Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014)
Author of July's People
About the Author
Nadine Gordimer was born in Gauteng, South Africa on November 20, 1923. She attended the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa for one year. She is a novelist and short-story writer whose major theme is exile and alienation. Her first short story collection, The Soft Voice of the show more Serpent, was published in 1952 and her first novel, The Lying Days, was published in 1953. Her other short story collections include Jump, Why Haven't You Written: Selected Stories 1950-1972, and Loot. Her other novels include A World of Strangers, A Guest of Honour, Burger's Daughter, July's People, A Sport of Nature, My Son's Story, None to Accompany Me, The Pickup, and Get a Life. She has received numerous awards including the Booker Prize for The Conservationist in 1974, the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991, and the French Legion of Honour in 2007. She died on July 13, 2014 at the age of 90. (Bowker Author Biography) Nadine Gordimer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991. (Publisher Provided) show less
Works by Nadine Gordimer
The moment before the gun went off (Norton anthology of English literature) — Author — 3 copies
Once Upon a Time 2 copies
Letter from His Father 2 copies
The Pet 2 copies
The Bourgeois World 1 copy
Hay algo ahí afuera 1 copy
Başka Dünyalar 1 copy
Vem Comigo 1 copy
L,U,C,I,E. 1 copy
Terjun dan Kisah Kisah Lain 1 copy
Ferð allra ferða 1 copy
The Termitary 1 copy
Che cosa stavi sognando? 1 copy
City Lovers 1 copy
Three in a Bed: Fiction, Morals, and Politics (Bennington Chapbooks in Literature Series) (1991) 1 copy
Gordimer, Nadine Archive 1 copy
Les saisons de la vie: Traduit de l'anglais (Af. du Sud) par P.Boyer, J. Damour, J. Guiloineau, G.Lory, (2014) 1 copy
[No title] 1 copy
The Bridegroom 1 copy
Comrades 1 copy
Associated Works
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 1,012 copies, 7 reviews
The World of the Short Story: A 20th Century Collection (1986) — Contributor — 511 copies, 4 reviews
For the Love of Books: 115 Celebrated Writers on the Books They Love Most (1999) — Contributor — 479 copies, 4 reviews
The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories (1986) — Contributor — 381 copies, 3 reviews
A Moment on the Edge : 100 Years of Crime Stories by Women (2002) — Contributor — 295 copies, 6 reviews
Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word (2009) — Contributor — 216 copies, 3 reviews
Other Voices, Other Vistas: Short Stories from Africa, China, India, Japan, and Latin America (1992) — Contributor — 212 copies, 2 reviews
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Contributor — 145 copies, 1 review
The Parthenon Marbles: The Case for Reunification (1987) — Preface, some editions — 135 copies, 4 reviews
A World of Difference: An Anthology of Short Stories from Five Continents (2008) — Contributor — 110 copies, 1 review
Freedom: Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2009) — Contributor — 85 copies, 2 reviews
Here I Am: Contemporary Jewish Stories from Around the World (1998) — Contributor — 57 copies, 1 review
The Literary Lover: Great Stories of Passion and Romance (1993) — Contributor — 55 copies, 2 reviews
Ten years of the Caine Prize for African writing : plus J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer and Ben Okri (2009) — Contributor — 16 copies, 1 review
Als Papa Tennis lernte, Der Inbegriff des Erfolgs, Kreuzfahrt (3 TB) — Contributor — 4 copies
Harper's Magazine 1989 Oct. — Contributor — 1 copy
Harper's Magazine 1988 Aug — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Gordimer, Nadine
- Birthdate
- 1923-11-20
- Date of death
- 2014-07-13
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of the Witwatersrand (incomplete)
- Occupations
- teacher
novelist
short story writer - Organizations
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Foreign Honorary, Literature, 1978)
- Awards and honors
- Nobel Prize (1991)
Benson Medal
Premio Malaparte (1985)
National Order of the Legion of Honour (2007)
Grand Aigle d'Or (1975)
Thomas Pringle Award (1969) (show all 7)
International Botev Prize (1996) - Agent
- Linda Shaughnessy (AP Watt)
Seldes, Timothy
Timoth Seldes - Relationships
- Cassirer, Reinhold (husband)
- Nationality
- South Africa
- Birthplace
- Springs, Transvaal, South Africa
- Places of residence
- Springs, Transvaal, South Africa
USA
Johannesburg, South Africa - Place of death
- Johannesburg, South Africa
- Map Location
- South Africa
Members
Discussions
October 2011: Nadine Gordimer in Monthly Author Reads (October 2011)
Reviews
What would you do if you were me? What is to be done?
