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6th out of 99 books
—
46 voters
My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to Face His Country, His Tribe, and His Conscience
by
Rian Malan
A classic of literary nonfiction, My Traitor's Heart has been acclaimed as a masterpiece by readers around the world. Rian Malan is an Afrikaner, scion of a centuries-old clan and relative of the architect of apartheid, who fled South Africa after coming face-to-face with the atrocities and terrors of an undeclared civil war between the races. This book is the searing acco...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
March 9th 2000
by Grove Press
(first published January 1st 1990)
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At its heart this book has the problem, what to do when you utterly despise your racist father who advocates violence as a solution when you love him terribly, terribly much?
It isn't a solveable dilemma. Rian, who despite his upbringing, isn't at all racist, leaves the country so he won't have to face it on a day-to-day-basis, but eventually returns to his homeland, because it is his home, and learns to live with the discordance in his heart.
Some reviewers have seen it as a book about the end-t...more
It isn't a solveable dilemma. Rian, who despite his upbringing, isn't at all racist, leaves the country so he won't have to face it on a day-to-day-basis, but eventually returns to his homeland, because it is his home, and learns to live with the discordance in his heart.
Some reviewers have seen it as a book about the end-t...more
40 likes · like · see review
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Wow. I can honestly say I've never read a book like this one.
The book begins, apparently, with the intent of the author (a white South African writing in the late 80's) to trace his family through South African history to its the earliest events. The author, a self-confessed white liberal who detests apartheid, writes of his famous ancestors with a deeply critical eye.
However, as the book progresses the author uncovers mysterious, unresolvable contradictions in the lives of his ancestors and fin...more
The book begins, apparently, with the intent of the author (a white South African writing in the late 80's) to trace his family through South African history to its the earliest events. The author, a self-confessed white liberal who detests apartheid, writes of his famous ancestors with a deeply critical eye.
However, as the book progresses the author uncovers mysterious, unresolvable contradictions in the lives of his ancestors and fin...more
Come si combatte l'apartheid se quelli per cui lo fai ti vogliono morto perché sei bianco?
Chi sa perché i giornalisti, che sono abituati a contare le parole dei loro articoli per farli entrare in spazi precisi, quando hanno un libro sotto le mani perdono qualsiasi controllo e ritegno.
E' così, per fare solo un altro esempio, anche "Quando un coccodrillo mangia il sole" del giornalista Peter Godwin.
Rian Malan sbrodola gli stessi concetti una, due , tre e più volte - si ripete, affastella storie,...more
Chi sa perché i giornalisti, che sono abituati a contare le parole dei loro articoli per farli entrare in spazi precisi, quando hanno un libro sotto le mani perdono qualsiasi controllo e ritegno.
E' così, per fare solo un altro esempio, anche "Quando un coccodrillo mangia il sole" del giornalista Peter Godwin.
Rian Malan sbrodola gli stessi concetti una, due , tre e più volte - si ripete, affastella storie,...more
Apr 08, 2012
Helen (Helena/Nell)
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Everyone
Recommended to Helen (Helena/Nell) by:
Chris Beaton
I think this is an essential book. Essential, I mean, for any human being who tries to understand the human condition—what we are, what we may be. Not that this is ever comprehensible but . . .
I don’t know how to begin this review.
In the front of the book, which my son gave me, he has written in his small backwards sloping hand: “This book is messed up and I think you will find it fascinating. A real example of someone telling a story because it’s the only way something can be said.”
He was righ...more
I don’t know how to begin this review.
In the front of the book, which my son gave me, he has written in his small backwards sloping hand: “This book is messed up and I think you will find it fascinating. A real example of someone telling a story because it’s the only way something can be said.”
