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Loading... The Power of Oneby Bryce Courtenay
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This book is one of my all time favorites! It really has something for everyone. Action, adventure, coming of age... Set in the South African apartheid era it is interesting to view a period of racism from the viewpoint of a country other than the U.S. Although it can be a bit slow to begin, it becomes truly engaging if you stick with it. (  )lrstreissguth | Jul 5, 2009 |   I would have to say that this is one of the best books I have ever read and it made me a big fan of Courtenay's.It's the story of Peekay, a young English boy, growing up in South Africa, during WWII. The reader is taken inside Peekay's world and how he deals with racism, growing up and fighting for his dreams. I laughed, cried and smiled through the whole book. vwbernie | Apr 28, 2009 | A great novel that shows the transition of boyhood to manhood. ( )Nharry | Apr 23, 2009 | Nice uplifting story by a foreign author. The Power of One is set in South Africa in the time around the time of WW2 and follows Peekay, a young boy growing up in a strange country gripped by apartheid. A train ride taken at a young age convinces him to pursue boxing, which he excels at as a result of hard work. The story starts off slow, but picks up about 80 pages in when he joins a prison boxing squad. Courtenay does a great job of keeping the story interesting and showing the progression of time as Peekay grows up. I felt that the ending was a little abrupt, but after thinking on it for a day I guess it was put there to lend closure to an early trauma in the young boy's life, and it was as good a place as any to close out the story. Unfortunately, while I've been able to find The Power of One at all of the local libraries here (possibly because it was adapted into a film in 1992), the sequel, Tandia, is difficult to find either locally or on the internet. Times like this make it very frustrating to read foreign authors. ( )etimme | Apr 7, 2009 | 1  Excellent book about young South African boy who boxes. I can't remember much more, but I do remember absolutely loving this the summer before my freshman year of high school. ( )ahooper04 | Apr 1, 2009 | 0.040 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 034541005X, Paperback)“The Power of One has everything: suspense, the exotic, violence; mysticism, psychology and magic; schoolboy adventures, drama.”–The New York Times “Unabashedly uplifting . . . asserts forcefully what all of us would like to believe: that the individual, armed with the spirit of independence–‘the power of one’–can prevail.” –Cleveland Plain Dealer In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous, cruel shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives heroic dreams–which are nothing compared to what life actually has in store for him. He embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives, and the power of one. “Totally engrossing . . . [presents] the metamorphosis of a most remarkable young man and the almost spiritual influence he has on others . . . Peekay has both humor and a refreshingly earthy touch, and his adventures, at times, are hair-raising in their suspense.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review “Marvelous . . . It is the people of the sun-baked plains of Africa who tug at the heartstrings in this book. . . . [Bryce] Courtenay draws them all with a fierce and violent love.” –The Washington Post Book World “Impressive.” –Newsday “A compelling tale.” –The Christian Science Monitor (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:23 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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