Please do not do this to yourself if you're reading this for fun. It will not be fun unless you have no taste. Read this for class, sure. It will be the most boring experience of your life unless you've read Jane Eyre, then it will be the second most boring experience of your life. I think the worst part about this was that I had to read this during my summer vacation because of school. And then I had write essays on why it inspired me and, thanks to those, I have gotten really good at pretending to like things. I'm done pretending. The only good part about this book is when he gets trapped under the rock because it's a cool action scene filled with friendship. But even that part is weird because of the way it's written. And he also survives that with small injuries which is just unrealistic. Read this for class or be like all of my friends and just use spark notes. They were right. I was wrong. Don't read this for fun because you will not have fun. It will not be inspiring because everything is just handed to him. Don't read this unless you wish to torture yourself.

As the book begins the reader meets Peekay, a precocious 5 year old in South Africa. Two important men in his life, one white, the other black, help him overcome incredible persecution and obstacles as he grows to manhood. This a beautifully written coming-of-age novel about apartheid which is a must-read for young and old. It is heart touching, motivating, and thought provoking.

Audio version with introduction by the author himself. He is such a larrikin with a happy voice. Bryce Courtenay's debut, apparently toiled over at the kitchen table with his son's girlfriend stating "This is the best book I've read, you need to publish it" or words to the effect. The rest, they say, is history.

n  "First with the head, then with the heart"n

What an Australian classic, one that I should have read by now.

Peekay starts out as a tiny tot (I have a 6 year old son and therefore horrified) who suffers dreadful abuse at this young age at boarding school, at the hands of horrible older boys, one in particular. Emerging a wonderful, well rounded and amazing human being.

Memories of his beloved wet nurse, neurotic mother and beloved music teacher and mentor; this is an epic story centring on the discipline and craft of boxing. South Africa is a sometimes bleak and beautiful place, told from around the time of 1930-1940. Worthwhile reading. Amazing narration.

29/03/18 Addendum. I stumbled across notes taken during my audio read, so I have some more thoughts.

On Peekay losing one of his most favourite people in the world, due to a zealously religious and neurotic mother:
n   "The lord is a shithead and I allowed myself a good cry” “The only person I knew not to have camouflage was Nanny” n

There are too many sweet and wonderful comments from Peekay, I must purchase the hard copy, it would be a valuable asset to any bookshelf.

Peekay’s grandfather, I loved reading these parts between the young and the old: n  "There’s a good lad.” Tap tap. Stroke n” goes Grandfather’s pipe process.

Peekay’s perception: n   “Very high up born again Christian” n” This was so humorous with the full on nature of Peekay’s mother, so worried about the ranking of all this stuff!

I cannot read my writing, so I hope I am doing Mr Courtenay justice here. n   “To emerge as myself. To regain the power of one.” n

What a nice surprise this book was for me. This coming-of-age story set in 1939 South Africa has a focus on the sport of boxing throughout, which I am generally not a fan of, but certainly loved every minute of it in this story. Peekay endures awful humiliation and abandonment at such a young age yet he struggles along through adversity and heartbreaking losses.

Numerous comments by readers mention they did not care for the ending, but I, for one, loved it! I kept wondering when the 'judge' would reappear hoping he would get his comeuppance and was so glad Peekay gave it to him good. When early in the book the 'judge' abused Peekay, even after he did all his homework and promised otherwise, made him eat human sh*t, tortured and killed Granpa Chook, Peekay's beloved and clever rooster and only friend, the ending made me feel pretty darn satisfied. As for becoming the World's Welterweight Champion, you knew he would do just that.

A touching and up-lifting story I plan to read again. Absoloodle! (you'll have to read the novel to appreciate that one) Highly recommend!

I firmly believe that a book or a movie can be about absolutely anything as long as its well written. There are a few sports movies out there that I have enjoyed, that I got wrapped up in, all because what they were really were was just good stories. This is a book like that. If you do happen to read the back cover, you will learn that the book is about boxing, but it's hardly just about boxing. Saying The Power of One is only about boxing is like saying doing well in school is only about showing up to class. Well, bad analogy, but you get my point.

The book starts off with the main character, whose real name you never learn, heading off to boarding school at 5 years old. Although it's told from his point of view, the story is not at all childish because Peekay is wise beyond his years. (Peekay is the name he chooses for himself after he is called Pisskop, which means "pisshead." I never did quite understand why he chose a name based on that insult, but he carries his new name proudly.)

