take place in Africa–it could easily be South America or Asia! Regardless, I was a little sad that there wasn’t much to the story that wasn’t at the surface, at least not from my reading. Maybe I would have found more complexities had I been familiar with the culture of South Africa. But, for the most part, all I saw was a story about a teenage thug who realized, in the end, he didn’t have to be a bad person.

2) This story was definitely more focused on plot than on description. This might have been part of the reason I didn’t feel the story flowed very well. The story is written in such a way that assumes the reader is familiar with the environment–I am not up on all that is to do with 1980 Johannesburg, sadly. There was mention of some slums and some ruins, factories, train stations, beggars, queues for water, and shebeens. But these seem to be basic elements of a “bad part” of a town.

3) Seeing as the story took place in an environment filled with robbery and thugs, I don’t particularly wish to visit there. I would not mind reading more about South Africa. And I suppose I think it’d be nice to say I wouldn’t want to read the obvious books that have a lot to do with apartheid. But, for some reason, I assume any contemporary fiction set in South Africa should have an element to do with apartheid. I know that’s wrong, but I guess–and I hate to admit it–that I feel I’d be uninterested if it didn’t have that as part of the story.

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About the Author

Harold Athol Lannigan Fugard (b. June 11, 1932, Middelburg, South Africa), better known as Athol Fugard, is a South African playwright, actor, and director. His wife, Sheila Fugard, and their daughter, Lisa Fugard, are also writers.

Working in the court environment and seeing how the Africans suffered under the past laws provided Fugard with a firsthand insight into the injustice and pain of apartheid. The political slant of his plays bought him into conflict with the government. In order to avoid prosecution, he started to take his plays overseas. After Blood Knot, was produced in England, his passport was withdrawn for four years. In 1962, he publicly supported an international boycott against segregated theatre audiences which led to further restrictions.

He is an adjunct professor of playwriting, acting, and directing in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego. For academic year 2000–2001, he was the IU Class of 1963 Wells Scholar Professor at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana. The recipient of many awards, honors, and honorary degrees, including the 2005 Order of Ikhamanga in Silver “for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre” from the government of South Africa, he is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

(information about Fugard is copied, in parts, from Goodreads and Amazon.com)

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Here is the very simple story of how I came to choose this book for this challenge. Made of Honor is a really funny movie and in it there is a discussion about the name of Athol (which sounds a lot like “asshole” with a lisp). When I was looking up South African authors, my eye was caught by Athol Fugard and I immediately thought of this movie clip and determined to read one of his books. Simply because his name was Athol…

I chose for this second portion of the book to focus on Dantes’ prison stint. Therefore, it takes place from Chapter 8, The Chateau d’If to Chapter 20, The Cemetery of the Chateau d’If.

a little sad I don't have this edition--so pretty, and I love the duel on the binding

Synopsis so far (continued from Section 1 post): Dantes has been sent to prison, even though Villefort had promised to keep him from that punishment–the readers, of course, were aware of this scheme from the beginning. Villefort does travel to Paris as a result of that letter, resulting in two important events: an audience with Louis XVIII, in which he receives a medal of honor; and a meeting with Noirtier, his father, to warn him of his Bonapartist actions. Meanwhile, Dantes is imprisoned at the Chateau d’If, a prison filled with Bonapartist supporters. Be earns a room in the dungeons with his attempts to break free, but this is the best thing for him. It is in the dungeons that Dantes becomes acquainted with his neighbor, Abbe Faria, who had dug tunnels to escape himself. The two men become quite close and it is Faria who helps Dantes see who has wronged him to help him achieve entrance to the prison. And Faria, known as the Mad Abbe to the guards, tells Dantes of a treasure worth millions–but Faria passes away, leaving Dantes the chance for escape and to seek the treasure.

And the scene is set…

The first time I read this book, it was for high school and I was so “busy”. I skipped a lot of the middle of the story, picking it back up later (and being really intrigued, leading to my re-read of the entire abridged book). It was during this section that I put down the book. I have to be honest: this part of the book isn’t too terribly interesting. I tried to make the summary of this part of the book as interesting as possible and trust me–what might seem good in the summary is really and truly the only interesting stuff over a 150-pages.

I haven’t read much French literature from the mid-1800s, such as this book. But I hear French authors from the time period, such as Dumas and Victor Hugo, LOVE to include a lot of context. I did read The Three Musketeers–which is very different from the 1990s Disney movie–and I found it soooo boring, probably for this reason, though I didn’t realize it at the time.

