My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience

A classic of literary nonfiction, My Traitor s Heart has been acclaimed as a masterpiece by readers around the world Rian Malan is an Afrikaner, scion of a centuries old clan and relative of the architect of apartheid, who fled South Africa after coming face to face with the atrocities and terrors of an undeclared civil war between the races This book is the searing account of his return after eight years of uneasy exile Armed with new insight and clarity, Malan explores apartheid s legacy of hatred and suffering, bearing witness to the extensive physical and emotional damage it has caused to generations of South Africans on both sides of the color line Plumbing the darkest recesses of the white and black South African psyches, Malan ultimately finds his way toward the light of redemption and healing My Traitor s Heart is an astonishing book beautiful, horrifying, profound, and impossible to put down. Read My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience – kino-fada.fr At its heart this book has the problem, what to do when you utterly despise your racist father who advocates violence as a solution when you love him terribly, terribly much It isn t a solveable dilemma Rian, who despite his upbringing, isn t at all racist, leaves the country so he won t have to face it on a day to day basis, but eventually returns to his homeland, because it is his home, and learns to live with the discordance in his heart Some reviewers have seen it as a book about the At its heart this book has the problem, what to do when you utterly despise your racist father who advocates violence as a solution when you love him terribly, terribly much It isn t a solveable dilemma Rian, who despite his upbringing, isn t at all racist, leaves the country so he won t have to face it on a day to day basis, but eventually returns to his homeland, because it is his home, and learns to live with the discordance in his heart Some reviewers have seen it as a book about the end times of apartheid, others as the views of the liberal son versus the hardliner father, full of ...I think this is an essential book Essential, I mean, for any human being who tries to understand the human condition what we are, what we may be Not that this is ever comprehensible but .I don t know how to begin this review In the front of the book, which my son gave me, he has written in his small backwards sloping hand This book is messed up and I think you will find it fascinating A real example of someone telling a story because it s the only way something can be said He was I think this is an essential book Essential, I mean, for any human being who tries to understand the human condition what we are, what we may be Not that this is ever comprehensible but .I don t know how to begin this review In the front of the book, which my son gave me, he has written in his small backwards sloping hand This book is messed up and I think you will find it fascinating A real example of someone telling a story because it s the only way something can be said He was right It is fascinating and it is all over the place It is actually many stories and one story, and I m not sure where it ends up It is mythic and impersonal and very personal Malan tells the story of his family, the white tribe of Africa, arrogant, xenophobic, and full of blood , as the Zulus say of tyrants They had their own language, their own customs and traditions, and a myth to light their way, a mystic Christian mission on the Dark Continent They spoke of themselves as ...In the final pages of this book, author Rian Malan confesses that the book didn t turn out to be what he originally intended, and I can see where he s coming from It appears at the beginning to be a personal account of his experiences with, and feelings about, apartheid But Malan is a journalist, and he ends up, as journalists do, talking with various people and relating their experiences And that, I think, made it a better book than it would have been otherwise Malan is unflinching yes, In the final pages of this book, author Rian Malan confesses that the book didn t turn out to be what he originally intended, and I can see where he s coming from It appears at the beginning to be a personal account of his experiences with, and feelings about, apartheid But Malan is a journalist, and he ends up, as j...Although its probably unfashionable to state, I m starting to feel that race, broadly speaking, is a bit of an over visited topic these days As such, it takes something truly incredible about that subject to be worthwhile This is that incredible book Rian Malan is a white Afrikaner and this is his memoir of life during the violent final decades of apartheid It is a staggeringly honest, bleak, hopeful, hilarious, heartbreaking and spellbindingly written book It is about the fundamental, Although its probably unfashionable to state, I m starting to feel that race, broadly speaking, is a bit of an over visited topic these days As such, it takes something truly incredible about that subject to be worthwhile This is that incredible book Rian Malan is a white Afrikaner and this is his memoir of life during the violent final decades of apartheid It is a staggeringly honest, bleak, hopeful, hilarious, heartbreaking and spellbindingly written book It is about the fundamental, usually unspoken, basis of racism fear The fear of the Other lives inside all of us to some degree The difficult thing is, it is not that there is nothing out there that might harm us One simply has to