“First with the head, then with the heart.”

"When men can be made to hope, then they can be made to win.”

This is a brilliant book with characters that will stay with you long after you finish the book. Categorised as a "Coming of age", I was a bit surpised to meet Peekay as a 5 years old in 1930s South Africa.

Peekay is British kid who is sent off to boarding school after his mom's mental broke down. As a redneck, he is bullied in boarding school for bedwetting and later held as "prisoner of war" when Germany is on ascension. By the time he finished boarding school, the trauma changes and influences his future actions.

Peekay meets Hoppie - a boxing champion who sees his potential, a German music teacher (in the background of WWII) called Doc, Mrs.Boxall the town librarian, Geel Piet a 'kafir' prisoner who teaches him boxing. Over the years he becomes a boxing champion for the prison team while running many enterprises including smuggling tobacco for the prisoners and writing letters. All under the tutelage of his mother who becomes a born again Christian and fires the heathen nanny.

There is a subtle introduction of Apartheid. By offering hope and doing the right thing (like acknowledging his coach even though he was black) Peekay becomes the Little Tadpole to the various Zulu tribes and he is seen as the one prophecised to unite them all. Told from the POV of Peekay, these gradual changes are not as shocking but then they make a distinct impact. The societal changes have been handled brilliantly into the story without being drawn attention to.

This is a story of human spirit and goodness. Loved it!

Yep, still as good the second time around, and I appreciated the underlying thread of the story better than I did 6 years ago.

Super amazing book. It is hard to describe this book, but I'll give it a try. I would say that it is not a coming-of-age story, even though Peekay grows from the age of 5 to the age of 20 during the story. It is also not a story about WWII, even though the setting is in the late 1930s to mid 1940s, and includes Nazies and racism. It is not a book only about boxing, even though it does include quite a lot of boxing. It is the story of Peekay, wonderful, perfect Peekay. Peekay is so perfect that you will fall in love with him and find yourself admiring him. Peekay is so perfect, that he is even not too perfect.
It is a story about love and mentorship. Peekay connects easily with adults and learns lessons for life, he learns that small can beat big, he learns that you need to work First with the head, then with the heart, he learns about pride and sense of self (Pride is holding your head up high when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it.).
Peekay is an open minded lovely boy with not a drop of hate or racism, who develops beautiful deep friendships: with the train conductor Hoppie, with the German Professor Doc, with the colored prisoner Geel Piet, with his best friend who is Jewish. All of this in spite the racism that surrounds him. (I laughed heartily when he said "I wanted to grow up and become a jew"). Peekay is brilliant, and is learning quickly. And he is learning something from everyone. He is an inspiring character, as also some of the rest of the characters.
The author was brilliant to show the connection between boxing and music, and those two and science. It is amazing how many opportunities are around us, and how many Davids can beat Goliathes if they just looked more closely and used their heads (and then their hearts).

It is brilliant and rich narrative. Some great laugh-out-loud moments are promised. This is Courtenay's first book that he wrote at the age of 55, which is by itself amazing and inspiring.

Read the book, and you might (highly likely) find yourself chanting "Onoshobishobi Ingelosi! Onoshobishobi Ingelosi!" because the Tadpole is an Angel and the book is absoloodle amazing.

3 - 3.5 stars

This novel makes an appearance in the top ten of the most loved novels in Australia, so my high expectations were justified. I feel I should have loved this, but I didn't. I should have loved it because it addresses racism, antisemitism, tribalism; it shows some disdain for religious beliefs while praising the power of knowledge and education - all these aspects, and more, should have made me go ga-ga over this novel.

The Power of One is pretty aptly named, it's also my main issue with this novel. You see, the protagonist of this novel, Peekay, whom we meet as a five-year-old and whose adventures we follow until he's eighteen, seems to possess many powers: excellent ability to learn different languages; ability to learn to play the piano; sporting abilities which turn him into a champion boxer; high IQ, which allowed him to outperform everyone at school etc. With the help of mentors he runs clandestine letter exchange services for the mostly black men in prison; at sixteen he establishes an after-hours school to teach black kids, in spite of the law which prohibited black schools in white communities.
And of course, he always wins his boxing matches, even though he was facing taller and heavier opponents. Speaking of boxing, there's sooooooo much of it. I personally find boxing reprehensible.

