I would definitely include this book in my personal top 10. I don't claim to have read all of the great books, but the story is powerfully told, and the message is profound. I don't remember if I read this in school (or was supposed to read it in school) but it is one that I will come back to again.
If you are bothered by non-standard syntax and editing or words/names that you can't pronounce, then you might not enjoy this book. I will admit to a bias in favor of "voice," but I honestly felt that was one of the important elements of the story.
Now for a bit of a rant. Many reviewers have commented that the lack of quotation marks bothered them. Perhaps they would have preferred more pictures as well, since Paton used lots of words to describe the places, and scenes, and it must have been somewhat taxing for such reviewers to actually imagine it. I am sure that it made skimming the book difficult too. In fact, maybe he should just have had it written as a series of news articles, with appropriate editing staff making sure that it would be easily readable by the lowest common denominator. Heaven forbid we should actually have to think about what we are reading.

This book is one of those classics that I'm glad I read, but will probably never read again. The themes are important (racial equality, morality, forgiveness) and the writing is lyrical, but it's still hard to read. Alan Paton doesn't use any quotation marks. He chooses, instead, to preface each line of dialogue with a dash. I could get used to this technique, if he were consistent with it, but he's not. Sometimes the dialogue is in the middle of a paragraph, with no indication it's spoken aloud. It drove me crazy, having to re-read everything to figure out if someone was talking, or just thinking, or if it was just the writer giving us information.

The story is set in South Africa, and it helped me understand why that country has been such a mess for so long. There are so many different races, languages, belief systems, and classes, it's a wonder anything gets done there at all. It's interesting to see the effects of apartheid, the growing pains of a country trying to find equality for all races. It was written in the 40s, so things have changed enormously since it was first published, but it still functions as a cautionary tale. It is infuriating, inspiring, slow-moving but worth the time.

Cry, the Beloved Country, written in 1948 is a must read even today.

"But there is only one thing that has power completely, and this is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power."

Stephen Kumalo is a Zulu and a Anglican priest living in a small farming community set aside for the natives. One day he and his wife receive a letter from Johannesburg, urging him to come visit the city because his sister Gertrude needs help. Many people from his tribe have gone to the city and never returned, including his own son, so Stephen sets off to try and find them.

The city is a bewildering place for simple tribal priest and Stephen is soon taken advantage of but he is befriended by the Reverend Msimangu, the man who sent the letter to him, who helps Stephen find his way around and locate missing family members. He first finds his sister Gertrude who has fallen to alcohol and prostitution. She has a child who is unkempt and neglected. He takes them both to his boarding house, intent on bringing them both back home to the village. He also finds his brother who has been rallying the natives to fight back against exploitation of the miners and unfair wages. His words are dangerous and he is seen as a threat by the whites.

But Stephen is most anxious to find his son and with help from Msimangu follow the trail from one lead to another. Along the way Stephen learns that his son got a young girl pregnant and spent time incarcerated in a rehabilitation program, only to be released and disappear again.

When a white man is murdered by a native Stephen fears the worst, that his son may be the perpetrator, because not only is Arthur Jarvis a white man, but is also an outspoken political activist against apartheid and the son of James Jarvis, his neighbour and landowner near his home village. Days later, his son Absalom, when he is approached by the police confesses to being the murderer.

The murder forces both fathers are forced to reflect on their own lives. Stephen initially loses his faith, but regains it through the kindness of others whilst James, despite having lost his son to black crime, begins to study what his son had written about it and begins to see things in a different light, even developing a relationship, albeit a distant one, with his son’s killer's father and his black neighbours.

“Sorrow is better than fear,"............ "Fear is a journey, a terrible journey, but sorrow is at least an arriving.”

I am a big fan of reading books about history, in particular social history and even more so if it is about post-colonialism. So a book on South Africa and/or apartheid is right up my street even if it can be at times uncomfortable reading for a white male. Although this book was written before the end of apartheid and as such is thankfully a little dated now, I still found it an incredibly emotional read offering as it does, a small glimpse into a terrible injustice that I can only imagine.

Alan Paton is a white South African and when the book was published it was an enormous success around the world but banned in the author's home country afraid that it might challenge the status quo! This is a book packed full of Christian themes such as faith, forgiveness and atonement but also looks at how western civilization's encroachment on the native Zulu tribes and families has been severely detrimental to them. With only roughly 10% of the land being given over to the native population there is not enough land to feed their own families and in particular with not enough land to safely rear and feed their cattle, a status symbol to the tribesmen, the land that they have got has become over-grazed and is dying meaning that many of the young men and women are forced to leave their ancestral lands in search of work and money in the cities and mines leaving only the old, the very young and the infirm behind them. Once away from their tribal elders these young men and women find it hard to resist temptation and follow a righteous path. They are taken advantage of, paid slave wages and so the crime rate soars. Although Johannesburg was rife with racism and apartheid, it was heart-warming to see acts kindness between people, both black and white. In a book filled with so much pain examples of occasional kindness was welcome.

