The Essential Gesture: Writing, Politics and Places

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ISBN 10: 0224025341 / ISBN 13: 9780224025348

Published by - -, 1988

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # 6545-9780224025348

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Essential Gesture: Writing, Politics and Places
• Publisher: - -
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224025341
• ISBN 13: 9780224025348
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: B/w Title Vignettes; Title Pages (red/black)
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

1st edn. 8vo. Original gilt lettered black cloth (Fine), dustwrapper (small mark on on upper cover - otherwise near Fine in protective wrapepr, not price clipped). Pp. vii + 356 (no inscriptions).

From Library Journal

Contrary to expectation, neither of these two books from prominent members of South Africa's writerly community concerns the craft of fiction or even things literary; they tend much more to social and political commentary. Paton's book is actually a continuation of Towards the Mountain ( LJ 9/15/80), but it is less mystical/global than the earlier book. Although classed as a biography, it does not reveal much about Paton's interior psychology or literary tastes; what one gets is his life set against the backdrop of events in South African history with which he was intimately involved as a world literary figure and social activist. His dissent is always emphatically stated. Gordimer's book, in contrast, is a collection of essays. The writing is sharper, the vocabulary heavier, the allusion thicker, but the theme similar: racial prejudice is abhorrent, especially when governmentally sanctioned, and it is the writer's responsibility to speak the truth. She deals a bit more with writers' concernsparticularly with literature as a revolutionary form, censorship matters, etc.and also provides more color, landscapes, images. But the core of the book is again social history and dissent from "official" South African norms. Paton's book is recommended for its straightforward, uncompromising account, Gordimer's for its combative shrewdness; both belong in all academic and larger public libraries.Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse,
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.