The book is overly sentimental at times, but is so well written that that is easily forgiven. Bad things happen to Peekay, but the reader quickly realizes that all will work out in the end. The question is how. The book is so beautifully written that the rather basic story line of a poor kid with a big dream fighting his way to the top by staying honest becomes a truly unique tale that will stay with you long after you've put the book down.

Highly recommended.

Very moving. A weak and friendless English boy growing up in South Africa during World War II, Peekay turns to two older men, one black and one white, to show him how to find the courage to dream, to succeed, to triumph over a world when all seems lost, and to inspire him to summon up the most powerful force - the power of one. (excerpted from editorial reviews)

I know I read this as a child and adored it. I didn’t remember anything about it. Gave it another try and forced myself to make it to page 50. The racism was tough. The simplistic writing pushed me too far.


n  n

I found this book to be a mixed bag. For example, I loved the story of the main character's relationships with others, particularly with an old German professor who helps to shape his mind. However, I got bored with the focus on boxing, something I have no interest in but which permeated every aspect of the story. I thought the treatment of racial and cultural issues was excellent, especially the insights into struggles among the Boers, Afrikaners, and English settlers. On the other hand, I got tired of the story itself, which had five or six climaxes and denouments. I thought the author's treatment of South African nationalism was very good, and it helped me understand later issues of apartheid and Mandela. On the other hand, I really disliked the end, in which the main character finally gets revenge on a man who had tormented him when he was five years old. I wanted him to find redemption through his power to forgive rather than through the power of his fists. The narrator of the audiobook (which is how I "read" it)has a wonderful Australian accent and is very expressive, but reading this in print form might give you the chance to skip over the endless boxing scenes.

4.5⭐️

"The Power of One" is the story of the childhood and adolescence of a South African boy, Peekay. Set in the 1940s, the earlier Boer War, World War II, and apartheid all effect the relationships between the characters. After English Peekay was taunted cruelly by some Afrikaner (Boer) boys at a boarding school, he made it his goal to become the welterweight champion of the world someday. His first boxing mentor, Hoppie, advised him, "First with the head and then with the heart, that's how a man stays ahead from the start."

Doc, a German music teacher and naturalist, plays a father figure and good friend to the precocious young boy. Doc teaches him about observation and logic. Doc can also see mystical or spiritual expressions in nature and music. After helping some black prisoners with Doc and his colored boxing coach, Geet Piels, Peekay becomes a symbol of hope to the black South Africans. Peekay is generous in spirit, and compassionate toward those who are mistreated by prejudiced people.

"The power of one", the spirit inside Peekay, becomes stronger during adolescence, allowing him to create his own destiny. He takes a lucrative, but dangerous job to earn money to pay for university tuition. The book comes around full circle as Peekay resolves his childhood abuse and forges ahead into the future.

I enjoyed this novel with the likable, humorous Peekay who is loved by his mentors, and who gives back to the less fortunate. The book is full of adventure, and has some exciting boxing matches (and I never watch boxing on TV). The story is a journey as we follow his transformation into being a strong, intelligent man. Some events are based on the author's life. The South African politics--with the clashes between the English, the Afrikaners, the blacks, and the coloreds (mixed race)--are always in the background, giving the reader lots of food for thought.

Not a quick and easy read, but very well-written.

This novel by Australian author Bryce Courtenay was published in 1989 and takes place in the 1930s and 40s in South Africa where Courteney grew up. The story is narrated by a young boy named Peekay who shares several years of his life story. It begins with a difficult early childhood but moves on to success as Peekay comes of age in the complicated world of South Africa’s political, social and cultural context.

Peekay was raised by a black nanny until the age of four. We hear nothing of his father but his mother was frail, nervous and suffered from frequent headaches. His grandfather helped raise him but when his mother was institutionalized with a mental breakdown, Peekey was sent to boarding school. The school was run by a principal more concerned with maintaining control over the students and the steady stream of tuition fees than with the well-being of her students. As the youngest boy in the school, Peekay was brutally bullied by a boy he called the Judge who taunted him because he wet his bed. The Judge and his fellow bullies gave him the nickname “Pisskoff” which eventually became “Peekay”, the name he used the rest of his life.