Don't read this if you don't like politics, experimental writing, breaking down academic jargon to the bare necessities, candid displays of brutality and bodily functions of the female sort, and complete and utter lack of book-bound solutions for book-invoked problems. For those of you who require more holistic commitment and saviourless methodologies than the likes of [1984] and [Brave New World] can offer, read on.
...he won't scruple toshow more
invoke Kierkegaard's Either/Or against Hegel's dialectic to demonstrate the justice of segregated lavatories...
Don't say I didn't warn you.
The kind of education the children've rebelled against is evident enough; they can't spell and they can't formulate their elation and anguish. But they know why they're dying.
That fact is that the majority of people who read this book on Goodreads will be white. There are variations of privilege in being white, but on the whole, should a white person's car stall while in the middle of a white neighborhood in Detroit, they upon asking for help at a nearby house will not be shot in the back of the head. I use this analogy grounded in the United States to explicate the contents of this book concerned with South Africa because while the United States is all I know, it was enough to teach me the difference between my words of understanding and others' lives of being a long time ago. It's a lesson that must be refreshed every time, all the time, for the ideological indoctrination comes in many forms and the books like this that survive them are few.
One of those eager souls who see no contradiction in their protest that they are not at all 'political' but would like to do something effective—something less self-defeating than charity, for what (euphemism being their natural means of expression) they call 'race relations'.
The term 'code-switching' focuses on the minority, whatever dialect or modicum of expression that is inherently less powerful due to pomp and circumstance. Those who attempt to refute their physical privilege and the need for 'switching' entirely make the mistake of believing they can prove their claim through living, as if their lives were their own to do with what they will. Death is not an equalizer so long as history chooses the heroes.
I know plenty blacks like Burger. It’s nothing, it’s us, we must be used to it, it’s not going to show on English television.
What this book is concerned with is a matter of existing with the least amount of blood on your hands. That's all. That's it. Now, there is plenty of social theory involved in that question, plenty of stories of those who have gone before, plenty of family and friends and peers and privileges to demarcate, explicate, perhaps even the boogeyBOSS of a Cthulhu government that will pull you into confrontation without the need for a single finger of effort on your part. There is the reality, there is the cause, and then there's you, and if you happen to be white in South Africa, not only could you flee through the favor of government that looks like you, your life would be the one applauded.
The old phrases crack and meaning shakes out wet and new.
Congratulations. You have been absolved of your guilt by resembling the powers that be. How does that feel?
There was no way of identifying one’s white face as one that was different from any other, one that should be spared.show less
The Conservationist is an in-depth character study of Mehring, a South African businessman-cum-farmer. His success in industry provided the means to buy a 400-acre farm, which serves primarily as a tax write-off. In his quest for material success, Mehring has lost his wife and a mistress. His teenage son attends school some distance away, and has become increasingly independent -- estranged, perhaps -- from his father. Mehring mistakenly views interaction with the black laborers on his farm show more as a meaningful relationship. In reality, the South African class structure ensures their relationship remains distant.
I found Mehring to be a fairly despicable and pathetic character, which I believe was Gordimer's intent. He is a philanderer, at one point fondling a young lady he'd never met for the better part of a long-haul flight. Yech. And while at times he seems to appreciate the natural beauty of his farm, he has no one to share it with him. His time spent at the farm is empty, a way to pass the weekend or to hide from social obligations.
