One of my favorite books! This is a truly inspirational historical fiction about of boyhood in South Africa at the birth of apartheid. Follow the life of a British child who comes of age amidst resentful Boers who are recovering from their own persecution while simultaneously championing the causes of Hitler in Germany. This precocious boy struggles to understand the clash of races and racism while simultaneously overcoming boundaries through the medium of competitive boxing.

One perhaps could make the arguement that a tinge of racism lingers in the storyline itself due to the fact that the main character, a white boy, becomes the perceived savior and idol of the native African tribesmen (sort of like Ben Kingsley, a Brit, portraying Gandhi onscreen). However, it is still a wonderful book in which the reader becomes immersed in the story, place and time.

My rating is probably somewhat closer to 4 stars. I enjoyed the story of Peekay and all the other characters but for me (I know I'm the outlier) it just took too long to tell it. I won't soon forget him though :))

4.5⭐️

Urgh. I read this because everybody else did. I was young... However, I read this and only finished it because I wanted to know what everybody was raving about. To me, it seems so disingenuous and patronising. The author used to work in advertising and to me, the novel feels like manipulative, slick, unconvincing 'copy' from a breakfast cereal ad. A lot of people love this book. I'm just not one of them.

Wow... incredible!!!
I fell in love with Peekay even 'before' he was five years old, starting in South Africa, when he shares of being nursed from his lovely black nanny before being sent to boarding school. ( although we follow him from age 5 to 20 - from the late 1930's to mid 40's).

Our oldest daughter attended a boarding High School in Michigan for a short time -an academic/arts school. The family separation was painful. I can't begin to imagine sending a 5 year old away to a boarding school even in the 'best' of conditions.
And the fact that this story is inspired by the authors real life....for me, this is one of the most wrenching parts of the entire book...."being sent away from his family at age 5 -- from 'love' he was receiving to 'hatred' he was walking into.

Peekay is bullied and abused almost immediately upon arrival as a 5 year old at his boarding school. He's the youngest child in the school.
Missing the comfort of his Black nanny ( Peekay is English and white), who would soothe his hurts...missing his mother who was sent away due to a nervous breakdown, Peekay was the first live example of the congenital hate they carried for his kind.
"The Boer War had created great malevolent feelings against the English, who were called the 'rooineks'. It was a hate that had entered the Afrikaner bloodstream and pocked the hearts and minds of the next generation".
Given that Peekay, spoke English, he pronounced sentences that killed their grandfathers and grandmothers to the world's first concentration camps. Little Peekay had no advance warning that he was wicked before coming to the school.

One of the other kids - called 'Judge' abused Peekey regularly. Peekay even made a deal with him to do the Judge's homework and make sure he didn't fail-- but he still continues to abuse him. - really 'tortured him.
We see how Peekay begins to survive- horrific conditions at such a young tender age: Peekay says:
"One thing got to them more than anything else. They could make me cry. Even the Judge, with all of the fear he could provoke, could not make me cry. I suspect they even began to admire me a bit. Many as them brothers my age at home, and they knew how easy it is for a five-year-old to cry. In fact, I had turned six but nobody had told me, so in my head, I was still five".
"Not being able to cry was the hardest part for me as well. Crying can't be a good camouflage. In truth, my willpower had very little to do with my resolve never to cry. I had learned a special trick and, in the process, had somehow lost the knack of turning on the tap".

Peekay is a diamond in the rough....an inspiring character. He's smart, open minded, and doesn't have an ounce of bitterness or hatred in him. He develops meaningful friendships with teachers and mentors who teach him to read. He meets a healer, and a boxer. We learn a tremendous amount about boxing. We also learn a lot about the history of South Africa through the eyes of a child.

The themes of discrimination were well defined by the author: the Boers vs. the English - South Africans vs. the Germans - the Jews vs. the Germans - white Africans vs. the Black Africans.
Violence is graphic - so be warned.

It's a cruel and beautiful world we live in!

My all time favourite book!

The Power of One is at its simplest, a story of self-reliance and perseverance in times of hardship and struggle. The story follows Peekay from childhood through his young adult years, including his schooling, his pursuit of boxing, and his odd collection of enemies, friends, mentors and teachers.

The book is long, and it took me quite a long time to get into the story. It was a commitment, particularly because I found the pace of the story to be slow and full of (somewhat unnecessary) detail early on, but once I did finally get into it, The Power of One was quite good.

"Ahead of me lay the dreaded Mevrou, the Judge and the jury, and the beginning of the power of one - how I learned that in each of us there burns a flame of independence that must never be allowed to go out. That as long as it exists within us we cannot be destroyed."

"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.

n  Audiblen


I came across Bryce Courtenay through the narrator. I was such impressed by Humphrey Bower performance in Shantaram that I immediately started to look for his other works after I had finished it.

It is a fate. Now I'm looking forward to reading more by Bryce Courtenay, because his books are exactly the kind of a life story I am seeking for.

The Power of One takes place in South Africa and covers the period of time from the early 1930s up to the late 1940s, the birth of apartheid. It tells a touching and a moving life story of Peekay, an English boy, beautifully written and with a great insight into the cultural background of the country, and a lot of love to the people and the continent itself.

Excellent character development and a very strong story-line.

