In Corner B (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Mphahlele, Es'kia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143106023 ISBN 13: 9780143106029

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2011

Synopsis

The quintessential story collection from "the most important black South African writer of the present age" (George Moore).

Originally published in 1967, In Corner B contains the core stories of the original editions, together with more recent pieces, and is the first new edition of Mphahlele's work since his death in 2008. Written after his return from exile, these stories inimitably capture life in both rural and urban South Africa during the days of apartheid. A new introduction by Peter Thuynsma, a South African scholar and former Mphahlele student, presents the "dean of African letters" to a new generation of readers.

About this title

About the Author

Es'kia Mphahlele (1919-2008) was born Ezekiel Mphahlele. His writings include his celebrated first story collection, Man Must Live, and an acclaimed autobiography, Down Second Avenue.

Peter N. Thuynsma succeeded Es'kia Mphahlele as professor of African literature at the University of Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he lives.

Reviews

Starred Review. Raw and carefully examined portraits of life during apartheid dominate this sterling collection from the late Mphahlele (1919–2008). While the oppressive atmosphere of the times serves as an ominous force as often as backdrop, these stories pivot on the innermost thoughts of ordinary people. In "Man Must Live," a near microscopic analysis of the brazenness of a railway police officer ends up being a larger cautionary tale of rise and fall. A similar inspection of haughtiness and pride is made of a white farm owner living in constant fear of being overthrown by his workers in "The Master of Doornvlei." The title story focuses on a freshly widowed woman whose questioning of her dead husband's love and devotion to her and their children doubles as love story and a taut commentary on education, violence, and corruption. Later stories, such as "Nigerian Talking Points" and "A Ballad of Oyo," explore life in exile, reflecting the author's own experiences. Mphahlele delivers devastating details without ignoring the sometimes comic intricacies of the human psyche, resulting in an impressive survey of a career spent documenting harsh inequality. (Feb.)
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Furious, funny, and heartbreaking, these stories by a leading South African writer, most of them first published in 1967, capture the black personal experience under apartheid, from the urban ghetto to the barren rural reserve. The struggle may seem crude, but that is how it was—the poverty, the anguish of family separation, the forced removals. A woman remembers when her sons left to work in the mines; a drunken white farmer beat her husband to death, and now she is forced to leave his grave and her ancestral home. Her words are simple, and so is the talk of the bureaucrat (I am only doing my duty). In the segregated township, people exchange banter and jokes and woeful stories. The local dialect is sometimes dense, but readers will go with the wry twists and turns, like the Coloured (mixed race) man who believes that purity of blood is just lunatic nonsense but prefers to laugh with, not suffer with, blacks. Mphahlele died in 2008, and Peter Thuynsma’s excellent introduction fills in background. --Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0143106023
• ISBN 13: 9780143106029
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272