I found the chapter devoted to Villefort’s conversation with King Louis XVIII the most monotonous. Nothing in that chapter was relevant to the story. All it did was move Villefort higher up than he thought he’d achieve, which could give Dantes a better reason to cut him back down. But there was a whole lot of nothing happening while Dantes was in prison, too. I did forget when exactly Dantes found out who had misused him, but Faria, with very little to go on, helped him figure out who did it and why this all happened. However, there wasn’t any scheming to get back at them, either. Hardly any scheming at all–the only sort of scheme in prison was how to get break out of prison. And, let’s be honest, in 1820s prisons, there weren’t a whole lot of ways to break out.

You might be wondering why I’m talking only about how boring this section of the book is. Well, I’m not exactly trying to make everyone want to read it. I’m just sharing my own thoughts on the book. I can totally see why, as a sophomore in high school, I couldn’t really get past this part of the book. But I know that in the end, the story is great, so I’m “suffering” through that part. I could just skip it because I already have a general idea of the story–but that wouldn’t be a true re-read. I’m rediscovering the book, good and bad parts.

Love and Friendship was okay. Sorta had no real point except explaining a sordid past.

The Three Sisters is funny because it has ironic plots and characters contradicting themselves all the time.

A Collection of Letters could have been good starts for novels or just main ideas to run with.

“Perfect felicity is  not the property of mortals, and no one has a right to expect uninterrupted happiness.” (A Collection of Letters, 4th)

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Blast from the Past is a weekly post I write that focuses on a book I read long before I ever had a blog about books. While I didn’t “book blog” until a couple of years ago, I’ve kept a reading journal of sorts for about 6 years. Blast from the Past is essentially just my way of digitalizing my old book journals–and reminding me what I thought of books long since read. I think it will be a fun way to look at how my reading selections have changed and what I like most in the books I read.

Title

Reason for Reading: I needed another audiobook for my commute to work and this was on my Goodreads TBR list, so I borrowed the audiobook from my library.

Summary (from Goodreads):

At a crossroads in her life, Lucy Jarrett returns home from Japan, only to find herself haunted by her father’s unresolved death a decade ago. Old longings stirred up by Keegan Fall, a local glass artist who was once her passionate first love, lead her into the unexpected. Late one night, as she paces the hallways of her family’s rambling lakeside house, she discovers, locked in a window seat, a collection of objects that first appear to be useless curiosities, but soon reveal a deeper and more complex family past. As Lucy discovers and explores the traces of her lineage00from an heirloom tapestry and dusty political tracts to a web of allusions depicted in stained-glass windows throughout upstate New York-the family story she has always known is shattered, Lucy’s quest for the truth reconfigures her family’s history, links her to a unique slice of the suffragette movement, and yields dramatic insights that embolden her to live freely.

My Thoughts: What an interesting family in this story! There is such a complex family dynamic in this book, it almost was like a real family. They weren’t constantly fighting, nor were they consistently happy. As the characters were all adults, I think that helped the situation seem more real.

There was a great deal of the story focused on family history, and the story could not have worked without it. Lucy is researching a long-lost relative–her great-great-aunt–whom she had never heard of before. It was pure curiosity as to why she’d never heard of Rose that made her want to know everything. I would not say that the book was historical fiction, but letters from Rose certainly took me back to the 1920s-1930s, an era I love. It wasn’t just Lucy’s curiosity that was served well by her digging around in the family history–the scandal surrounding Rose actually had a small part to play in a scandal surrounding Lucy’s father and uncle in more “current” times (still about ten years in the past).  Genealogy is something that I have been interested in since I was 18–I have to be one of the youngest people interested in my family history around One thing I love about my ancestors is that I can trace my family back to two Patriots who fought in the American Revolution–all thanks to my grandparents’ involvement in the Daughters/Sons of the American Revolution (national organizations). But I digress…

I was a little shocked at how suddenly Keegan was cut from the story. I admit that I thought that Lucy was going to fall back in love with him and leave Yoshi, but I was proven wrong. I guess maybe Edwards wrote it that way to make the reader think the same thing, only to pull out the rug from under our feet later. I’m fairly certain of it, because otherwise there was very little Keegan had to do with the story.

There was an epilogue. I listened to it. Started out okay. But when, by the end of it, there had been years that were covered in very slim detail, I began to change my mind. Well, what’s new? I hardly ever like epilogues; we all know that.