There isn't anything Peekay can't do. He's perfect! He's the best at everything. He sees no colour, has no prejudices, no hang-ups, he's selfless and incredibly empathetic, breaks barriers, enlightens and helps so many. He's a saint! A white knight with no armour.

Another problem, The Power of One is too long, even though it's easy to digest given it's dialogue rich and action packed. I don't know why I somehow expected it to be more literary.

Overall, I enjoyed and appreciated this novel and can definitely see why so many love it.

The lack of restraint when dishing out Peekay's virtues and because its somewhat simplistic portrayal of race and tribal relations, I'm only giving this 3 - 3.5 stars.

Wow wow wow
What an amazing book. Emotional rollercoaster and although difficult in parts to hear about society in that part of history I would still rate this as one of my favourites. Wonderful characters that build and leaves you with hope in your heart.
Would recommend the audiobook 100%. Amazing narrator that brings the characters even more to life.

I was immediately hooked by this story as it followed a young boy, Peekay, to boarding school where he excelled academically, but was subjected to pretty miserable treatment by his older/bigger peers. Set in South Africa during the time of WWII, it showed a nation beset by cultural divisions; white/black, English/Afrikaner, Christian/Jew, Germany/everyone else. Within this stew, Peekay tries to find safe ground, developing a tendency for human camouflage. The first part of this epic saga focuses on his efforts to understand the world around him and to survive it. Despite some pretty despicable events, there is much humor in the telling, which softened events that made me want to claw some characters from the pages.

As the story proceeds, Peekay leaves boarding school and reintegrates into his family and surrounding town. As we follow Peekay through this coming-of-age journey, we meet a number of memorable and instrumental characters; instrumental for leaving a mark on an impressionable boy, for influencing his view of the world, himself, and his choices.

As the story progressed, and became more focused on boxing, my interest did wane somewhat. But the characters, choices and outcomes kept me reading. The cultural background Peekay existed in was ever-present, and was interesting and informative and apropos of the times. Occasionally, almost too much information was given which seemed to bog things down, but also provided some vivid understanding of his surroundings and activities (mining, boxing, living within a prison setting).

I confess that as I neared the end of the story, I wondered where this was going to end...where were we headed in his journey. When the end came, I thought...."Oh, of course." And although it seemed abrupt, it left me with as much satisfaction as Peekay must have felt.

Really good story telling here, the book is set in South Africa during the 1940's and follows a young boy called Peekay from age five to adulthood. The prejudice in society is breathtakingly awful, not just black and white, but Boers and English and Jews too.
There is a sequel called Tandia, which I shall be reading sooner rather than later.

Aside from my childhood favorites, I can't think of a story I've carried deeper or longer than this one. I think of Peekay, and the loneliness birds, and the black citizens of South Africa - in their hope for a Rainmaker - at least once a week, and this has been true for well over twenty years. From start to finish, this is a story perfectly told.

http://mariesbookgarden.blogspot.com/...

I'm struggling with giving this book a rating--it would have been 3 or maybe even 4 stars while I was in the middle...

Although originally published in 1989 (in the height of apartheid), I'd never heard of The Power of One until my sister read it for her book group. The plot sounded appealing to me, so I put it on hold at the library. Some actually call this "a classic novel of South Africa," although I think that title should belong to the work of Nadine Gordimer and Doris Lessing instead (whose books I read years ago).

I think my opinion of this novel will shift some as I sit with the ending for a few days...but I wanted to write this review while it was still fresh in my mind. It feels like I've been reading this novel for a long time...although it stuck in my mind when I was not reading it, I was also really ready to be done with it. Not a great sign...