This was a difficult book to read because the main character was so unlikeable, and it revolved much more around character than plot. However, Gordimer writes some pretty amazing, descriptive prose that brought the South African scenery to life. Despite my rather lukewarm reaction to this particular novel, I will definitely be reading more of her work. show less
I found Mehring to be a fairly despicable and pathetic character, which I believe was Gordimer's intent. He is a philanderer, at one point fondling a young lady he'd never met for the better part of a long-haul flight. Yech. And while at times he seems to appreciate the natural beauty of his farm, he has no one to share it with him. His time spent at the farm is empty, a way to pass the weekend or to hide from social obligations.
This was a difficult book to read because the main character was so unlikeable, and it revolved much more around character than plot. However, Gordimer writes some pretty amazing, descriptive prose that brought the South African scenery to life. Despite my rather lukewarm reaction to this particular novel, I will definitely be reading more of her work. show less
One encounters the full majesty and weight of Nadine Gordimer’s prose in this wide-ranging, inspiring collection. What this artist accomplishes with her plain language and her oblique approach strikes me as uncanny, as a sort of sleight of hand, the whole of which is a great deal more than the sum of its parts. As in the title story, in which a man leaves a European city to investigate, in some aimless way, whether his forbear had taken a black African mistress. The concluding word, show more freighted with multiple levels of meaning when uttered by the protagonist, causes mirth and merriment among his colleagues. We know how inappropriate this reaction is, but we hardly know how to describe what reaction would make sense.
In Tape Measure our daring author lays out the highly amusing musings of an intestinal parasite, and concludes the story with a very understated glimpse of menace. Dreaming of the Dead is Ms. Gordimer’s highly personal elegy to three admired colleagues: Edward Said, Anthony Sampson, and Susan Sontag. This piece so highly praises the dearly departed that it shows the Nobel-winning author’s skill in a new light. It also provides a quick and highly useful introduction to the three. Again, at an extreme economy of words.
Certain themes recur in this collection, in addition to the usual highly charged political viewpoints. Characters in most of the stories navigate the treacherous waters of love and marriage. The higher the stakes, the more care the characters take. Like the wife in Alternative Endings – The Second Sense, who chooses to spare her cheating husband, the owner of a soon-to-be-bankrupt airline. But the widow who visits the gay man who had a love affair with her husband many years before, hadn’t bargained for so much involvement. However, in Mother Tongue, one of the most haunting and rewarding stories here, a beautiful young German bride moves to South Africa with her new husband. Although her English is more than passable, she doesn’t comprehend all the slang and lingo thrown around at the parties she attends. Even when her husband is embraced by another beautiful woman amid all the banter, she’s justified in her confidence that she knows all that’s necessary. I found the concluding language here quite sensual and alluring.
In some stories, the younger generation engages an older one to search for and sometimes find answers. A grandson wonders at the actions taken by his grandmother, a German Jewish performer who returns to Europe from Africa at exactly the wrong time before World War II. The Frivolous Woman of the title seems to have survived her brush with death, all right, and thought hardly anything was amiss. In The Beneficiary, a pleasing and surprisingly powerful piece, a woman comes to love and appreciate her adoptive father, as the story concludes with the line, “Nothing to do with DNA.”
All the stories here offer rewards for the reader. Ms. Gordimer’s oblique language and unadorned handling of her plots camouflage the vast range of her subject and theme. This is remarkable: varied, engaging, uniformly brilliant. If you haven’t made Ms. Gordimer’s acquaintance yet, this is an excellent place to start.
http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/2015/02/beethoven-was-one-sixteenth-black.htm... show less
In Tape Measure our daring author lays out the highly amusing musings of an intestinal parasite, and concludes the story with a very understated glimpse of menace. Dreaming of the Dead is Ms. Gordimer’s highly personal elegy to three admired colleagues: Edward Said, Anthony Sampson, and Susan Sontag. This piece so highly praises the dearly departed that it shows the Nobel-winning author’s skill in a new light. It also provides a quick and highly useful introduction to the three. Again, at an extreme economy of words.