Nick and I are still looking at houses. We saw two yesterday, the first of which we really liked despite its 1970s charm. This house hunt is really interesting because we’re finding out there aren’t really a whole lot of houses that we both like for the right price in the area we’re looking (which is a thirty mile radius around where we went to high school, also my hometown).

BOOKS

Well, I finished listening to The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards as I got home Friday from work. (I will have a post about it tomorrow.) I enjoyed it a lot, but there were a few things that got to me. I’m just over 200 pages into my 1400-page edition of The Count of Monte Cristo. Of course I’m enjoying that, as I knew I would. But I can already tell why some of the book is frequently taken out for abridgments. Some of the story is fairly unnecessary to the story, so I’d take it out too. Tsotsi by Athol Fugard, now that’s an interesting book. There isn’t exactly anything wrong with it. But I’m having trouble getting through it–I think that’s simply because I don’t want to read it. By that, I mean, there’s nothing enticing me to pick it up when I have free time. I have confidence that all the different parts will soon come together a little better and I’ll get into it.

FILM

Anything Goes (1956; Bing Crosby, Donald O’Connor, Jeanmaire, Mitzi Gaynor)
Well, I have to admit that the description of the movie on the case was wrong, in a way that made the movie even funnier to me. Basically both men sign a woman for the ONE leading lady role in their Broadway show, but they fall in love with the other’s choice, so no one wants to fire anyone. (The summary on the case alludes to each falling in love with his own choice, which isn’t as comical.) So I really liked the movie I decided to watch it after seeing De-Lovely last week. Plus, the song “Anything Goes” is in the opening of Indiana Jones The Temple of Doom, so I wanted to see from where the song originated.

Lesley Castle is humorous because of the relationships between people. I especially liked Miss Charlotte Lutterell and her love of food.

The History of England probably would have been better if I really understood the lives of the rulers and their particular houses. Because I lack this knowledge, it wasn’t very funny or interesting. However, I liked Cassandra’s drawings.

Catherine, or The Bower was interesting. But again was merely a fragment

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Blast from the Past is a weekly post I write that focuses on a book I read long before I ever had a blog about books. While I didn’t “book blog” until a couple of years ago, I’ve kept a reading journal of sorts for about 6 years. Blast from the Past is essentially just my way of digitalizing my old book journals–and reminding me what I thought of books long since read. I think it will be a fun way to look at how my reading selections have changed and what I like most in the books I read.

By the way, I should mention officially that this is a list for Top Ten Tuesdays, a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is to create a list of must-read books for people who don’t read the genre of ___________ (in my case, I picked classics as a genre). So, here are ten books people who don’t typically read classics should read:

1) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
True, I’m a bit biased here because this is my favorite book, classic or otherwise. Highlights of this book are an escape from prison, traveling around Europe and on the high seas in the early 1800s, and non-fatal revenge (the kind that will haunt those who did wrong forever). I would recommend the abridged version to those who really aren’t for long books–even though abridged is long, too. But I decided on the abridged that it was my favorite, so obviously it’s okay.

2) anything by Jane Austen, but I’d definitely recommend Pride and Prejudice
I know, I know. But I don’t think it’s cliche to have this on a list of classics to read. If you can make it past the 100+ words per sentence Austen liked to write, the story behind the run-ons is great. I warn you though, all of her books follow the same pattern, just with different characters, who do have different personalities.

3) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I think if I don’t say anything more than this next sentence, it won’t really give anything away in the story: crazy lady locked in the attic. What could be a better teaser?

4) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
This story holds a dear place in my heart, because ever since I can remember, my three sisters and I have pretended to be the March sisters. But I think this is an easier classic to read. It’s simple to read–not a different style of writing, like Austen. It’s a very warming and family-oriented story, the sort of story I like to read on a snowy winter day, because it’s so cozy.

5) Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Who doesn’t like a good pirate story? I think adults like this as much as children.

6) Peter Pan by JM Barrie
Again, who doesn’t like a good pirate story? Not that all of this is a pirate story. But I think any adult will like the story of a kid who didn’t want to grow up. How many of us wish we could be kids again, even for just a day or two?

7) The Time Machine by HG Wells
I’m sure that this is not the first novel in which there is time travel, marking it as a sci-fi story. But, for me, this will always be the original sci-fi story. And this isn’t a time travel where you go backwards, but a traverse so far in the future that “society” has reverted back to neanderthal-esque living, no humans left.

