Stunning!

Seven hundred pages of brilliant storytelling!

Not hard to fall in love with the main character.

Enthralling. Very moving.

Highly recommended.

*Book #11 of the 2019 Aussie male author challenge

*Book #34/72 of my coffee table to-read pile challenge

Whitethorn is my third Courtenay historical fiction. I like his stories and their educational value as well. I’m giving this one 3 stars due to my disappointment over the similarities between it and The Power of One. Both were successful, which is probably due to the strength of the message and great storytelling. Had I read Whitethorn first, it would have been at least a 4. I’ve started rating books more for enjoyment over their technical merit.

Courtenay drew from his personal experiences growing up in Africa and Australia, as well as the history of the times for both of these books. The obvious repetition of storyline, location, themes, and time period really disturbed me. I wish he had found a way to use all of the good parts and write just one book, or to make the second less of a lengthy “do over”.

Courtenay’s writing style includes a lot of memories being repeated and characters retelling incidents over and over. While listening to Whitethorn almost immediately after The Power of One audiobook, I actually got angry when I reached the part where Tom decides to work in the copper mines to raise money for school. I almost gave up. I couldn’t believe the author’s audacity in feeding us another major scene identical to the one in his first book.

This book has three parts. The first 2 parts were great - worthy of 5 stars. About an orphan in South Africa. Fantastic characters and I loved the style of writing. The last part was all over the place and I felt there was a lot of redundant content. In the end it was horribly rushed and I was looking forward to finishing it.

good book

OMG!!! VERY VERY VERY GOOD!! I couldn't put this one down. Yes, i missed my subway stop more than once becuase I was so wrapped up in this one. It took Bryce about a decade to find a way back to write about South Africa again. The Power of One and Tandia were his only books set in S.A., the others all in New Zealand, Australia, and Korea. With Whithorn he revisits many of the themes found in the Power of One. In fact his character, Jack, is eerily similar to Peekay, the protagonist in the Power of One. Dare i say it, but Jack is more fully described and more carefully structured to be more believable. While he is not a boxer, he is an orphan English boy persecuted by the Afrikaners. Instead of boarding schools, it is an orphanage which sets the stage for his troubled childhood. Both Jack and Peekay work in the copper mines as grisley boys. They eventually choose the same careers, too. Maybe too similar for some- but a welcome reminder of what was once Peekay's story and is now Jack's story.

Bryce really mastered the pace of his story, with Whitethorn. I felt really intrigued and I really really cared about Jack's sucesses and failures. I wept with him with each and every loss in his life and mentally cheered him on with every new direction he decided to take his life. If I could I'd give this one 10 stars!!

DNF. Could not get past the first 100 pages. Graphic, violent, and horrific.
Not for me.

As usual an excellent book by Bryce Courtenay. Mr. Courtenay has a way of getting into a child's head and putting that child's feelings, hurts and joys on paper. Sometimes you laugh out loud and sometimes you just want to slap the adult that has mistreated the child as so many adults did to Jack Fitzsaxby in this book. But most of his child characters go on to become adults that have beat the odds and that is something I enjoy so much about his books. If you read my review of Four Fires, you will see how I feel about Bryce Courtenay - he is one of the best authors I've read. I just read the review that Peter Harness wrote and I am very, very sad to learn that Mr. Courtenay passed away. The literary world has lost a great.

Whitethorn is another example of Bryce Courtenay's innate ability to tell a story from the POV of a young boy. When I read this book, which I've done several times, I can see the world through they eyes of six year old Tom Fitzsaxby. The story is poignant in that the young boy accepts the treatment he receives as if it's deserved. It's a heartbreaking, and ultimately satisfying read, one which I highly recommend.

This is an excellent book. It is very much like THE POWER OF ONE which is a bit distracting. I "read" the audible edition though, read by the wonderful Humphrey Bower who in my mind is unsurpassable. So this was a great read. I love the novels by Bryce Courtenay and I think he is the best writing today.

I was given this by a friend, and I absolutely loved it. A bit hard going at times, as the descriptions of the conditions the main character endures are unpleasant, but the character's voice is delightful. I felt I actually heard him growing up. Writing with a child's voice must be difficult at the best of times, but to evolve that voice through a lifetime is a skill I have never encountered before.

Four years old and with an English surname, Tom Fitzsaxby lives a lonely and unhappy life in a South African orphanage at the time White South Africa joins Hitler's side during WWII. Tom is the story teller. He is a sad boy with no relatives or friends until he finds a near drowned puppy who eventually becomes the love of his childhood. Tom seeks help from a black man named Mattress, who looks after the orphanage's pigs and Mattress helps Tom keep the puppy hidden and fed. I loved Tom's inner dialogue which is cleverly woven into his storytelling. Life as seen through the eyes of a child is at times funny and at other times so innocent.

We all have that one teacher in our life who really made a difference and Tom finds a six month replacement teacher to be such a person. Tom is a gifted student with wonderful support while at school during that teacher's presence, but back at the orphanage he is punished regularly with six of the best on the backside for just looking sideways or because the figures in authority decide he needs another good thrashing.

Fortunately after continuing help via mail from the replacement teacher, he wins a scholarship to an exclusive English boarding school in South Africa and his life changes for the better. Oh what a lovely well mannered person Tom has grown into, understanding and empathising way beyond his years. The journey through his adolescent years to adulthood is mixed with happiness, loneliness and his desire to right a grave wrong involving his black adult friend Mattress.

To write any more would be to give the story away. It is the first Bryce Courtenay book set in South Africa that I have read and I couldn't put it down. The only other book I have read of his is April Fool's Day and I loved that too. Highly recommended.

Big meaty read. Fell in love with the main character..... Great holiday read.