Peekay meets a number of people who teach him valuable lessons and influence his life. They include a chance meeting with Hoppie Groenewald, a young boxer who taught him “the power of one”, a belief that with one heart, one mind, one plan and one determination, a man could make his way through life armed with the belief that the world was not specifically arranged to bring about his undoing. The power of one was the power to believe in oneself, to think beyond the powers of normal concentration and dare your courage to follow your thoughts. Hoppie taught Peekay to overcome adversity through a mantra that he would forever keep in mind: “first with the head, then with the heart”. He learned that winning was something you worked at intellectually, that emotions clouded the mind and were its natural enemy. In boxing it meant that the mind was the athlete and the body simply the means it used to box better. With this knowledge Peekay came to believe that even though he was a small boy, he could defeat those who were bigger than himself. It gave him a defense system, confidence and hope as well as his ultimate goal: to become the welterweight champion of the world, a goal he reaffirmed to himself silently and frequently throughout his childhood.

Another critical person in his life was Professor Karl Von Volllensteen, a music professor and botanist Peekay called “Doc”. Doc taught him music and everything he knew about the natural world of desert plants and animals. Together with Miss Boxall the librarian and Miss Bornstein another teacher, Peekay learned everything from science to literature and how to play chess. They taught him to read for meaning, to use the library to follow up what he questioned or could not understand. It was not a traditional education, but it did teach him how to think and Peekay knew more than most boys his age. When Europe became embroiled in war, Doc was arrested, charged with being an unregistered alien and a possible spy and sent to prison. Peekay maintained Doc’s garden of desert cacti at his vacant home and visited him every day. He obtained and catalogued new plants, continued his piano lessons and learned everything he could from his mentor. On his visits to the prison Peekay heard about Geel Piet, a man who reportedly had a superior knowledge of boxing. Piet was a half-caste, a man who was neither white nor black, was hated by both sides and belonged to neither. He was an incorrigible prisoner, a survivor who knew the prison system and had great influence behind those walls where he ran the black market. Peekay, anxious to advance his boxing career devised a system that worked for both of them, offering Piet tobacco for his black market in exchange for boxing lessons. During his hours in the prison with Doc or working with Piet on his boxing, Peekay came to appreciate the difficult lives of the prisoners and developed a letter writing and mail system so the prisoners could communicate with their loved ones. The prisoners came to admire the young boy who tried to make their life more tolerable and they enjoyed watching him box as he gradually became more skillful under Piet’s tutelage. Although Peekay was small, he was always boxing boys bigger than himself, a fact that helped him learn to use his skills wisely. He came to be known to the prisoners as “The Tadpole Angel”, a symbol of their oppression and someone sympathetic to their lot in life.

Peekay earned a scholarship to the elite Prince of Wales School in Johannesburg and entered a very different environment, a place not normally associated with boxing which was now Peekay’s passion and the sport through which he was negotiating his way through life. He meets Morrie Levy and for the first time he has a best friend his own age. They become partners, making money on various gambling ventures and even develop their own bank. Peekay continues to improve his boxing and the black crowds watching him fight grow larger. He has become a symbol of hope for them, a symbol of hope against oppression.

Peekay wants to go to Oxford but needs money for the tuition. He also needs to increase his muscle mass to maximize his boxing abilities. He travels to Northern Rhodesia to work in the copper mines where the work is extremely dangerous but pays well. There he meets a miner named Rasputin who not only saves Peekay’s life but also provides him the legacy to continue his education. It is following his experience in the mines that Peekay is confronted once more by the Judge, his childhood tormentor from boarding school who bullied him mercilessly when he was a young boy.

This book is well written and Courtenay’s narrative is filled with detailed descriptions of boxing matches and the beautiful African landscape. The passages detailing the racism and political tension sent me back to the history books to better understand the political and social context of that time and appreciate how forward thinking Peekay’s actions were given the culture and the time in which he was raised. It was a time when the white man was automatically considered intellectually, culturally and socially superior to the Black African, who was simply looked on with scorn.

This is a great book with several messages, its strongest the power of hope and perseverance. As a character, Peekay is resilient and seems almost invincible, able to learn important lessons from everyone he meets and facing hardships that would daunt anyone. He is an extremely likeable boy and the reader pulls for him as he confronts the challenges life presents him. But he appears to be without flaws, good at so many things and such a stranger to failure that he seems altogether unrealistic. After his experience at boarding school, he appeared to succeed at everything he faced. As the reader continues through his story, he no longer wonders if Peekay will succeed, he expects him to, the only reason to read further, to find out how. That drained some of the tension from the narrative, making it less interesting. But the characters are well drawn. Peekay, Doc, Geel Piet and Miss Boxall, in my mind are the best. Like Peekay, they all had issues they had to confront in life which made them realistic as well as sympathetic.

Some have been critical of the length of the book and I agree it is long, but not overly so. I was engaged in the story from it first pages until the end.

A great, enjoyable read which I recommend.