He was righ...more
5 likes · like · see review
Rian, a white liberal South Afrikaner grew up in South Africa but left for awhile in his early adult hood. Burdened with guilt he returns hoping to explain? Ease his conscience? He descends from a Huguenot who arrived in South Africa in 1688, Rian’s ancestors appear in South African history at every major event since then. Initially the book was to be a family history but turns out to be an examination of how people die in South Africa and he selects specific deaths (black & white) to study...more
Writer Philip Gourevitch has chosen to discuss Rian Malan’s
My Traitor's Heart
on FiveBooks as one of the top five on his subject - Rwanda, saying that:
Malan is a really extraordinary writer, and he was writing, in late-apartheid South Africa, about killings by blacks of whites and by whites of blacks. A bit like police reporting, but also a memoir. It’s a hybrid form, grappling with what the violence tells us about the politics and what the culture tells you about the violence. It goes deep, d...more
Malan is a really extraordinary writer, and he was writing, in late-apartheid South Africa, about killings by blacks of whites and by whites of blacks. A bit like police reporting, but also a memoir. It’s a hybrid form, grappling with what the violence tells us about the politics and what the culture tells you about the violence. It goes deep, d...more
A shocking synopsis of a turbulent time in South African history,
very well written and an honest account of the white psyche, both liberal and conservative, when the last bastion of colonialism crashed down amidst international sanctions which was the only way to bring
the most powerful government down. The former government could not be beaten in any type of war effort from the outside.
Malan, however, demonstrates how these actual events were withheld by way of a moratorium on the press from the...more
very well written and an honest account of the white psyche, both liberal and conservative, when the last bastion of colonialism crashed down amidst international sanctions which was the only way to bring
the most powerful government down. The former government could not be beaten in any type of war effort from the outside.
Malan, however, demonstrates how these actual events were withheld by way of a moratorium on the press from the...more
Powerful when it was first published.Times have changed so quickly that the writing seems dated and sticky.It remains a brutally honest account of one man's experience of South Africa in the dark days of the 1980s.It also seems to resonate with many South African men.Our own Vietnam has not been explored. Maybe it's time that someone tried?
I LOVE THIS BOOK; a narrative non-fiction about the racial/social/political contradictions of "post" Apartheid South Africa.
written by a very uniquely historically-placed Afrikaner who is always at struggle with his place in the system.
one of my favorites, especially because it was recommended to me by my grandfather, who also loved it.
written by a very uniquely historically-placed Afrikaner who is always at struggle with his place in the system.
one of my favorites, especially because it was recommended to me by my grandfather, who also loved it.
This is a fascinating picture of South Africa told by a (liberal) Afrikaner without any of the usual politically correct bias. This in itself is rare and commendable. The first part is very good. The thoughts of this young would be communist Boer who is totally messed up by what he sees in his country make you grasp a bit the problems of SA. The second and third parts are a series of description of gory massacres of whites by blacks, blacks by whites and blacks by blacks. The only good guys are...more
A classic of literary nonfiction, My Traitor's Heart has been acclaimed as a masterpiece by readers around the world. Rian Malan is an Afrikaner, scion of a centuries-old clan and relative of the architect of apartheid, who fled South Africa after coming face-to-face with the atrocities and terrors of an undeclared civil war between the races. This book is the searing account of his return after eight years of uneasy exile. Armed with new insight and clarity, Malan explores apartheid's legacy of...more
I was reading this book in Philz Coffee in San Francisco and I had to close the book and take some deep breaths to keep from crying in a public place. It's a memoir in a way, but mostly a collection of true stories of the way that people killed each other in South Africa, particularly in the 1980s in the dying throes of apartheid, but also how that hate and those killings were part of a system of hate and killings between races since the 1600s.
