The Power of One

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.

God help me, I'll never finish this book. I'm drowning in uninspired writing.

Ok, I finished it. This was truly one of the most laborious reads I've had in quite a while. Suffice it to say I thought I'd never climb my way out to read another book again in my life. The writing style isn't difficult--it's not that that made it painful to get through. It's just a terribly written book with terribly boring, stock characters who go around doing terribly improbable things that evoke not one ounce of feeling from me because I'm making "blah blah blah" noises. Sweet merciful Jesus.

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."

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.

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

Wow, what an emotional whopper of a book. The Power of One is the heart-breaking and heart-warming coming of age story of Peekay, an English boy growing up in the turmoil of a racially fractured and evolving South Africa in the 1930s and 40s. The characters are consisently powerfully rendered with compassion, warmth, hatred and hope and the narration by Humphrey Bower is a good as it gets. This book will make you cry and will fill your heart. My only complaint in this otherwise fabulous book was ending as Peekay finally gets his revenge and which I felt was just out of character. 5 stars.

Normally I refrain from writing long reviews, but this wonderful book offers so much to readers, that I must indulge. It is a broad sweeping book about rural South Africa, set in the late 1930s and 1940s prior to apartheid. It imparts a real sense of this exotic country and the friction between its diverse peoples: Dutch Afrikaners, native Boers, a host of black tribes, and the English.

The protagonist Peekay is an only child, sent to boarding school at age 5 when his mother is institutionalized. He is picked on mercilessly because he is youngest and English, and misses his black nanny. His nickname is Pisskop (pisshead) as he wets his bed. Peekay's only friend is a rebellious chicken. Things take a change for the better, when he is sent by train to his grandfather's distant home. He is adopted by conductor, Hoppie Groenewald, who cares for him and teaches one of this book's life lessons: "first with the head, and then with the heart." Hoppie is an amateur boxer, and uses his prodigious skills to beat a much larger opponent at the end of the first leg of Peekay's train journey. Peekay immediately develops a deep passion for boxing and decides he wants to become the welterweight champ of the world. Arriving at his grandfather’s home, Peekay is devastated by the disappearance of his nanny and subjected to his mother's religious fervor. Once again, Peekay is rescued by a mentor, Professor Karl von Vollensteen (a/k/a Doc),whom he meets on a distant mountaintop. Doc too, adopts Peekay, and teaches him about botany, especially cacti, piano, Africa, and of course, life. As a German, Doc becomes jailed as a possible spy, but becomes a popular figure in the local prison, with inmates, guards, and the Commandant. Meanwhile, Peekay visits Doc regularly, and eventually convinces the staff to allow him to train as a boxer. The downtrodden criminal, Geel Piet, teaches Peekay how to box and they develop a symbiotic relationship, as Peekay smuggles tobacco into the prison. Peekay and the local town librarian also start a postal service for the mostly black inmates. Peekay's open-minded acceptance of others, accords him a mythical status with the African people in the prison and community, and he becomes revered as the "Tadpole Angel", creating a large following as his boxing career advances.

Eventually, Peekay earns a scholarship and it sent to an exclusive prep school, where he meets his next good friend and mentor, a wealthy Jew named Morrie. Equally brilliant, the two develop businesses together, which allow them to afford getting Peekay trained at an elite boxing school. Peekay continues his unblemished record in the ring, eventually agreeing to fight a rising black champion, who has just turned professional, even though this is not legal and theoretically, a mismatch. And yet, there is great drama as this fighter's name is familiar to Peekay, he is a descendent of a tribal chief, and the legend of the Tadpole Angel is placed at risk. Peekay is a highly popular student and athlete, joining the elite leadership of the prep school, but he continues to work for the people, opening a school to teach local blacks to read and write, drawing the ire of the local white police. Morrie is accepted to Oxford, and Peekay does not win the coveted Rhodes Scholarship that would allow them to stay together. Instead, Peekay decides to take a grueling, dangerous job in the mines to build his strength and body mass. Once again, Peekay befriends a loner, in this case a huge Russian, who barely speaks English. Peekay's productivity makes him the envy of all, but he stays too long in this job, leading to disaster. My only complaint is that despite the final physical confrontation in the mine bar, with a lifelong foe, we don't know if Peekay achieves his life-long ambition so now I need to read the 900-page sequel. Given author Courtenay's gift for storytelling, I do not expect this will be too much of a chore.

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!