WOW! Straightforward, solid, suspenseful, sentimental!

You know how so many authors now are trying to be clever in writing: flashbacks, flashforwards, decades mixed up - everything out of order? Yes, that can be interesting and wonderful. But I have to say, it was so refreshing to just sit down and read a well-told story and one that progressed in chronological order! It's a coming of age tale - covering 1939-1953.

I learned a ton about boxing, plants, music, South Africa, the start of apartheid, the Boer Wars. It was the kind of book that creates a list of other books to read.

I was going to also say an "easy" to read story, but I'm not sure "easy" is the right word. Was very difficult to read the first quarter of it because of extreme bullying scenes. The horrible racial prejudice was also tough to handle. But it's told in a way that somehow keeps tragedy in perspective and also keeps the reader hopeful. Themes of resilience, courage, humor, and loyalty come to mind.

A few flaws. Too long. Editor could have shaved 100 pages off the 500+ and it would have been fine. Also, if you like your fiction super fictional, you may be frustrated. It's been called fictional/autobiography and in certain sections, it felt like a full-on memoir. Even Courtenay's bio corresponds with the book, so there's no doubting that Courtenay was telling his personal story. Lastly, some younger and/or female readers may find it too "macho". Courtenay was a product of his times (like all of us!) and the few women characters that appeared were pretty one dimensional.

That being said, I still thought it was so interesting and a real page turner!

I read this book on someone’s recommendation. The subject of a schoolboy’s aspirations to become a boxer didn’t sound very appealing to me but from the very first page I found myself gripped by his story. This small frightened child who is subjected to years of injustice and bullying finds strength and support from the most unexpected quarters. Growing up in south africa in an era where racism and brutality are commonplace it is the black people who help and care for him that are his saviours. He is befriended by a German professor who becomes his mentor and most beloved friend but when war breaks out events occur that shape this young boy into a resourceful and determined character who is driven by his determination to become the welterweight champion of the world.

Of all the books I read in 2009 one stands out in the horizon of my memory, a mass market paperback with 540 pages of microscopic print which I devoured in a day and a half.
The Power of one gave me the chance to meet a part of myself that I thought I had lost forever. It rekindled a long extinguished flame of hope, it awakened a lost feeling of wonder, it gave me proof that one can make a difference.

Set in South Africa in the 1930s and 40s , The Power of one is the compelling coming-of-age story of "Peekay", an innocent English boy who very early in his life realizes that there are greater things at stake than the hatred between the Dutch Afrikaners and the English. The Second World War in Europe, the growing racial tensions and the beginning of Apartheid will influence his world and challenge his spiritual strength.
Even though the odds are stacked against small Peekay from the start, he never loses faith in the goodness of people and following the advice of several improvised but memorable mentors who will change his life, he becomes an improbable icon in boxing which will make history.

Reading this book felt magical, the story was touching in so many different ways that sometimes I had to stop reading, overwhelmed by the details and the tenderness I felt for this pure little boy who made a turbulent and full of hatred world shine with his goodwill and with his mysticism.
Peekay is one of the most inspiring characters I have ever met. He has become a part of myself, he belongs to me and to all the readers who re-learnt to believe along with him.

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.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love a good title. The Power of One may seem obvious, especially after reading the book's jacket which says, "In this magical novel, an irresistible boy tells the story of his survival and coming of age against the background of South Africa during and just after World War II." The boy must be the One, right?

Well, of course. He is. Little Peekay is sensitive boy. He gets, at an unusually young age, that some things matter and some don't and like any decent literary hero, the things that matter to him are the good things in life. Truth. Dignity. Honor.

These virtues seem to come to him naturally, because his family life is sadly lacking. His mother is a negligent born-again who tears him away from the only mother he's ever known - a Zulu who talks to him, unlike his own blood relatives, and teaches him her ways. His love for her is a theme that carries throughout the novel.

Which brings me back to the idea of the "One." This nurse-maid also becomes a "One." As the story follows Peekay throughout his life in a harsh South Africa, colorful characters all take their turn being powerful "one"s - or influences in Peekay's life. Peekay is the tie that holds this goodness together, but through him and with their collective help, that one became many and the many became one. It's a beautiful idea and masterfully told by Bryce Courtenay.

