A passionate witness to the colossal upheaval that has transformed her native South Africa, Gillian Slovo has written a memoir that is far more than a story of her own life. For she is the daughter of Joe Slovo and Ruth First, South Africa's pioneering anti-apartheid white activists, a daughter who always had to come second to political commitment. Whilst recalling the extraordinary events which surrounded her family's persecution and exile, and reconstructing the truth of her parents' relationship and her own turbulent childhood, Gillian Slovo has also created an astonishing portrait of a courageous, beautiful mother and a father of integrity and stoicism.
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'A luminous achievement' OBSERVER 'Wonderfully moving ... anger, frustration, and the hunger for sharing wash her pages, though they never swamp the admiration for her parents' GUARDIAN 'Gillian Slovo has written a brave book, as unsparing of herself as it is of her parents ... a moving testimony' Christopher Hope, INDEPENDENT An extraordinary expression of the very nature of loving, which illuminates, with the anger and tenderness of deep emotion, that human territory we all occupy, and where we conceal so much from ourselves' Nadine Gordimer 'If it doesn't become one of 1997's bestsellers we can only deduce that the reading public has lost its marbles.' Dervla Murphy 'A brave book... guilt, longing, envy are all present, but so are love, courage and stoicism in the face of danger.' MARIE CLAIRE 'An intriguing journey... a fine book.' SCOTSMAN 'An enthralling story about the cruelties of compassion, the anguish of loss and the courage to pursue the truth that brings its own peace.' OBSERVER 'Others have written about this remarkable family... but no one as painfully or as frankly as this book. Nowhere else have I seen the personal cost of political commitments so starkly portrayed.' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'A beautiful examination of the ties that bind a couple- principle, passion, power, pain... Excellent.' TIME OUT 'Told with a powerful, underplayed directness.' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 'A painfully honest tale.' ECONOMIST 'This is a valuable book which speaks for a generation of white South Africans whose parents fought the injustices of apartheid, often with terrible personal consequences.' SPECTATOR
About the Author
Gillian Slovo recently adapted TIES OF BLOOD, a fictional work about South Africa, into a six part series for the BBC. Since Nelson Mandela's release she has made frequent visits to South Africa (she wrote a piece for the THE GUARDIAN on the run up to th
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Gillian Slovo, 1997: Every Little Thing; my family, my country London: Abacus.
By any standard, this is an exceptional political memoir about the meaning of commitment to the cause of a multi-racial South Africa. Gillian, the daughter of Ruth First and Joe Slovo, has given us a profound insight into the tensions between the public and private lives of her parents, two of the ANC's best-known figures. Starting with the murder of her mother in Maputo in 1982, the author moves by a series of flashbacks from her childhood recollections of the verdant suburbs of Johannesburg in the early 1960s to years in exile and ultimately, the triumph of the ANC, the new South Africa and Joe's untimely death from cancer in 1995. But this is no simple memoir: it is a search to piece together the private identities of two exceptional political figures whose children perceived them only in fleeting glimpses during the turbulent years of confinement, exile and separation. Against Joe's wishes, his journalist daughter has pieced together the private lives behind the politics. This is a book about the emotional price paid by the Ruth, Joe and their children for 30 years of political struggle, a story told with an exceptional lucidity and compassion. It is essential reading for anybody who seeks to understand how grim was the struggle against apartheid.
G W Irvin
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Douglas
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I read this when it was first published in 1997 after a wonderful conversation with the author at a book reading in Belfast, and read it again this year. She writes with exquisite fluidity and delicate touch about her upbringing, her country (South Africa) and its politics, and most of all about the ongoing tension between herself and her parents (the iconic anti-apartheid activists Joe Slovo and Ruth First). She documents with genuine feeling and emotion the consequences of her parents' political commitment both for them (murder, death and imprisonment, but also revolutionary political change) and herself (parental abandonment, but also deep and ever growing personal understanding, gratitude and pride in what they did). The issue of the conflict between the political and the personal has never been written about in such an illuminating and touching manner. This is the best book I've read in many, many years.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I thoroughly enjoyed this sensitive account of the author's relationship with her parents. It works on so many levels. It gives insights into South African politics and society from an unusual perspective. The description of Joe Slovo's funeral from the daughter's perspective is particularly strong. It discusses the tension between public and private duties - again from the perspective of a daughter who is honest enough to admit to some resentment towards the time spent by her parents in political struggle.It also deals with the story of the daughter's search for the "truth", and her doubts as to the word's meaning.This is a common enough theme in many post-modern novels; rarely has the theme been rooted in such rich soil. The scene in which the author meets one of the men responsible for her mother's murder is emotionally moving and intellectually challenging.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good read
An interesting book both in its history of the South African struggle and the personal feelings of the daughter of 2 of the main instigators of the fight against the regime. Read more
Published 1 month ago by joan huddleston
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written insight into an extraordinary family
I was expecting a dry account of the struggles in south africa. Instead, it was a beautifully written account of growing up as a white south african whose parents are in the... Read more
Published 5 months ago by jane Moysey
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!
This was a wonderful read. It was very well written and the story was engaging in many ways. I have read many books written about Nelson Mandela so this story padded out my... Read more
Published 16 months ago by E. Braben
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written, interesting read
I initially purchased this book because the author Gillian Slovo will be the guest speaker at a Literary Lunch that I have been booked to host. Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2009 by Mr. P. James
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