A Dry White Season

As startling and powerful as when first published than two decades ago, Andr Brink s classic novel, A Dry White Season, is an unflinching and unforgettable look at racial intolerance, the human condition, and the heavy price of morality.Ben Du Toit is a white schoolteacher in suburban Johannesburg in a dark time of intolerance and state sanctioned apartheid A simple, apolitical man, he believes in the essential fairness of the South African government and its policies until the sudden arrest and subsequent suicide of a black janitor from Du Toit s school Haunted by new questions and desperate to believe that the man s death was a tragic accident, Du Toit undertakes an investigation into the terrible affair a quest for the truth that will have devastating consequences for the teacher and his family, as it draws him into a lethal morass of lies, corruption, and murder. Read A Dry White Season by André Brink – kino-fada.fr It is ironic that while reading this account of defying prejudice, I found myself prejudging the entire book based on the rather irrelevant and minor frame story at the beginning, and worked myself up into such a fit of disdain that I very nearly abandoned this brave and important work by Andr Brink.Brink risked his own reputation and safety to speak out about prejudice and injustice in South Africa in the late 1970s A Dry White Season, once the frame story is dispensed with, tells of the batt It is ironic that while reading this account of defying prejudice, I found myself prejudging the entire book based on the rather irrelevant and minor frame story at the beginning, and worked myself up into such a fit of disdain that I very nearly abandoned this brave and important work by Andr Brink.Brink risked his own reputation and safet...There s a trope in African American literary works set in the Jim Crow era namely, you should have, if you re black, a white protector, someone to turn to in time of need, to vouch for your character, someone to call you a good Negro.This book, set in the apartheid era South Africa, looks at the trope from another perspective this is a story of a white man, Ben, who sponsors a black boy s education The boy dies the reason is police brutality The white man cannot believe this could have h There s a trope in African American literary works set in the Jim Crow era namely, you should have, if you re black, a white protector, someone to turn to in time of need, to vouch for your character, someone to call you a good Negro.This book, set in the apartheid era South Africa, looks at the trope from another perspective this is a story of a white man, Ben, who sponsors a black boy s education The boy dies the reason is police brutality The white man cannot believe this could have happened he is shocked, torn, looks for a rational explanation When the boy s father decides to investigate, is arrested, broken teeth are found in his dirty laundry his wife received, and the next thing we learn is that he hanged himself in his cell, Ben feels he must find out what happened, why it happened, and how someone could do it, rationalize it, and systematically cover all institutional violen...Sometimes I love that I live under a rock Because then I read things like this book, only to find out a movie was made of it starring Donald Sutherland, co starring Susan Sarandon and Marlon Brando Hello, Rock I hope you re comfortable on top of me.I sort of breezed through this book, which is totally the author s fault because it was just that good I was invested the entire time Ben Du Toit is a white schoolteacher in Johannesburg during the Apartheid When a black friend comes to him for Sometimes I love that I live under a rock Because then I read things like this book, only to find out a movie was made of it starring Donald Sutherland, co starring Susan Sarandon and Marlon Brando Hello, Rock I hope you re comfortable on top of me.I sort of breezed through this book, which is totally the author s fault because it was just that good I was invested the entire time Ben Du Toit is a white schoolteacher...The Philippines also had its dry white season A long dry white season, almost 14 years from the time the then President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972 up to the time he was deposed in a People Power revolution in 1986 it is a dry white seasondark leaves don t last, their brief lives dry outand with a broken heart they dive down gently headed for the earth.not even bleeding.it is a dry white season brother,only the trees know the pain as they still stand erectdry like steel, thei The Philippines also had its dry white season A long dry white season, almost 14 years from the time the then President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972 up to the time he was deposed in a People Power re...I was introduced to the dream and nightmare that was South Africa around the same time A Dry White Season was published 1979 I was ten, a 5th grader in an isolated, rural western Washington town Perhaps it wasn t a coincidence, for A Dry White Season was a bestseller upon publication in the United States, but I recall our class watching a cartoon film of black African children, each drawn with tight black curls and toasted almond skin, holding