Certain themes recur in this collection, in addition to the usual highly charged political viewpoints. Characters in most of the stories navigate the treacherous waters of love and marriage. The higher the stakes, the more care the characters take. Like the wife in Alternative Endings – The Second Sense, who chooses to spare her cheating husband, the owner of a soon-to-be-bankrupt airline. But the widow who visits the gay man who had a love affair with her husband many years before, hadn’t bargained for so much involvement. However, in Mother Tongue, one of the most haunting and rewarding stories here, a beautiful young German bride moves to South Africa with her new husband. Although her English is more than passable, she doesn’t comprehend all the slang and lingo thrown around at the parties she attends. Even when her husband is embraced by another beautiful woman amid all the banter, she’s justified in her confidence that she knows all that’s necessary. I found the concluding language here quite sensual and alluring.
In some stories, the younger generation engages an older one to search for and sometimes find answers. A grandson wonders at the actions taken by his grandmother, a German Jewish performer who returns to Europe from Africa at exactly the wrong time before World War II. The Frivolous Woman of the title seems to have survived her brush with death, all right, and thought hardly anything was amiss. In The Beneficiary, a pleasing and surprisingly powerful piece, a woman comes to love and appreciate her adoptive father, as the story concludes with the line, “Nothing to do with DNA.”
All the stories here offer rewards for the reader. Ms. Gordimer’s oblique language and unadorned handling of her plots camouflage the vast range of her subject and theme. This is remarkable: varied, engaging, uniformly brilliant. If you haven’t made Ms. Gordimer’s acquaintance yet, this is an excellent place to start.
http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/2015/02/beethoven-was-one-sixteenth-black.htm... show less
Overall an enjoyable anthology. Given that the stories weren't chosen to fit any particular theme and that the authors are from such a wide range of countries and backgrounds, I was surprised at how well they seemed to work together. I sometimes have trouble with the rapid changes of style and tone in an anthology, but I didn't find it jarring in this case.
There was only one story I couldn't finish (the one by Amos Oz, mostly because I wasn't in the mood for a demonstration of Arab-Israeli show more politics) and several that were fairly unmemorable, but also a few that were delightful discoveries. I particularly enjoyed "The Centaur" by José Saramago and two rather philosophical stories about language and the writing process -- "The Letter Scene" by Susan Sontag and "To Have Been" by Claudio Magris. I found a few authors with whom I was previously unacquainted and whom I may read more of in the future.
On the other hand, I was disappointed by the contributions by a couple of authors whose work I know well, namely the Germans Günter Grass and Christa Wolf. Wolf's story was a poor choice for a volume appearing in translation, as it is centered around German idioms which use the word "blue", and whatever fun there was in the wordplay of the original didn't survive the translation. The excerpt from "My Century" by Grass also does not show the author at his best. I think of both writers as more novelists than short story writers, so the problem may simply be that the form is not very effective for showcasing their writing. I don't know whether this is true for other authors in the volume -- that is, that the stories included feel unrepresentative of their work in general. show less
There was only one story I couldn't finish (the one by Amos Oz, mostly because I wasn't in the mood for a demonstration of Arab-Israeli show more politics) and several that were fairly unmemorable, but also a few that were delightful discoveries. I particularly enjoyed "The Centaur" by José Saramago and two rather philosophical stories about language and the writing process -- "The Letter Scene" by Susan Sontag and "To Have Been" by Claudio Magris. I found a few authors with whom I was previously unacquainted and whom I may read more of in the future.
On the other hand, I was disappointed by the contributions by a couple of authors whose work I know well, namely the Germans Günter Grass and Christa Wolf. Wolf's story was a poor choice for a volume appearing in translation, as it is centered around German idioms which use the word "blue", and whatever fun there was in the wordplay of the original didn't survive the translation. The excerpt from "My Century" by Grass also does not show the author at his best. I think of both writers as more novelists than short story writers, so the problem may simply be that the form is not very effective for showcasing their writing. I don't know whether this is true for other authors in the volume -- that is, that the stories included feel unrepresentative of their work in general. show less
Lists
Booker Prize (3)
Revolutions (1)
1970s (1)
1980s (1)
Favourite Books (1)
Africa (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 118
- Also by
- 72
- Members
- 12,466
- Popularity
- #1,879
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 212
- ISBNs
- 707
- Languages
- 25
- Favorited
- 26
