The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay

[Vortex]

I've recently read this book, more by accident than anything else, and I have to say that I was hooked from the start! It was written like 21 years ago, and has probably been in more than one school's reading list or English setwork, and for good reason!

Stolen from Wiki:


The Power of One is a novel by Bryce Courtenay, first published in 1989. Set in South Africa during the 1930s and 1940s, it tells the story of an Anglo-African boy who, through the course of the story, acquires the nickname of Peekay.


...

It is written from the first person perspective, with Peekay narrating (as an adult, looking back) and trusting the reader with his thoughts and feelings, as opposed to a detailed description of places and account of actions.


Once I finished the book I realised that it was on the '101 books to read before you die' book list, so I get to tick another one off the list! (Almost like a lifetime progress bar :D)

[Stool]

where is this book list?
Lazy lazy lazy.

I want references or I'll get upset cos now I gotto Google. My life is busy enough trolling forums ;p

---------- Post added at 04:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:22 PM ----------

Yeah it was an awesome read. Bought Tandia after wards but it didn't read quite the same for me. Didn't get to finish it and now its MIA

[SintaxErr]

pssst: http://www.google.co.za/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENZZ263&=&q=101+books+to+read+before+you+die&btnG=Google+Search

[Stool]

thx sintax... see vorty was that so hard?

[Vortex]

There are two lists here for you to check out..

http://www.wargeeks.org/showthread.php?9558-Top-books-lists..&p=176868#post176868

Happy, chair?

[rainy]

I've actually read a few of the less likely ones.


[-]The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien[/-]
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
[-]The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown[/-] (what this does on the list I have no idea)
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Spud - John van de Ruit
[-]The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay[/-]
[-]The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien[/-]
Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres
Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
[-]The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams[/-]
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Disgrace - J. M. Coetzee
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
[-]Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett[/-] Definitely a must read
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Cry, the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy rather not
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
I Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
[-]Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell[/-]
War And Peace - Leo Tolstoy see above
Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Possession - A. S. Byatt
Perfume - Patrick Suskind
[-]The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende[/-]
Chocolat - Joanne Harris
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
Q & A - Vikas Swarup
[-]Dune - Frank Herbert[/-]
Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels
River God - Wilbur Smith
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
[-]Lord of the Flies - William Golding[/-]
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis have it, but haven't read it yet
[-]Mort - Terry Pratchett[/-]
Crime and Punishment - Feodor Dostoyevsky
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
[-]The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco[/-]
The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne
[-]The Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy[/-]
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
The Shipping News - E. Annie Proulx
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
[-]Animal Farm - George Orwell[/-]
The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
Watership Down - Richard Adams
[-]Magician - Raymond E Feist[/-]
Middlemarch - George Eliot
[-]The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth[/-]
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
The Magus - John Fowles
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Agaat - Marlene van Niekerk
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
The Shell Seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher
The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
The Beach House - James Patterson
Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak
Kringe in 'n Bos - Dalene Matthee
The World according to Garp - John Irving
Northen Lights - Phillip Pullman
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Shades - Marguerite Poland
[-]Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer[/-] He's written better stuff than that
Fiela se kind - Dalene Matthee
Story of an African Farm - Olive Schreiner
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
The Magic Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Winnie-the-Pooh - A.A. Milne


Hmm, 17 and counting...

[Vortex]

Sorry Rainy - moved the list..

Hmm - I must get that Pillars of the Earth book and try it..

[Arbythep00nage]

I've recently read this book, more by accident than anything else, and I have to say that I was hooked from the start! It was written like 21 years ago, and has probably been in more than one school's reading list or English setwork, and for good reason!

Stolen from Wiki:


Once I finished the book I realised that it was on the '101 books to read before you die' book list, so I get to tick another one off the list! (Almost like a lifetime progress bar :D)

Wait what?!?!?! you have only read this now?!?!?!
No man its one of my favorite books of all time. you should read Tandia next, also by Bryce Courtenay. Its not as good but it wraps up the story nicely. His writing is brilliant.

