As startling and powerful as when first published more than two decades ago, Andre Brink's classic novel, "A Dry White Season," is an unflinchi... read full description
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Sep 09, 2007
s.helmke
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This is an adult coming-age-story. What do you do, as an adult, when you realize the world is not what you thought it was; that everything you based your life upon was a lie? That's what Ben Du Toit faces. He believed the govt of South Africa when they said that blacks lived separatly, but equally, and were benelovently cared for by the white govt and its people. He had never had reason to consider it. Suddenly events forced him to confront the truth and he faced a choice--he could look away
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Feb 05, 2012
Steven
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I really like this novel, but at times find it mediocre. Brink is wonderful at conveying political commitments through dialog without usually relying on pedantry. I don't find the theme of a white man coming into consciousness about racism (in fucking apartheid South Africa, of all places) particularly compelling, but Brink is very good at exposing the endless bullshit of the liberal elite, a satisfying motif.
Otherwise this is a bit of a mystery-suspense, though we're made to under More...
Otherwise this is a bit of a mystery-suspense, though we're made to under More...
Jan 29, 2012
El
rated it:
Sometimes I love that I live under a rock. Because then I read things like this book, only to find out a movie was made of it starring Donald Sutherland, co-starring Susan Sarandon and Marlon Brando. Hello, Rock; I hope you're comfortable on top of me.
I sort of breezed through this book, which is totally the author's fault because it was just that good. I was invested the entire time. Ben Du Toit is a white schoolteacher in Johannesburg during the Apartheid. When a black friend More...
I sort of breezed through this book, which is totally the author's fault because it was just that good. I was invested the entire time. Ben Du Toit is a white schoolteacher in Johannesburg during the Apartheid. When a black friend More...
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May 03, 2011
Joselito
rated it:
The Philippines also had its dry white season. A long dry white season, almost 14 years from the time the then President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972 up to the time he was deposed in a People Power revolution in 1986.
"it is a dry white season
dark leaves don't last, their brief lives dry out
and with a broken heart they dive down gently headed
for the earth.
not even bleeding.
it is a dry white season brother,
only the trees know More...
"it is a dry white season
dark leaves don't last, their brief lives dry out
and with a broken heart they dive down gently headed
for the earth.
not even bleeding.
it is a dry white season brother,
only the trees know More...
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Aug 10, 2009
Mazel
rated it: 
Dans la moiteur des nuits orageuses de Pretoria, Ben Du Toit découvre un monde tout proche et pourtant si loin de sa vie d'Afrikaner.
Peu à peu, il ouvre des yeux incrédules sur un système qu'il cautionne par ignorance et par lâcheté et qui entretient une communauté, un peuple, dans le désespoir et la résignation.
La naïveté de Ben est telle qu'il croit encore à une justice où toute notion de couleur ou de race serait abolie, mais dans les années quatre-vingt en Afrique d More...
Peu à peu, il ouvre des yeux incrédules sur un système qu'il cautionne par ignorance et par lâcheté et qui entretient une communauté, un peuple, dans le désespoir et la résignation.
La naïveté de Ben est telle qu'il croit encore à une justice où toute notion de couleur ou de race serait abolie, mais dans les années quatre-vingt en Afrique d More...
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Jan 07, 2012
Sue
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Ben Du Toit and the narrator are white South Africans living in Johannesburg. Ben is a school teacher. Gordon Ngubene is a black man who is the janitor at the school where Ben teaches. When Gordon's son Jonathan is missing after a series of riots, and then is reported dead, Gordon turns to Ben as he investigates to learn what happened to his son. No sooner does Gordon learn the truth about Jonathan, than Gordon is taken into police custody and "commits suicide" two weeks later.
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Feb 13, 2012
Kate
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‘There are only two types of madness we should guard against. One is the belief that we can do everything. The other is the belief that we can do nothing.’
A Dry White Season is a sad, depressing look at racial prejudices in apartheid South Africa through the story of a white man trying to bring justice to the memory of a black man. Ben du Toit is a schoolteacher whose life changes when he becomes involved with the family of the school caretaker Gordon Ngubene. Set around the So More...
A Dry White Season is a sad, depressing look at racial prejudices in apartheid South Africa through the story of a white man trying to bring justice to the memory of a black man. Ben du Toit is a schoolteacher whose life changes when he becomes involved with the family of the school caretaker Gordon Ngubene. Set around the So More...
Oct 09, 2011
Sam
rated it:
Quelques réflexions intéressantes sur la folie, la vie en société, l'incompréhension entre les races, les choix qu'on doit faire, la conscience, etc...
On est tout de suite plongé dans l'histoire : bon sens du rythme.
On est tout de suite plongé dans l'histoire : bon sens du rythme.