English boy Peekay is sent to boarding school at the age of 5 (!) because he has no father and his mother has had a mental breakdown. He is horribly, mercilessly bullied by his South-African schoolmates, who all see him as the enemy because of the Boer War. Right away, I felt dubious because I kept thinking about my own 5-year-old son and realizing that Peekay seemed more like 10 than 5. His only friend is his pet chicken, Grandpa Chook, who understands Peekay thoroughly and can do magic tricks. (Seriously.) In spite of the bullying, Peekay survives and finds a way to rise above it all. (His extreme genius assisting him in this endeavor.)

The story begins to get more interesting when the school year ends and he's sent on a 2-1/2-day train journey to join his family in their new home. (Yes, a 5-year-old, sent alone on a 2-1/2-day train journey...) Along the way he makes some true friends, among them a train guard named Hoppie, who teaches him all about boxing and inspires him to become a boxing champion one day. (In spite of this great friendship, Hoppie goes off to war and is never mentioned again...which seems odd to me.)

When he arrives in his new home in Barberton (where he is to live with his grandpa and his born-again-crazy mother), he makes more true friends in Doc (a German professor of music) and Mrs. Boxall (the town librarian). When Doc is interned in a nearby prison because of his German ancestry, Peekay develops friendships in the prison and begins taking boxing lessons there. Biracial prisoner Geel Piet becomes his dedicated boxing coach and teaches him everything he knows.

Years later Peekay goes off to another boarding school, where he becomes friends with a Jewish boy, Morrie Levy. In the final book of the novel, Peekay spends a year working in the mines in Rhodesia. This is a very MALE book...about the world of boxing, boarding schools, prisons, and mines. Few women live in this world, and the black ones do not even have real names.

First, what I liked about the novel:

•Learning more about the history of English-Boer hostility during World War II
•Reading about life in South Africa during that period--especially as a former coworker was visiting South Africa while I was reading the book and blogging about her adventures and perspectives on the country's crime and racism
•Peekay's unlikely friendship and adventures with Doc
•Some of the earlier stories during the train journey, and the colorful characters such as Hoppie and Big Hettie
•Peekay's efforts to transcend his difficult beginnings and become his own person
•The imagery of the African singing and the music Doc wrote as a tribute to the African tribes (in fact, I really enjoyed all the musical bits, especially the prison concert)

Well. My biggest beef with this novel is that Peekay is too damn perfect. For example (spoilers below!):

•He is several classes ahead of all his peers, wherever he goes, because of his sheer genius.
•He knows several African languages, in addition to Latin.
•Everywhere he goes (after the initial boarding school disaster), people come to worship him.
•He develops a highly successful scheme to smuggle in tobacco and other goodies into the prison, and smuggle letters to prisoners' families out. All while he is a child.
•He NEVER loses a boxing bout. Never, ever.
•He becomes a cactus expert under Doc's tutelage.
•Peekay and Morrie become chosen for the most select group of students to be tutored by the headmaster. Of course.
•Peekay and Morrie make a mint in boarding school through various schemes dreamed up by Morrie, all of them rip-roaring successes.
•He exceeds in every single task he takes on (academics, languages, boxing, rugby, mining), with the one exception of the piano, at which his talent is merely passable.
•He becomes a virtual god for the African people--referred to as the "tadpole angel."
•Even the Black Mamba he faces does not bite him.
•He displays superhuman strength and will as a 17-year-old miner and survives an accident that would have killed anyone else.
•He gets the opportunity to take revenge on his most bitter enemy.
The book was far too long...it could have lost 100 to 150 pages and been much stronger. Courtenay often resorts to getting preachy and "tells" far more than he shows. The bad people are REALLY bad, and they all get their due in the end...every one of them. Several people lose their lives because of Peekay, and he doesn't seem to have any sort of self-reflection or guilt that he caused their deaths through his arrogance. He takes all his privileges and success for granted.