[Vortex]

Wait what?!?!?! you have only read this now?!?!?!
No man its one of my favorite books of all time. you should read Tandia next, also by Bryce Courtenay. Its not as good but it wraps up the story nicely. His writing is brilliant.

Well I'm glad that the story can be finished off - I was getting very close to the end of the book and getting increasingly nervous that it wasn't going to come to any conclusion! Fortunately there is a fairly good end to it, but I still want more!

[GeroW4lll]

I've recently decided not to like fiction with some sort of political message or social lesson. Until I'm mature enough to appreciate them. So I put "Cry the beloved country" in the back of the shelf. For example.

I opened this book and got the idea there's some sort of political or social lesson in it. Then I saw the words Anglo-African on the back and I put it down immediately. Your glowing review might get me to reconsider if you can tell me I'm wrong. Otherwise I'll just leave this for when I'm mature enough too.

I got the same feeling when I opened Spud in Exclusive so I skipped that too. That is also on the list. Was I wrong on that one too?

Rainy if you want to make progress on the list I could borrow you an English copy of "Fiela se kind" that I have lying around (long story). It's lost some in translation but it'll allow you to finish the list without learning the language. That also has a political colour, more in English than Afrikaans, but I'd read it already when I decided I wasn't mature enough for political fiction.

[Vortex]

I've recently decided not to like fiction with some sort of political message or social lesson. Until I'm mature enough to appreciate them. So I put "Cry the beloved country" in the back of the shelf. For example.

I opened this book and got the idea there's some sort of political or social lesson in it. Then I saw the words Anglo-African on the back and I put it down immediately. Your glowing review might get me to reconsider if you can tell me I'm wrong. Otherwise I'll just leave this for when I'm mature enough too.

I got the same feeling when I opened Spud in Exclusive so I skipped that too. That is also on the list. Was I wrong on that one too?

Rainy if you want to make progress on the list I could borrow you an English copy of "Fiela se kind" that I have lying around (long story). It's lost some in translation but it'll allow you to finish the list without learning the language. That also has a political colour, more in English than Afrikaans, but I'd read it already when I decided I wasn't mature enough for political fiction.

Actually "The Power of One" and Spud have some serious similarities! Both are written from the person's point of view, and give a fleeting glimpse of what life is like for the kid involved, rather than try lecture the reader about the history or political state of the country.. The first 1/5 of the book is very Spud-like, or is Spud very PoO-like..:hmmm: Anyways, it moves on from there.

PoO is a gripping book that I found very hard to put down - dug away very quickly at the 600+ pages, caught up in the story. Probably one of the most moving books I've read in a long while. As I said above, the political side of the book is not the story, but just setting the scene really.. I wouldn't have called it political fiction.

The Spud series is a fantastic adventure that I could identify with - the crazy stuff that they get up to in school makes you almost (ALMOST) want to go back and enjoy the good 'ole days again. Except that my good 'ole days weren't all that good after all.. :D

[Nitty]

I enjoyed Spud. The first 100 pages were a bit drab, but after that the humor picked up. Wombat :rofl:

[Arbythep00nage]

Wombat is a crazy old coot. I have read all 3 of the spud books and they were all a good laugh.

[Tresbien]

Finished Power of One, very moving book I thought. Enjoyed it and am left with the feeling that it isn't finished.
Also thoroughly enjoyed the Spud books.

Got to use the phrase Onoshobishobi Ingelosi at work - the store manager's jaw dropped :jawdrop: I guess she wasn't expecting Zulu from me :D

[Arbythep00nage]

Lol so the old tadpole angel surprised her did it?
Read Tandia if you want the ending! its a fair bit longer than the power of one and its not as god but its still an awesome read.
The ending of Tandia finishes off the story perfectly.

[Tresbien]

Thanks RB. I felt like I needed to keep reading at the end. It definately wasn't finished. Will look for Tandia

[Arbythep00nage]

If you like his writing style then you should read april fools day. Its a true story about his son, gets quite sad but is a really amazing story.