This book struck a powerful chord with me. It is al...more
This book struck a powerful chord with me. It is al...more
It's hard to "like" a book that focuses on something as atrocious as apartheid, but I found My Traitor's Heart enlightening while I was living in South Africa. Rian was an Afrikaner disillusioned by his own race and family, as they supported (or at least did not resist) severe racism. Rian rebelled to some extent but mostly seemed to feel paralyzation in the face of dangerous options. Standing against his people made him their enemy, but marching with the oppressed was equally perilous, as both...more
stunniung stunning stunning book. one of my top 20 undoubtedly. a book about soutah african history written by a journalist whose family name is deeeply entwined with south african history. rian malans ancestors were responsible in a partial way for the aparteid we could see in african right up till the early 90s. the books chapters on the "hamerman" killings and the story of neil and creina alcock is unforgettable and i have been telling everyone about those stories from the moment i fiished th...more
This, Don't Let's Go To the Dogs Tonight, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, and Cutting for Stone all shed light on the post-colonial ex-pat experience in central southern Africa, and come at it different ways. Malan's book is pretty haunting and definitely deserves to head the list. These are a definite post-modern twist on Out of Africa and along with non-fiction like Blood River and King Leopold's Ghost I think give pretty good insight into what's happened over the past 40 years in central Afric...more
1 like · like · see review
This was a fascinating account of apartheid-era South Africa, going into depth on stories of average South Africans that you don't usually hear about. Written by a reporter who is descended from one of the architects of apartheid, it's largely about the author's attempt to reconcile his progressive anti-apartheid ideas with his racism rooted deeply in his family and upbringing. It's raw and difficult to read at times, but Malan makes the stories come alive and expertly weaves them together. At t...more
We read this book in my book club and it was by far the most free-flowing, heated and emotionally charged session.
How could it not be, seeing as it tackles the issues and history so close to home. We could all imagine our parents and grandparents experiences the atrocities that occurred during Apartheid. This book is very relevant for South Africa today and reveals all the things that have lead us to the precarious place we are in.
Some of the content is difficult to stomach, but it is written ve...more
How could it not be, seeing as it tackles the issues and history so close to home. We could all imagine our parents and grandparents experiences the atrocities that occurred during Apartheid. This book is very relevant for South Africa today and reveals all the things that have lead us to the precarious place we are in.
Some of the content is difficult to stomach, but it is written ve...more
People really love this book; I thought it was good / interesting. The writer's ultra-casual, stream-of-conscious style wasn't totally my cup of my tea. The book lacked a large-scale structure, which was annoying. The individual stories within the book were great, but I thought the author didn't do much to tie them to together. Readers had to do that on their own... The book was worth reading for its insight on South African history and pysche, but I didn't think the book was as amazing as other...more
Well then. I did enjoy reading this book until about three-quarters of the way through, where the heaviness of the crimes made me need to pace myself. It's well-written and engaging, though often it seems like the chapters were left with a bit of a cliffhanger, never to be picked up on later.
In fact, the whole book seems a bit short on resolution, and I get that that's the whole point. Or rather, I get that not being able to tie things up neatly at the end and letting things go mostly unspoken i...more
In fact, the whole book seems a bit short on resolution, and I get that that's the whole point. Or rather, I get that not being able to tie things up neatly at the end and letting things go mostly unspoken i...more
In the final pages of this book, author Rian Malan "confesses" that the book didn't turn out to be what he originally intended, and I can see where he's coming from. It appears at the beginning to be a personal account of his experiences with, and feelings about, apartheid. But Malan is a journalist, and he ends up, as journalists do, talking with various people and relating their experiences. And that, I think, made it a better book than it would have been otherwise. Malan is unflinching; yes,...more
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I read two books about South Africa this year. Cry My Beloved Country by Alan Paton and My Traitor's Heart by Rian Malan. Both were written by white men about South Africa's struggle with apartheid. Malan writes from an interesting perspective, He is a liberal, that is descended from the architects of apartheid. I am appalled at how ignorant I was about the history of South Africa. Afrikaners, Huguenots, Xhosa, Slagtersnek, Voortrkkers, Boers, Hottentots, General Jan Smuts, South African Party (...more
Having finally closed it out after several fatigue hiatuses, I can say that _My Traitor's Heart_ is every bit as epic, problematic, challenging, privileged, narcissistic, and ultimately worthwhile as the jacket copy & quotes would suggest.