"I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they have turned to loving, they will find that they are turned to hating."

I found this a very powerful at at times moving read but there were also a few elements about the writing that made me a little uncomfortable even a little offensive in out hopefully more enlightened times. Especially because the author is white. Too often the natives are depicted as very simple people, with simple minds, and even described as “children” completely incompatible with western civilization, big cities, and temptation. But perhaps worst of all there seems to be a suggestion, probably unintended, that God was in fact white. These are only minor quibbles and any future reader must recognise the society into which this book was published but in today's world they are enough to stop me from rewarding this otherwise gripping book top marks. Sorry!

First reading, 2017 -

To understand these four stars, you have to understand something. Racial tension is the absolute least interesting subject to me. Like if you asked me out of the blue what the most tedious subject to read about would be, that is probably what would pop into my mind. Not that it isn't an important issue, that people somewhere (not me) need to be thinking about and figuring out - it is. But at some point - like around second grade - it started to feel like a dead horse that's been beaten until it's just dry bones in the dust, and then beaten even harder till the battered bones themselves are dust...but still somehow the horse is as alive as ever and galloping around maniacally (it's like a weird phantom horse) while a certain type of person throngs around it to continue beating its ectoplasmic flanks more energetically than ever.

Anyway.

I share this so you will understand that this seemed the most unlikely book to hold my attention. It's about South Africa in 1946 - apartheid hasn't been established yet, but inequality has been around a while, and things aren't going so swell, unless you're a white guy with shares in South African gold mines. And even then, you're dealing with strikes and growing slums and shantytowns and rising crime - particularly murders of the native-on-European variety - and it's making it harder to enjoy rolling around in your piles of money. I think writing a story that deals effectively with any sort of social issue, whether off-putting and dead-horse-ish or no, and that still works as a story, with a gripping plot and characters that feel like real people, must be one of the hardest sorts of story to write. But with Cry, the Beloved Country Paton does it all masterfully. The book I wasn't supposed to like, and was just reading because it got not just recommended but handed to me...I ended up finishing it in 3 days. Beautiful story, characters that feel alive and that you come to love, and even those you don't get to know as well you can't help being led to feel compassion for. The book is wise enough to show that everyone, even the "bad guys", are victims. There is plenty of sorrow and loss and pain and dehumanization, but there is also hope and forgiveness and redemption. If you like that sort of thing.

None of this would make a truly great book if the handling of language was lacking, but it's got that too. Dialogue is spot on, narration too. I could go into detail, but it'd take time and there's more books to read.

It's well worth a read, that's what I'm getting at.


*2nd reading, 2021-

Somehow four years ago, I gave this 4 stars. I'm not sure how or why. Because I've since given 5 stars to things considerably less magnificent. This book is one of the great books of the English language. One of the must-reads. Many of the great "Classics" are worth the time to push on through, but still a bit of a chore. This one I'm unable to put down once I start, and yet it rewards me as much as any of those much-heralded masterworks that require determination and patience and perseverance on my part. I've said elsewhere that Paton is the Dostoevsky of South Africa, and that for me personally he might even surpass the D-man at what he does best. Rereading Paton's first novel, I stand by that.

I am a teacher and, after 34 years, attempt to find new combinations in the catalogue of "must reads." I have done this as a staple for years. Last year, when deciding what I wanted to do - kind of like window shopping for lovely clothes -- I decided to read this book after reading Hamlet. I love the mirrored plot structure. I adore the fact that the land is a character. The moral imperative and subsequent hemming and hawing in Hamlet takes on a different light and life in the beautifully wrought quest into the valley of death by Stephen Kumalo. The gentle prod of grace, of questions, of moral hues and tones take me back to the wasteland scene in Hamlet. After speaking with the captain on his way to death against the Polish, Hamlet finally has his epiphany. For Stephen, the wasteland shifts, but the same 20,000 + on their way to death in a mine is the same moral imperative. My students are slowly putting the plots together and the depth that they are mining (pun intended) is impressive. I am quite pleased. They had trouble with the flow of dialogue at first, but they also had trouble starting in medias res in Hamlet. So goes the way with 15 and 16 year old students. We are going to next move to Eliot's wasteland for a quick jaunt through 20th century gardens and graves. Paton is a treasure - put on his shoes, or discover the link with the land through the unshod feet and understand how two men and their families, their villages can wrestle with ethical dilemmas and the imperative of humanity. Powerful when put together! * of particular delight - one of my students noticed two items: the use of Gertrude in both and also the idea of kairos! I was so happy. This is what makes books come alive. When we share, we grow.

I was supposed to read Cry, the Beloved Country my senior year of high school. But you know how senior year is. Well, I wasn’t like that — promise. I wasn’t one who started slacking because I had my acceptance letter to college in hand. But I did decide that I didn’t really care for English, and that I found my European History class much more fascinating, and thus I spent all my study time pouring over my history textbook instead of my English novels (especially since the in-class discussions were detailed enough to ace the tests by).