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May 29, 2010
Karen
rated it: 
I appreciated this book a lot more when I read it for a writing course in college. The second time around, almost seven years later, I found it to be sometimes tiresome and often predictable (I have a terrible memory, by the way, so it's being predictable is the not the result of my ability to remember what was going to happen.). Written during the 1970s, this was certainly an important book for Apartheid South Africa. That said, the dialogue was often painfully weak. A lot of "one has to b
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Oct 29, 2009
Erin and Jim
rated it:
I would give this book 3.5 stars. Andre Brink tells the story of one man's struggle for justice in Apartheid South Africa. Throughout the story, the main character, Ben Du Toit, a white South African(Afrikaaner), finds himself submerged in a world of racist corruption condoned by the government. This a dark read, much darker than I had anticipated upon picking up the book, with death coating many of the chapters. I appreciated this book because of its historical importance (it was banned in
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Aug 09, 2011
This is a powerful and gripping book, one that will not let you go even after you turn the last page. I would call it vivid, except that 'vivid' implies a rich dance of hues, while here there is only a fluorescent glare, a light that offers precious little warmth - the title, taken from a poem by Mongane Wally Serote, sums it up brilliantly. There are some weaknesses: character development is, on the whole, fairly limited. But even though apartheid is now (thank God) a thing of the past, it sti
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Jan 10, 2011
Fritz
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Another one in my list of South African literature must reads. It's a little project I have to find out more about the country where my parents hailed from.
It is interesting for me to find out so many things and situations, that have of course been fictionalized, that have been completely unknown to me. The history books they tell it, but they tell it rather poorly and rather briefly. It least that is the case in the Netherlands where I think part of the conscience remembers the Dutch More...
It is interesting for me to find out so many things and situations, that have of course been fictionalized, that have been completely unknown to me. The history books they tell it, but they tell it rather poorly and rather briefly. It least that is the case in the Netherlands where I think part of the conscience remembers the Dutch More...
Mar 27, 2009
Ebookwormy
rated it:
This is a well written mystery that unfolds page by page. It is enticing reading. I found it best to arrange my observations numerically.
1) It is possible to live in an oppressive society and not come to terms with it. This is willful to differing degrees, depending on the information to which people were exposed. The whites living in apartheid, who benefited from the system, didn't want to acknowledge the horrors of the oppression upon which their position in society was built. Most More...
1) It is possible to live in an oppressive society and not come to terms with it. This is willful to differing degrees, depending on the information to which people were exposed. The whites living in apartheid, who benefited from the system, didn't want to acknowledge the horrors of the oppression upon which their position in society was built. Most More...
Oct 20, 2010
Madeleine
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Lately I've read several anti-apartheid novels by white South African authors, and they all seem to pull in a lot of the same themes--themes around which A Dry White Season is built. The privileged white protagonist beginning to take a stand not because of some internal moral spark, but because something happens to someone he or she cares about. The understanding that whiteness means the choice to opt out of the struggle and be forgiven by the dominant powers, even when you're in very deep. The
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Mar 08, 2011
Thoughtful and disturbing story of what happens to an ordinary man in an extraordinary experience. An Afrikaans schoolteacher wants to know why a cleaner at his school died in detenion of the Security Police after looking into the death of his son in aftermath of rioting. The siege mentality of the white South Africans is frightening. Since this books was published and since the changes in South Africa, this could seem like any old story of aparthied but it's is powerful, moving, and very though
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Jan 11, 2009
Valerie
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I gave this one 4 stars because I really liked the main story and the ideas about race but the "love" story bothered me as did the depiction of the wife (I just kept thinking why did this guy marry her?). And the passage where one character asks another about why they would be upset if another person close to them died? Made me want to scream!
Nov 20, 2008
Eliza
rated it:
This is perhaps my favorite book ever. It is fiction, but has a lot of truth in it. It will, and should disturb you. Everybody ought to be disturbed once in awhile -- if you're not, you're too sheltered.
Jul 21, 2009
Lauren
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About apartheid and all the crazy racism that occured in the late 1970s. A white man looks into the suspicious death of a black man, and the shit reigns down. Extremely well-written.
Sep 28, 2011
Jackleen
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Excellent book depicting the troubles of South Africa. This book brought the condition and daily lives of South African blacks to the attention of the world. A must read.
Jul 28, 2011
Derek
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It made for a pretty standard "isn't apartheid horrid" film, but the book has great power and anger. Not quite Breyten Breytenbach maybe, but principled and emotional stuff.
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Apr 01, 2009
This is an excellent novel. The writing - particularly about personal relationships - is brilliant. Brink does a fantastic job of developing his characters.
Jan 13, 2010
Sue
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An Afrikaner's realization of the horrors of apartheid. Police state, torture, and murder. Powerful. Excellent.
Jan 01, 2012
Clara
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I read this again in October and remembered how strong and disturbing it is. Very good book.
Jun 06, 2011
Miriam
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I loved this book! it was so good. The suspense was amazing. Overall, I would recommand this to anyone.
Jul 19, 2011
Deanne
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Did enjoy this as a thriller, desite knowing how it was going to end, it's like watching a car wreck. You know it's going to be bad, but you can't look away.
It's a book that gives an insight into what it was like to live in South Africa in the 60's and 70's.
It's a book that gives an insight into what it was like to live in South Africa in the 60's and 70's.
Aug 05, 2011
Marie
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Such a terrible story about a man who will jeopardize a lot for the sake of justice !!!
Jun 22, 2010
Katrinka
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Compelling subject matter-- but the execution didn't do much for me.