At best, Malan is an exceptional journalist and researcher, who achieves uncommon insight into his own unforgivable/inextricable complicity in the violence of colonial history & the (then) present Apartheid system and the inadequacies of his own respon...more
At best, Malan is an exceptional journalist and researcher, who achieves uncommon insight into his own unforgivable/inextricable complicity in the violence of colonial history & the (then) present Apartheid system and the inadequacies of his own respon...more
I really thought this book was fantastic. It was honest, and real, and really got into issues in South Africa that many were afraid to address at the time it was published (1990). It was written by someone who, by all history, should have been an ardent supporter of apartheid, coming from the Malan family - but he wasn't, at least he didn't want to be. What I thought was one of the most compelling parts of the book was the portrayal of fear as the thing that kept the racial divide going. He real...more
Malan set out to write a book about his ancestors, about the whole lineage of Malans, who, after setting foot on the continent since the 17th century, fostered the bloody conditions and architected the policies for apartheid South Africa. During this genealogy, he swiftly moves into his childhood love for blacks that extended into his adult guilt and anti-apartheid activism, which make him in some ways the black sheep of the Malan clan and in many ways a variation on the same racist theme. The p...more
I'm burned out and starving to death, so I'm just going to lay this all upon you and trust that you're a visionary reader, because the grand design, such as it is, is going to be hard for you to see. Nuff Said.
I first read this as a fourteen year old kid growing up in Zimbabwe. Having Afrikaans family i probably related to it more than most. One of the most honest, accurate and brutal accounts of apartheid South Africa you'll ever read. A must if you have any passing interest in South Africa.
I first read this as a fourteen year old kid growing up in Zimbabwe. Having Afrikaans family i probably related to it more than most. One of the most honest, accurate and brutal accounts of apartheid South Africa you'll ever read. A must if you have any passing interest in South Africa.
An absolutely unforgettable book. Favourite quote: “Beyond politics, there was mythology, and rival myths to live and die by: for some whites, the myth of white supremacy, and for others, the myth of brave and noble Africans in heroic struggle against unspeakable evil. If you were white, you had to embrace one of those two myths, and let it guide your way. If you believed in neither, the paradox fractured your skull and buried its poisonous claws in your brain.”
By the way, he's also a great sin...more
By the way, he's also a great sin...more
I read this a long time ago but at the time I was really impressed. Brutally honest, lyrical, cynical and yet full of hope and love and compassion for the world. I suspect that post-grad and 15 yrs older I would be less charmed: my ideas about what constitutes good prose, not to mention brutal honesty, have changed, along with my ideas about the relative merits of lyricism, cynicism, and love and hope and compassion for the world. But I still think it's a great book. It's on the shelf with my fa...more
Excellent portrayal of the brutality of the Apartheid system of government throughout the 1960's, 70's and 80's. Intriguing characters, great primary source historical accounts of the conflict between the ANC campaign and its opposition. Excellent insight into hostilities which fueled the Boers and Afrikaners into commiting savage, cruel, and ravaging acts against black South Africans. Be wary however, not for the feint of heart. Language is descriptive, vivid, and graphic.
I don't know if it's just me, because I find white guilt so pathetic and meaningless, or if the author is just pathetic himself. His premise appears that it is impossible to be simultaneously white, non-racist and no traitor to one's own people. It seems that for him if an Afrikaner is not a a White supremacist, he's betraying his kin. But being a White supremacist is apparently not very nice.
I say 'it seems' and 'apparently' because the message is not very clear towards the end of the book; th...more
I say 'it seems' and 'apparently' because the message is not very clear towards the end of the book; th...more
Author, Rian Malan provides an inside perspective of South Africa's history, culture, apartheid and evolution towards the elimination of apartheid in South Africa by telling the stories of those that lived through those times and continue to navigate through the unchartered waters of South Africa's future.
I definitely recommend this book.
I definitely recommend this book.
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Rian Malan is a South African author, journalist, documentarist and songwriter of Afrikaner descent. He first rose to prominence as the author of the memoir My Traitor's Heart, which, like the bulk of his work, deals with South African society in a historical and contemporary perspective and focuses on racial relations. As a journalist, he has written for major newspapers in South Africa, Great Br...more
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