8) Dracula by Bram Stoker
Remember that one time that vampires weren’t a common thing to make TV shows and write books about? I do! Not that I was alive when this was published, but I can remember when vampires weren’t such a large part of pop culture. This can be a little tedious at times, but it’s the birth of vampires as a topic of interest in literature, as far as I know.

9) The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
The book is much better than the musical. I love the musical, love the songs, love the recent film of it. But I still think the book is better. It’s so much easier to understand how complex the phantom is in the book–he’s more than a creeper who lives in the opera house’s basement.

10) The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Most of you probably haven’t even heard of this book. And I wouldn’t have either, if I hadn’t started reading a series about five years ago that was a spin-off of this book. And while the series is more modern in its style of focus, the original Scarlet Pimpernel was its own series by Orczy. If you like espionage and scandal amidst Regency England/France, you’ll like this book.

This past week was Nick’s last week on a job-site in Pittsburgh. I’m glad to have him home. Even our 750 square foot apartment seems big and empty when I’m the only one in it. But I got a surprise when Nick came home. Friday morning, he fell on some ice and landed on his foot. Luckily he had on his workboots and didn’t take them off. He worked on his bad foot and drove the 3-ish hours home. When he took off his workboots, this is what we found:

Needless to say, we went to the ER to see if he’d actually done something major to his foot. (By the way, it had a bruise like that on the other side, too.) X-rays showed he badly sprained it, so it’s mostly a muscle thing. But he might have a tiny fracture–they couldn’t tell due to the swelling. And, of course, we already knew to do what they told us: elevation, ice, and ibuprofen. (*Glad that doc went to all that med school just to tell us that!*) In a selfish way, this sucks because he brought home a lot of crap and now I have to put it all away because Nick obviously isn’t getting around much In an unselfish way, it sucks because I can’t really do anything to make him feel better.

Aside from that, the biggest news of the week is that Saturday I had Christmas #5 (the last one). My mom’s family Christmas was in a conference room at the nursing home at which my grandpa now lives. It was pretty informal. We do a secret santa type of gift exchange. Except with the little kids–the 4th generation–of which there are three. Everyone still buys for them But for us older kids who know Christmas is about more than presents, we get one from someone else in the family. I got some pretty handmade ornaments from my uncle.

BOOKS

I did finish a book towards the beginning of the week: Ivy and Intrigue by Lauren Willig. It’s a novella that takes place randomly between two books in her Pink Carnation series.

FILM

De-Lovely (2004; Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd)
I picked this off the library shelf at random. I thought the title sounded interesting, and when I saw the cover (and the time period for the film was set), I wanted to see it even more. It is a sort of musical based on composer Cole Porter’s life. The set up is interesting because it is Porter and another man, who is presumably “directing”, who are creating a musical show about Porter’s life–he’s creating a show about his past, parts of which he wants to skip over and parts he wants to relive longer. I think it was touching to do the movie in that sort of way, although I wonder if the real Cole Porter, who died in the sixties, would have liked and disliked those same parts of his life.

Shannon at Giraffe Days seems to always know what I’ve been meaning to read for awhile. In 2011, she started up the Harry Potter Reading Marathon right when I was wanting to reread the series. And now she has created a mini challenge about LM Montgomery, best known for her Anne of Green Gables books.

Here are some details:

Challenge Details

• This mini-challenge will run from 1st February to 30th April, 2012.
• The idea is more to encourage ourselves to read Montgomery books we haven’t read before, than just re-reading Anne of Green Gables, her most famous book. Unless you’ve never read Anne of Green Gables, in which case, this is the perfect opportunity to fix that!
• There are four challenge levels to choose from, to set yourself a goal:

The Anne Level
Read seven or more L.M. Montgomery books

The Emily Level
Read five L.M. Montgomery books

The Pat Level
Read three L.M. Montgomery books

The Jane Level
Read at least one L.M. Montgomery book

Because I have a lot of other resolutions I’m working on this year, I don’t want to commit to too many, especially since it’s only for three months. So I’m signing up for the Jane Level–and I plan on reading Anne of the Island, as that is the next book in the Anne series for me.

Now, the question is, “Do I actually like reading multiple books at the same time?” As far as I can tell, I suppose I do like reading like that. I think if I hadn’t so many situations where it’s easier to keep a book somewhere and read while I’m there, I would be reading fewer books. I am fairly certain I haven’t read more than three books at a time before this. I slowly started to read more and more books at the same time, therefore I think I’ve just slowly acclimatized to keeping multiple stories in my head.