What a striking opening - the first sentence (“And who was that?”), the first two pages - immediately drawing the reader into the narrative. Writing in questions and sentence fragments, Gordimer succinctly and masterfully presents a plethora of details that outline a situation, a conundrum, that propels the action and the curiosity of the reader rapidly forward.The narrative is fascinating, intense in a way that drives the reader to take frequent breaks in order to settle before resuming the story. One feels in the grip of a masterful author who weaves a story that even when relating commonplace events suggests the menacing approach of destabilizing crises and dangers. The story takes place in South Africa shortly after the official end of apartheid in the early 1990‘s, when banned and exiled citizens are coming home to an unstable and uncertain social and political environment. Ostensibly the story of a South African lawyer, Vera Stark, the head of a non-profit legal foundation working to rectify social injustices, the narrative depends heavily on free indirect discourse and temporal discontinuities with frequent flashbacks. But in addition to exploring social themes, the story exquisitely plumbs subtleties of interpersonal relationships, raising interesting issues of social conscience and personal morality. The vicissitudes of marriage, sexuality, and the often fraught relationships between parents and children are explored with sensitivity and without melodrama. Interpersonal relationships often seem like plate tectonics, seemingly stable and quiescent for long periods of time, even as stresses build, only to suddenly change in often unexpected and sometimes destructive ways. Gordimer highlights the shifting waves of emotions that wax and wane in interpersonal relationships as well as internally in her characters, and the reader cannot help reflecting on the workings of his own mind and feelings as they never cease flowing, dying and being born moment to moment, never remaining long the same.Throughout this book there is an aura of instability and danger, partly because of the uncertain social and political environment of the times but also because of the shifting interpersonal relationships. Ultimately this is the story of existential aloneness, of the passage to self-awareness and self-knowing. “Everyone ends up moving alone towards the self.” And this journey is presented as necessary and good, even if painful. Reflecting on her own life, Vera says, “I cannot live with someone who can’t live without me.” The search for one’s own life is important, the search for the truth about one’s own life. And this requires the working through of dependencies.This is a book too deep to easily sum up. It is beautifully and sensitively written. Above all it is wise with its own kind of wisdom. Such wisdom may not be everyone’s wisdom. But the reading of the book can cause the reader to reflect on his own life, and in that sense the book is a powerful mirror.
"Neste romance, Nadine Gordimer introduz-nos na vida de dois casais, um negro e outro branco, e na forma como o seu relacionamento evolui e se relacionam com a sociedade durante o período que antecedeu as primeiras eleições livres na África do Sul. Nos últimos dias do antigo regime, activistas contra o apartheid são libertados da prisão ou regressam a casa após vários anos no exílio. Vera Stark, uma advogada branca dos direitos civis que representa a comunidade negra e a pretensão desta às terras, reencontra muitos rostos familiares da sua juventude neste regresso. O país está em transformação - tudo tem de mudar. Esta constatação leva Vera Stark a reexaminar a sua vida. Conhecida como alguém impossível de enganar, Vera é implacável em expor as suas próprias mentiras e dissimulações. Enfrenta verdades desagradáveis acerca do seu casamento, dos seus romances e o efeito que as suas acções tiveram nos seus filhos. Mas, em vez de se agarrar à segurança de uma vida menor, Vera descobre que as rápidas mudanças políticas encorajam mudanças radicais..."
What do You think about None To Accompany Me (1995)?
A very interesting look at South AFrica as it transformed from apartheid to majority rule. Yet, too much about Vera's sex life and not enough from the other characters (namely, the Black ones) and their experience during this incredible time. I can see why many like the author's writing style but for me it was a little too slow. I found myself drifting off often and needing to re-read a page or 2. Kind of interesting picture of independent, professional women with husbands who were less recognized, less high profile. The book sort of ends without really examining that theme more thoroughly.
—Sophia
None to Accompany Me is about Vera Stark, a white woman lawyer, whom has given her life to helping blacks regain some of their ancestral land in post apartheid South Africa. She is not the most likable character you will ever encounter, but she is brave and fiercely honest. She has chosen to give her life to the cause at the expense of her family and friends. She served on the committee that worked on drafting the new constitution which gives insight into the responsibility of creating such a document. The book is written in an impressionistic style that doesn't have direct dialog. It feels like being inside a person's mind. Vera is always trying to understand what life means and what is her role in being alive. She is very believable, yet her understanding isn't necessarily what another person would experience because she is detached in her personal observations. She discovered towards the end of the novel that "Everyone ends up moving alone towards the self". That was a deep realization for her. There was another family in the story, a black family that were involved with new government and were under death threats. That part of the story resolved as the the political scene calmed down. Nadine Gordimer won a Nobel prize for an earlier novel, but I feel that probably gave her the courage to write this novel about people that worked to create modern South Africa.
—Carol
A rich introspective of a singular personality, firmly rooted in the unique political landscape of post-apartheid South Africa. I found it to be a compelling interplay of philosophy, politics, and - overriding all else - personal desire; the question Annie asks of Vera - "What is it you want?". At times the writing clumps in tightly tangled sentences; at other times it unfolds hospitably into metaphor - the "incinerated setting sun" becomes a "blazing forest fire" behind the silhouette of trees. It is first and foremost a story of Vera; secondly a quiet manifesto of political hope; lastly a love story to a nation burdened with the scars of history.
—Ck