Despite my loving of Humphrey Bower narration and his astonishing skills to present all kind of dialects/accents in different voices, I have contradicted feelings about his narrating here. My own fault though. I shouldn't have picked up this audiobook immediately after Shantaram, too strong were the connection of Humphrey Bower to Lin (Shantaram).
Lin narrating a five year old boy took some time for me to get used to it.

Reading Challenge 2017 - 26. A book by an author from a country you've never visited. (South Africa)

n  “… the power of one – one idea, one heart, one mind, one plan, one determination.”n

The fictionalized biography of Peekay, a young man born into a profoundly racist WW II South Africa, is so compelling, so graphic, so gut-wrenching, so moving and so gripping, it is all but impossible to believe that it is Bryce Courtenay’s debut novel. Like Jeffrey Archer’s KANE AND ABEL, Herman Wouk’s THE WINDS OF WAR or Khaled Hosseini’s THE KITE RUNNER, Peekay’s personal story is credible, moving, and unfailingly interesting. At the same time, like Lawrence Hill’s THE BOOK OF NEGROES or Richard Wright’s BLACK BOY, the endemic, deeply rooted racism is stomach-churning, disturbing and shocking – whites hate blacks, Pentecostal Christians hate Jews, South Africans hate Brits, Nazis hate everyone who isn’t Nazi. 1930s and 1940s apartheid South Africa is a dangerous, violent, distressed and, frankly, very ugly country that exemplifies hatred but Peekay, despite the blockades lined up in front of him, is determined to rise above it all. With the help of black men and women, his eyes are firmly fixed on the welterweight boxing championship of the world.

And the writing was beyond brilliant. Peekay’s friend and mentor, Doc von Vollensteen, was imprisoned for the temerity of having been born German at a time when Hitler was ravaging Europe. The prison concert scene, for example, in which Doc debuted his piano composition “Concerto for the Great Southland”, sung by the black inmates in a polyglot male chorus of mixed tribal languages, was one of the most moving segments of writing that I’ve ever clapped eyes on.

THE POWER OF ONE and its sequel TANDIA comprise a rather daunting 1400 page epic but I was simply astonished at how quickly the opening novel sped by. Despite its length, I was sorry to see it end but I’m looking forward to cracking the metaphorical binding on the sequel.

Highly, highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

How this book happened upon my shelf is a mystery to me. I thought it might have been mentioned by Pat Conroy in his My Reading Life but instead, I guess it was a paired choice of similarity to one of his books. Nevertheless, it had to be a suggestion somehow because I would have never deliberately chosen a book labeled "The Classic Novel of South Africa" or one about boxing (no offense to anyone, just not my taste). Yet, before the end of the second page, I was hooked, and that hook embedded itself deeper and deeper until the last of the 500+ pages ended.

I love it when I read a book that I assume is fiction and declare this has got to be about a real person. The Power of One's Peekey was like that. After doing a quick glance on Wikipedia, I decided it was completely fiction. (I try not to read too much about a book I've not finished lest I read a spoiler.) But just now I looked at author Bryce Courtenay's page here on Goodreads and was blown away. DON'T even pull that page up and read it if you don't want a spoiler!! I won't even link it to tempt you! But DO read it AFTER you finish the book. That's all I'll say about it.

The story is gripping. And realistic *to a point.* After a while, there were a bit too many coincidences. The writing is above par. Great description. Higher than typical vocabulary.

If you need to find out more about the book, read other reviews; I just don't want to spoil the story for you. But, by all means, indulge yourself in this book. I don't think you will be sorry. If you've read n  Island of the Worldn, this book is quite similar.

When I looked up Courtenay on Wikipedia, I saw there was a movie about the book. Since Netflix has it streaming, I decided to watch it after finishing the book. Just don't. Don't. Do NOT bother with the movie. It was a complete disappointment (I'll just never learn). Too many things were changed and added. I followed the movie-line because I knew the book-line, but for someone who didn't, I think it would be just messy confusion. So Just Don't.

But do read the book. The 500+ pager, not the young reader's edition.

I SO WANTED TO GIVE THIS BOOK FIVE STARS!!!!!

My impression is that this book was very well-written, with great character development and description of the land. I used the audible version, and the narration was excellent, adding to my enjoyment of the story. The relationship between the main character, Peekay, and his mentor, Doc, was so sweet and wonderful, and made the book worth the read. And I loved the many other supporting cast of characters, including his prison boxing coach, his teacher, and his buddy at school. Some of the symbolism and imagery was clever, and really added to the Paul-Bunyon-esque nature of the book. But this kind of leads me into the book’s flaws... It’s a little over the top with “hard-work-and-inspiration-leads-to-phenomenal-success," with an added large dose of the “white savior” theme. His whole Tadpole Angel, capable of uniting all the tribes of South Africa bit - was over the top. And there are two major coincidences with boxing partners that further contribute to the improbable vibe of the story. Finally (SPOLER ALERT), the ending truly disappointed me. Yes, I figured he would meet the Judge in the boxing ring at some point in time, and there was some gratification in it for me as the reader. However, the proposition that the final elimination of Peekay's loneliness birds and healing from the past - was achieved though beating the crap out of his formal rival and carving his initials in the guy’s arm - really was disappointing. It seems to me that it is far more likely that he could have achieved healing from the many, many positive relationships he was able to achieve in his life, and all of the support and love her received from those around him. The idea that he needed physical revenge with a pathetic, psychologically unwell and compromised school bully - did not do the story justice, in my opinion.