If you read it, you'll fall in love with Peekay, his boxing mentor, Hoppie, Doc, and even a chicken, Grandpa Chook. You'll also learn a lot about boxing and the struggle between the Afrikaners and English as well as their mutual mistreatment of blacks in their country. Most importantly, you'll discover a boy who learns that anything can be accomplished if he does it "first with his head, then with his heart."

Well written and thoughtful, even with the raw reality of South Africa and growing up.

What a disappointment. Hailed as a story of triumph over prejudice, I extrapolated some very different themes about vengeance and the superiority of physical violence.

I loved the storytelling and the portrait of World War II South Africa. Having turned to the book after memories of seeing the movie in the late 1990s as part of a unit about apartheid in middle school, I was expecting the uplifting tale that I remembered.

But as an adult, I found at its roots a story of a young boy whose entire life is dictated by the ghosts of childhood trauma. Peekay spends his life trying to be all things to all people because in his words survival is about "camouflage." His glorious moment of self-definition and closure comes from beating an old adversary to a bloody pulp. And in case that isn't enough, he mutilates the man and rubs vomit into the wound to ensure permanent scarring.

This is our protagonist in his moment of triumph over the ghosts of his past. Despite the emphasis on his intellectual training, his boxing career is what matters most to him. His goal of being welterweight champion of the world is the only goal that is his and his alone. And his moment of triumph comes from physically dominating and humiliating someone else. Not from finding some inner peace or forgiveness inside himself, but by exacting vengeance, by proving he is the more powerful guy physically.

When I realized this, it disturbed me, particularly because the book is held up as such a paragon of anti-racism. In fact, it is BECAUSE South Africa was obsessed with exacting vengeance and proving who was the most physically powerful guy that cycles of violence and oppression continue. Indeed, it is the reason for wars and all kinds of violence everywhere.

Another villain in the book sucumbs to a humiliating and painful death from anal cancer. The author seems obsessed with dealing out grisly "justice" to the "bad guys via these crazy coincidences.

To me, a truly powerful book would have been one about the power of forgiveness, letting go, and coming to inner peace yourself. Instead, it is a story about a boy obsessed with growing up big and tough because he let other people define him. He even admits as much in Book 2.

There are some truisms about life in this novel, some quotable quotes, and as I started off saying, it is an entertaining story written by a good writer. But it is worth mentioning, too, that Geel Piet ("Yellow Pete," a reference to his "high yellow" skin color) is the closest the book comes to having a developed black character. And it doesn't come very close. He is described as a tricky, conniving survivalist, whose eventual powerlessness to control the system is demonstrated. There are nice black people, there's the benevolent mammy trope, the adoring, compliant house servants, the indebted and inferior-skilled sidekick. But there aren't well-developed, strong, interesting black characters.

How, then can this be a book about anti-racism? How is it a powerful or inspiring tale about overcoming an unjust system? It isn't. It just another coming-of-age story written by a white male with a white male protagonist.

Again, how disappointing.

At least 3 people I know have told me that this is their favorite book, so I just had to give it a read. It is really, really good. The book follows a young man, Peekay, as he grows up in South Africa in the 30s and 40s. He meets a series of very influential adults and is constantly being shaped by them and also by his many differing experiences growing up. The one theme that stays true throughout is his desire to become the welterweight boxing champion of the world. This is the kind of book that you find yourself not wanting to put down and you miss it when you aren’t reading it. I definitely recommend this book to anyone at all. While I won’t list it as my favorite, it is definitely one of my favorites.

“Always listen to yourself. It is better to be wrong than to simply follow convention. If you are wrong, no matter, you have learned something and you will grow stronger. If you are right, you have taken another step towards a fulfilling life.”