hands and singing as they paraded through streets I was introduced to the dream and nightmare that was South Africa around the same time A Dry White Season was published 1979 I was ten, a 5th grader in an isolated, rural western Washington town Perhaps it wasn t a coincidence, for A Dry White Season was a bestseller upon publication in the United States, but I recall our class watching a cartoon film of black African children, each drawn with tight black curls and toasted almond skin, holding hands and singing as they paraded through streets made of simple gray lines The words they sang never left me We are marching to Pretoria We are marching to Pretoria, Pretoria, Pretoria We are marching to Pretoria Pre...This is an adult coming age story What do you do, as an adult, when you realize the world is not what you thought it was that everything you based your life upon was a lie That s what Ben Du Toit faces He believed the govt of South Africa when they said that blacks lived separatly, but equally, and were benelovently cared for by the white govt and its people He had never had reason to consider it Suddenly events forced him to confront the truth and he faced a choice he could look away and This is an adult coming age story What do you do, as an adult, when you realize the world is not what you thought it was that everything you based your life upon was a lie That s what Ben Du Toit faces He believed the govt of South Africa when they said that blacks lived separatly, but equally, and were benelovently cared for by the white govt and its people He had never had reason to consider it Suddenly events forced him to confront the truth and he faced a choice he could look away and pretend he didn t know or he could fight for what is right Hi...A timely reminder of the costs of rebellion against a repressive regime The central character, Ben, is a middle aged lecturer, whose contentment in life is shattered when the university caretaker, and subsequently the caretaker s son, are brutally murdered by the police Ben starts to investigate the murders and his life starts to unravel.The brilliance of this book is in how it describes the personal cost of political struggle As Ben starts to take action against the state, he violates social A timely reminder of the costs of rebellion against a repressive regime The central character, Ben, is a middle aged lecturer, whose contentment in life is shattered when the university caretaker, and subsequently the caretaker s son, are brutally murdered by the police Ben starts to investigate the murders and his life starts to unravel.T...Ben du Toit, it is me, it is you Ben teaches the history.His life is well organised between the school, the church and his family He has nothing of a revolutionary, he is an average Afrikaner And then his life is going to disrupt The son of his gardener, an intelligent boy, was arrested during a protest march He dies in prison His father inquires because he wants to know the truth He will be also arrested and will die in prison For Ben it is unbearable He wants to know.The genius of Bri Ben du Toit, it is me, it is you Ben teaches the history.His life is well organised between the school, the church and his family He has nothing of a revolutionary, he is an average Afrikaner And then his life is going to disrupt The son of his gardener, an intelligent boy, was arrested during a protest march He dies in prison His father inquires because he wants to know the truth He will be also arrested and will die in prison For Ben it is unbearable He wants to know.The genius of Brink is to have chosen as hero an ordinary man Ben lives the apartheid without th...This is a well written mystery that unfolds page by page It is enticing reading I found it best to arrange my observations numerically.1 It is possible to live in an oppressive society and not come to terms with it This is willful to differing degrees, depending on the information to which people were exposed The whites living in apartheid, who benefited from the system, didn t want to acknowledge the horrors of the oppression upon which their position in society was built Most simply didn This is a well written mystery that unfolds page by page It is enticing reading I found it best to arrange my observations numerically.1 It is possible to live in an oppressive societ...This is one of the most difficult books that I have read The language itself is everyday South African English, interspersed with Afrikaans and Tsotsi taal In addition, it is a work of fiction.And yet, how fictional is it really Ben DuToit, Gordon Ngubene and their families may be fictional, but the setting and atrocities committed under Apartheid existed, and haunt us still.Gordon Ngubene s son Jonathan is detained during the Soweto riots Gordon has no idea where he is and approaches Ben This is one of the most difficult books that I have read The language itself is everyday South African English, interspersed with Afrikaans and Tsotsi taal In addition, it is a work of fiction.And yet, how fictional is it really Ben DuToit, Gordon Ngubene and their families may be fictional, but the setting and atroc...

• English
• 12 March 2017
André Brink
• Paperback
• 320 pages
• 0061138630
• André Brink
• A Dry White Season