I believe that Courtenay, who grew up in South Africa but now lives in Australia, had great intentions to write a book that examined the origins of apartheid and criticized the cruel way that blacks were treated. But instead, it's just another book about a white savior--a perfect white boy who triumphs over the odds. The black tribes all come to worship Peekay because he begins smuggling in tobacco to the prison and starts a letter-writing initiative so they can contact their relatives...and they've seen his expertise in the boxing ring. In fact, he becomes legendary across South Africa so that when he moves to his new school in another part of the country, they all know about the "Tadpole Angel."

I thought it would be more about the origins of apartheid and race relations in South Africa, but really, it wasn't. It was about this perfect boy and his life .

I'm not sure I understand the meaning of "The Power of One," especially because of all the friends and supporters Peekay developed throughout his life. They all lifted him up and helped him accomplish what he did. Yet when Morrie tries to help him by lending him the money to go to Oxford, he refuses his aid. This didn't make much sense to me, especially as Morrie wouldn't have had such success over the years without Peekay...and he allowed others to help him before. Instead, he puts aside his academic career to choose a rough, dangerous life in the mines.

And the ending...horrific, unredeeming, and sickening. Any fondness I had for Peekay as a character dissolved in the last few pages. In spite of all the love and support he received, Doc's wise guidance, and all the superhuman success he'd achieved, when he meets his nemesis, he must take revenge in a truly merciless manner? Maybe the message of "The Power of One," in the end, is that each person is alone and must fight to the death to survive? Closing the book, I felt sick to my stomach.

Ultimate Underdog: The Triumph of the Human Spirit

What a wonderful education about South Africa, boxing, and the indomitable spirit of a young boy named Peekay. I will never forget this endearing character.

Peekay is an adorable five-year-old who's ripped from the warm bosom of his African nanny and sent to an awful boarding school where he is bullied and abused. This kid is a survivor. He channels his mistreatment into the dream of becoming the boxing welterweight of the world.

So many people and life events try to derail him, but the Peekay train chugs full speed ahead, bolstered by loving mentors from all walks of life. There's a fantastic cast of characters: 1) Hoppy, a train worker who sparks Peekay's dream via his David vs. Goliath boxing match, 2) Doc, a German music professor/scientist who teaches Peekay to question everything except for his own internal wisdom, 3) Geel Piet, a Black prisoner who teaches Peekay how to box and survive crushing odds, and 4) Morrie, a Jewish classmate who teaches Peekay friendship and money management. Now that I list Peekay's main mentors, I realize each is an oppressed underdog in his own way (Hoppy too small, Doc a German during WWII, Geel Black and imprisoned, and Morrie Jewish and smarter than many adults.)

Noticeably absent as a mentor is Peekay's mother. She has suffered mental illness and turned to fire-and-brimstone religion, telling her son he is doomed to hell unless he becomes born again. When Peekay asks Doc about his damned soul, Doc responds:

"Peekay, God is too busy making the sun come up and go down to be concerned with such rubbish. Only man wants always God should be there to condemn this one and save that one. Always it is man who wants to make heaven and hell. God is too busy training the bees to make honey and every morning opening all the new flowers for business."

Amen!

As a White English boy in a country on the cusp of Apartheid, Peekay is taught to view the African people with disdain. But he doesn't succumb to such racism, mostly because he finds more decency and goodness in Blacks than in many Whites. And the Africans come to revere him. The tribal concert at the prison is a magical moment of cultural enrichment, showing that character is much more essential than skin color in defining humans.

Over the course of this journey, I couldn't help but root for such a compelling underdog. With faith and perseverance, Peekay succeeds at whatever he puts his mind to. (I never quite understood why he calls himself Peekay. Did we ever learn his real name?)

4.5 stars. My only quibbles are the meandering length and the disappointing ending. Peekay mentions his dream to be the welterweight champion of the world approximately 834 times, then the book ends without any mention of him pursuing the dream? And what about the even more important aspiration to fight against Black oppression, perhaps to unite Whites and Blacks? If anyone could do it, Peekay could. I also find that ending on a note of revenge belittles the beautiful themes of the story. As a reader, I feel misled.

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!

One of my top 5 all time favorite books