Brink state

Paperback. English. Star Book. 1981. In fair/used condition. In a London hotel, on a business trip, Afrikaner mining tycoon Martin Mynhardt is writing down - at great length, with great self-consciousness - his memories of the weekend before the Soweto riots. It was the weekend he and his surly son Louis (recently returned from fighting in Angola, South Africa's Vietnam) went to the family farm to badger Martin's plucky mother into selling the drought-ridden estate, now dominated by "cheeky" blacks. It was the weekend of the murder of a black farm servant by her tradition-obsessed husband. It was the weekend just after Martin's best friend, lawyer Bernard, had been sentenced to life imprisonment for anti-apartheid terrorism. (Martin had refused to help him hide out.) And it was the weekend that Martin's longtime mistress Bea finally became fed up with her compartmentalized role in Martin's life. Martin remembers all this, and earlier memories too - of his historian father, of his doomed attempts at camaraderie with black colleagues, of his mildly corrupt business practices. And running through these memories are Martin's self-examinations and self-justifications: "Without cynicism one had no hope of retaining one's hold on reality." Innocence vs. guilt, romanticism vs. pragmatism, detached perspective vs. violent commitment. Brink has done a masterful job of crafting Martin's repetitious, digressive musings around the tight framework of that single weekend. And the portrait of an intelligent, "decent" Afrikaner clinging to the old ways ("To surrender everything to Black hands is to exchange the wind for the whirlwind") is convincing and especially effective as presented here - without explicit author condemnation. Less admirable, however, is Brink's insistence on investing every aspect of Martin's life with political import, spelling out every theme: "Perhaps there is a similar transition from a state of innocence to a state of guilt in historical processes." Self-deluding, self-dramatizing Martin is certainly a useful figure for Brink's meditation on the Afrikaner paradox; he is not, however, the engaging character needed to lift this worthy, interesting, and talented book (a vast improvement over Brink's previous windy polemics) from an intriguing study to an emotional experience. (Kirkus Reviews)

Mapmakers: Writing in a state of siege by André Brink Shows some wear.

Buy To the Brink: The State of Democracy in South Africa - Xolela Mangcu for R50.00

Subtitle: On the Brink of a Failed State Author: Alex Boraine Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers (2014) ISBN-10: 1868425533 ISBN-13: 9781868425532 Condition: Very Good Binding: Softcover Pages: 166 Dimensions: 23.3 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm +++ by Alex Boraine +++ "What's gone wrong?" This is the question posed by Alex Boraine. A question on the lips of millions of South Africans. Boraine attempts to answer this urgent question from the vantage point of wide experience as churchman, parliamentarian and the co-founder of IDASA. He digs deep into the history of the ANC in exile and as the governing party for two decades and concludes that in exile and today the ANC is slavishly committed to the party as the dominant factor. All else -- the Executive, Parliament, the Judiciary, civil society and the media -- take second and third place. The ANC seeks to control every institution. "Seizure of Power" was the ANCs watchword and battle cry in exile and it remains the aim of most of the leadership of the ANC. Control. Intolerance and corruption are the hallmarks of the governing party which has brought South Africa to be defined as a failing state. Boraine goes beyond strong criticism and offers a number of proposals, including the re-alignment of politics as a way of preventing South Africa becoming a failed state.