“…God is too busy making the sun come up and go down and watching so the moon floats just right in the sky 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 up all the new flowers for business… In Mexico there is a cactus that even sometimes you would think God forgets. But no, my friend, this is not so. On a full moon in the desert every one hundred years he remembers and he opens up a single flower to bloom. And if you should be there and you see this beautiful cactus blossom painted silver by the moon and laughing up at the stars, this is heaven…This is the faith in God the cactus has… It is better just to get on with the business of living and minding your own business and maybe, if God likes the way you do things, he may just let you flower for a day or a night. But don’t go pestering and begging and telling him all your stupid little sins, that way you will spoil his day.”

“…in this world are very few things made from logic alone. It is illogical for a man to be too logical. Some things we must just let stand. The mystery is more important than any possible explanation. The searcher after truth must search with humanity. Ruthless logic is the sign of a limited mind. The truth can only add to the sum of what you know, while a harmless mystery left unexplored often adds to the meaning of life. When a truth is not so important, it is better left as a mystery.”

“The mind is the athlete; the body is simply the means it uses to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further, or box better. “First with the head and then with the heart” was more than simply mixing brains with guts. It meant thinking well beyond the powers of normal concentration and then daring your courage to follow your thoughts.”

A friend recommended Bryce Courtenay's “The Power of One” at a time when I was in the doldrums. No novel could have worked better to lift my spirits.

Set in South Africa during the Second World War, it is a coming-of-age story of Peekay, a precocious 5-year-old child. While the world was being terrorized by Hitler, Peekay was terrorized by the Judge (an older peer) in boarding school for being a rooinek (English speaking South African). His abject helplessness, given his pint-size stature and age, was juxtaposed against the comfort he drew from his African wet nurse and a pet rooster he affectionately named Grandpa Chook. Part I of the story was told with a generous dose of sweet childlike humor even as Peekay learned through his humiliation that “in each of us there burns a flame of independence that must never be allowed to go out” and that “as long as it exists within us we cannot be destroyed”.

The novel also attests to the power of significant others who can make a difference to disadvantaged individuals and contribute to resilience. Peekay had three mentors who shaped his ambition, nurtured his talents, and taught him independence. The power of one germinated from a mustard seed sown by Hoppie Groenewald, a boxer who helped little Peekay realize that “small can beat big.” Hoppie launched Peekay’s dream to become the welterweight champion of the world. A German professor, von Vollensteen (Doc), gave him piano lessons and stretched him intellectually. Geel Piet, a Cape Colored prisoner, coached him in boxing. What is truly lovely is the way diversity was celebrated in the novel. Despite racism that pervaded South Africa at that time, there were exhilarating moments when the bond between the non-natives and the tribes in South Africa grew tentatively and then gathered strength. It was best expressed in Doc’s composition and presentation of the Concerto of the Great Southland, dedicated to all the prison tribes. In this, the power of one took on a whole new dimension.

Part II, however, was less convincing. Peekay as portrayed in his adolescent years had a maturity that seemed unreal and excessive even for a precocious youth. His social confidence was also out of sync with his sheltered experience of having been socialized solely in the company of adults.

Part III was satisfying although a tad disappointing. But what I found touching was Peekay’s friendship with Rasputin, the non-English speaking Russian timber man who worked the copper mines. There was poetic justice when Peekay avenged the untimely death of Grandpa Chook. But what became of Peekay’s long held dream? Perhaps, the fulfilment of this dream was implied. Perhaps, what was more important was for the power of one to culminate in that one defining moment when Peekay finally stood up to the Judge.

There were gems for living strewn throughout the novel. When I was feeling down, it was good to be reminded by Peekay’s nanny that "Sadness has a season and will pass." I also appreciated what Doc told the weeping boy Peekay when they first made their acquaintance in the hills, "No matter what has happened bad, today I'm finished from being sad. Absoloodle!"

“The Power of One” is “absoloodly” inspiring. A story exceeedingly well told.

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.

When did this book sneak up on me? It's a story of a prodigy - mentally, physically, in geology, botany, boxing, gambling, chess, in pretty much anything but music, where he's merely competent. Bryce Courtenay's hero should irritate the hell out of me. And yet somehow he doesn't. It's also the story of how a white boy becomes a symbol of power for black South Africans. I'm a little uncomfortable with that, and yet, it's handled as well as such things can be.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

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