It was my loss, I guess, because this book is excellent. More than a story of racial inequality, social problems, and injustice (which is what I remember about the plot from high school), this is first and foremost a story of forgiveness and hope.

There are many reasons for South Africa, the country commanded to “cry” in the title, to do just that: poverty and famine drive many to choose paths that are less than admirable, sometimes immoral. And there and many reasons for the main character, a humble priest from a rural Zulu tribe, to give up his faith in both God and humanity — and yet throughout the story there is a calm sense of hope for the future. Stephen Kumalo meets good men along his tragic journey that give hope to him and to the country as a whole: friends, family, and even one who should be his deepest enemy. And Kumalo himself is one to be emulated: for his meekness and gratitude, for his acceptance of trials, for his charity, and even for his occasional human-ness but then sincerely repentant nature. To enjoy a book, I have to have a main character to at the least empathize with — Kumalo is one that I not only appreciate but admire.

And the writing is downright lyrical in some places. It’s easy to see why it’s a modern classic.

Being awakened to the injustices of prejudice and poverty is all right, but this book does more than that — it inspires hope in the midst of hard times. A book to add to my long list of favorites. ;-)

Paton's novel follows the story of Steven Kumalo, an impoverished priest who is searching for his wayward son who left their homestead for the bright lights of Johannesburg, only to get lost in a life of crime. In fact the first half of the book reads like a detective story as Steven searches fruitlessly for his son, his sense of weariness and ennui gradually increasing as he is drawn further and further into the life of petty crime which his son has become a part of. Steven's sense of discombobulation is exacerbated when he hears the news that his son is in jail for the murder of a white engineer who was a vocal supporter of native rights in South Africa and the rest of the novel deals with the fall out of the crime, including his sons execution and the drawing together between Steven and Jarvis, the father of the man who was murdered by Steven's son. 

If the above all sounds very straightforward then that is because the novel's themes run much deeper than its plot. Interspersed with its exploration of the institutionalised racism of South African society are themes of faith, forgiveness and family, of the enduring power of love against ignominious hatred and of the indomitable and irrepressible beauty of South Africa , a beauty which often jolts the characters and readers into life. More than this however, the novel explores the continuity of life in spite of the tragedies which we are forced to endure; Jarvis grows as a person after he reads his son's humanistic teachings and the lightness which existed in his son has been passed on to this grandson, who acts as a beacon against the darkness which overwhelmed Steven's soul following his son's incarceration and execution. 'Cry the Beloved Country' is a powerful exploration if life in a high racialized South Africa just as apartheid is about to forever drive a wedge between its black and white residents.

A novel that examines racial division. social injustice and the violence that exists in South Africa during the 1940s. Yet 'Cry The Beloved Country' is a moving story about two men who are able to rise up above the bitterness and tension. One is Stephen Kumalo, the Zulu pastor and the other Jarvis, the white man.
Their lives are brought together when the son of Stephen kills the son of Jarvis.
The novel also explores the deprivation suffered by the blacks and life both within a small African village and the highly populated city of Johannesburg.
One of the best books I have ever read and will stay with me for a very long time.

A father and son, a priest and his people, the materially rich and the spiritually rich—this book reflects the human condition with a series of comparisons. Set in South Africa in a time of growing racial tensions, the balance of the story is maintained with contrasting moments that round out a tale of loss, grief, and corruption with profound hope, prospective, and love. The little rituals of life take center stage as the author reminds us to value the things that matter most.

This is one of the best books I’ve ever picked up. The rhythm of the writing, the weight of the themes, and the beauty of the emotions that make up this story are each alone enough to make the book notable. Together, they make this book a must read.

نویسنده آدم عمیقی‌ست؛ چنان لحظات، صحنه‌ها و حالات را توصیف می‌کند که فکر می‌کنی ساعت‌ها به لایه‌های پنهان آن لحظه فکر کرده است.
«بنال وطن» البته دور است از ما و ترجمه هم قدیمی‌ست؛ این موضوع اتصال ما را با کتاب کم می‌کند و اگر هنر نویسندگی و بیان حالات فطری و هرزمانی انسان‌ها نبود، ممکن بود از کتاب جدا شویم.
داستان علاوه بر باورپذیر و پرجزئیات بودن، نگاه جالبی هم به مناقشات تاریخی سیاه و سفید در قاره‌ی آفریقا دارد و مدام ما را میان حق دادن به سیاه‌ها و سفیدها می‌گرداند، و البته پرواضح است که در این رفت‌وبرگشت، کفه به سمت بومی‌های سیاه سنگینی خواهد کرد.

Such a great book. It had deeply enriched my understanding of South Africa during that period of time and it has strengthened my resolve to be a humanist and not be blindly patriotic to any country, group or man based on my own identity or insecurities.

I especially liked the use of the atmosphere to relay themes, the dying land, the rickety church that the people made do with, the rain that seemed to bring great (but slow) change. I like when the novel is about more than just actions and dialogue.