Kenneth Bonert

This is a coming of age story. I love coming of age stories. Absolutely adore them. They're always so human, the kind of stories that reach out and grasp a hold of your soul with their intimacy. Naturally, based on the genre alone, I loved this book. But I loved it for more than that. I loved it for the way it opened my eyes to a world that was completely foreign to me before I delved into its pages.

Now that I've gushed, a little bit about this book: the story focuses on the growing up of show more Isaac Helger. He's a Jewish boy in pre-war South Africa, struggling to find success. Hanging over him is the ultimate goal of his mother: to bring her family from Lithuania to South Africa, to be reunited with her sisters. War is looming.

At first, I'll admit, I didn't like Isaac's character. I couldn't relate to him, couldn't understand his choices. But, the more I read, the more I was fascinated by him. He's not necessarily likable, but you can't help but hold your breath for him. You can't help but to hope that he'll make the right decisions and find yourself deeply sad when you feel that he doesn't.

By the end of the novel though, I realized it's not all so black and white. Did he make a tragic mistake in his life? Or is he dealing with consequences of making the right decision, but a decision that was ultimately the hardest to make? Could things have actually turned out for the better? Knowing world history, it's hard to see that better outcome.

I will warn, this book did get a little tedious at times. Have you ever had a running dream? Running through a forest and something is chasing you, and it feels like you're running through water and you're becoming exhausted, but you're not becoming exhausted all at the same time? It's like that, a constant string of decisions, minor successes, failures, another decision, another success, another failure. And, it's a long book. It's beautifully written, but it's a bit of a tiring journey through Isaac's life.

Still, this book will open your eyes to a new world. It will push you tragically into love, rub your face in the pain of racial conflict, exhaust you in the empty pursuit of wealth, and push you around through the pain of a family in turmoil. Do I recommend it? Absolutely. Will you love it? I hope so. show less

Life is well regulated in South Africa at the end of the 1980s. Apartheid rules and black and white only meet when the former serves or received commands from the later. Thing are only slightly different in the Jewish Helger household in Johannesburg; having survived the Holocaust, the parents developed a more humane attitude than most of their white fellows. Yet, their routines change with the arrival of an American exchange teacher. Annie Goldberg has come to teach at a primary school in show more one of the townships – a place none of the Helger family would ever go to. 16-year-old Martin is fascinated by the pretty and radical woman. Her political opinion drastically differs from his parents’ point of view and soon he finds himself in the middle of the struggles to fight for freedom for the oppressed peoples’ hero Nelson Mandela.

The beginning of the novel is immediately captivating. Just as Martin is fascinated by this strange American, the reader also falls for her charisma. She is a freedom fighter who can easily convince her audience with her statements on the current political situation in a way that you just have to agree – knowing that things might be a lot more complicated. The double complex of having a Jewish survivor family who went through oppression by the Nazi regime gives the novel an even more complicated background.

I especially appreciated the long debates between the Helgers and Goldberg, they gave a precise picture of South Africa of that time and the contradicting positions were thus well established. However, even though this was very interesting, it did not add to the suspense. Since the novel is promoted as “literary thriller”, I’d have expected a bit more of that.

At some point of the story, I got a bit lost. Even though I liked the protagonist Martin and his development is well motivated and largely plausible, the plot was a bit unsatisfactory. At the end, I even had the impression that there was a certain lack of idea of how to finish it at all, the solution chosen did everything but convince me. All in all, I had the impression that the novel wanted to be too much: a thriller, historical fiction, coming-of-age and also the specific aspects of the surviving Jew – it obviously cannot serve all expectations aroused and therefore to conclude, it is only partly recommendable. show less

Isaac Helger’s parents fled Lithuania for South Africa after the First World War, seeking refuge from the same horror that left his mother’s face permanently scarred. The family settles into a working-class Jewish neighborhood in Johannesburg, but Isaac’s mother can only dream of her son earning money to save the rest of her family from dangers on the horizon in Lithuania. Faced with this task, Isaac’s life becomes a series of encounters, partnerships, relationships and secrets aimed show more only at success.

Kenneth Bonert’s setting is so original that it's almost jarring at first. While the time feels familiar, Isaac’s vibrantly blended community hums with the accents and slang of several different languages: Zulu, English, Yiddish and Afrikaans. It takes a few pages to get a grasp on the role each culture plays in Isaac’s life, but the plot of The Lion Seeker soon takes hold and moves relentlessly forward, pulling readers along for the ride.

Bonert shines light on the bigotry that can become commonplace in a mixing bowl community, as minorities persecute one another in the struggle to get ahead; each one taking advantage of his privileges, often without realizing they exist. Though the ending feels rushed for such a well plotted book, The Lion Seeker is a deeply layered, original debut that won't soon be forgotten. http://www.rivercityreading.com show less

The son of Lithuanian Jews who left the country in the 1920s and moved to South Africa, Isaac Helger grows up believing the only way to have self-worth is through money. “Working” for a living, as his watch repairman father does, is embarrassing. As the protagonist in Kenneth Bonert’s novel, The Lion Seeker, Isaac embraces his mother’s credo of “Are you a stupid or a clever?” by dropping out of school and getting a job, but always with an angle and always looking up. A good job show more with a moving company is not enough; he has to use the truck in his off hours as a bus for workers and is fired when he is caught. From there he moves from one scheme to the next, sometimes with success but ultimately putting himself in a position where he has to choose between himself and his family.

“Very simple, he says. Always get your percent. Make sure and get your percent. On everything. Always.”

There are many books out there about the Jews and World War II but The Lion Seeker comes from the unique angle of the Jews in South Africa. Bonert masters the patois of this community, using a blend of Yiddish, Afrikaans, Zulu and English that brings to life the diversity of these people and their deep desire to fit into their surroundings. At the same time, Bonert creates in Isaac a character that never fits in, who rebels and pushes against societal norms in his personal and professional life. He falls in love with a golden blonde goddess named Yvonne, the wealthy daughter of clients and does not seem to understand that she is using him until it is too late. The only constant in Isaac’s life is his all-consuming desire to give his mother the life he feels she deserves but for this deeply flawed man even that becomes negotiable. As the war draws closer, he is forced to make a decision about his future and the future of his mother’s family who are trapped in Lithuania.

The Lion Seeker explores moral themes on the large scale of humanity and the more intimate level of one man’s nature. Bonert succeeds at creating larger-than-life characters and stories that lure the reader through the novel but with so many it is difficult to develop them all. This is not enough to detract from the novel’s storytelling value but may mean that despite being over 570 pages some readers are left wanting more. show less