make a choice, a hard choice, between living ones days in a fortress of paranoia or letting go and fully embracing the world outside of oneself I ve never encountered a book that rendered this psychological battle so well It s actually beautiful.In the ...Wow I can honestly say I ve never read a book like this one.The book begins, apparently, with the intent of the author a white South African writing in the late 80 s to trace his family through South African history to its the earliest events The author, a self confessed white liberal who detests apartheid, writes of his famous ancestors with a deeply critical eye.However, as the book progresses the author uncovers mysterious, unresolvable contradictions in the lives of his ancestors and Wow I can honestly say I ve never read a book like this one.The book begins, apparently, with the intent of the author a white South African writing in the late 80 s to trace his family through South African history to its the earliest events The author, a self confessed white liberal who detests apartheid, writes of his famous ancestors with a deeply critical eye.However, as the book progresses the author uncovers mysterious, unresolvable contradictions in the lives of his ancestors and finds them in his own life as well He flees South Africa s agonizing paradoxes and lives in Los Angeles for about 8 years before his conscience forces him to come home And South Africa, he realizes, truly is his home, a truth he wrestles with endlessly.Each page brings a new perplexing observation and each chapter reveals some unbelievable new layer of apartheid s relentless horror Rian uncovers an apartheidhorrifying even than one might expect, but it is a horror that cannot be easily understood The b...Growing up as a white South African, my upbringing was quite similar to Rian Malan s There was one crucial distinction I lived in the free , post apartheid South Africa, where the miracle of democracy had given everyone the right to vote, live where they pleased, and earn a living wage Everyone was relieved that we had gotten rid of our great moral burden, and we could finally just be a remote, peaceful nation, welcoming tourists to our wine routes and game reserves.Except that things still Growing up as a white South African, my upbringing was quite similar to Rian Malan s There was one crucial distinction I lived in the free , post apartheid South Africa, where the miracle of democracy had given everyone the right to vote, live where they pleased, and earn a living wage Everyone was relieved that we had gotten rid of our great moral burden, and we could finally just be a remote, peaceful nation, welcoming tourists to our wine routes and game reserves.Except that things still weren t quite right Segregation still existed, in ainformal sense the wealthy Johannesburg suburbs in which I lived were almost all white, sprinkled with a few black families who d been blessed with the right connections for government jobs or lucrative contracts Almost all of the black people I interacted with were menial workers And there were other sides to this cou...A shocking synopsis of a turbulent time in South African history,very well written and an honest account of the white psyche, both liberal and conservative, when the last bastion of colonialism crashed down amidst international sanctions which was the only way to bringthe most powerful government down The former government could not be beaten in any type of war effort from the outside.Malan, however, demonstrates how these actual events were withheld by way of a moratorium on the press from the A shocking synopsis of a turbulent time in South African history,very well written and an honest account of the white psyche, both liberal and conservative, when the last bastion of colonialism crashed down amidst international sanctions which was the only way to bringthe most powerful government down The former government could not be beaten in any type of war effort from the outside.Malan, however, demonstrates how these actual events were withheld by way of a moratorium on the press from ...I LOVE THIS BOOK a narrative non fiction about the racial social political contradictions of post Apartheid South Africa written by a very uniquely historically placed Afrikaner who is always at struggle wi...There s really nothing to say about this book I think my rating says it all.This book, written by a white Boer South African journalist specialized on crime, is a non fiction novel divided in 3 parts the first past is about the author s family, the Malan family, which had been in South Africa for 3 centuries The author describes how many of his ancestors had racist views relationships and behaviors against the native black south African while the author believes he is totaly different from them, but not too different Through the text, the readers can feel how the This book, written by a white Boer South African journalist specialized on crime, is a non fiction novel divided in 3 parts the first past is about the author s family, the Malan family, which had been in South Africa for 3 centuries The author describes how many of his ancestors had racist views relationships and behaviors against the native black south African while the author believes he is totaly different from them, but not too different Through the text, the readers can feel how the author is confused and hesitant about the situation i...

• English
• 02 August 2018
Rian Malan
• Paperback
• 368 pages
• 0802136842
• Rian Malan
• My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience