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Crimes of Conscience: Selected Short Stories
"Nadine Gordimer, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature," is one of today's most talented prose-fiction writers. This powerful collection of short stories, set in her native Southern Africa, reveals her outstanding ability to pierce the core of the human condition of those, both black and white, living in countries where repression and coercion is the norm.
Although Gordimer illustrates vividly the subtleties of her characters' emotions, there is always the awareness of the larger canvas, the turmoil of a violent world outside the individual incidents, where the instability of fear and uncertainty lead unwittingly to crimes of conscience.
Although Gordimer illustrates vividly the subtleties of her characters' emotions, there is always the awareness of the larger canvas, the turmoil of a violent world outside the individual incidents, where the instability of fear and uncertainty lead unwittingly to crimes of conscience.
122 pages, Paperback
First published June 3, 1991
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About the author
Nadine Gordimer
325 books952 followersNadine Gordimer was a South African writer, political activist, and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was recognized as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".
Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. Under that regime, works such as Burger's Daughter and July's People were banned. She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned. She was also active in HIV/AIDS causes.
Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. Under that regime, works such as Burger's Daughter and July's People were banned. She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned. She was also active in HIV/AIDS causes.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 12, 2021
Crimes of Conscience: Selected Short Stories by Nadine Gordimer, the 1991 Nobel Prize laureate, is a collection of eleven stories set in South Africa. The stories vary from first person point of view to third person point of view. They all have in common characters who are put in the position of having to make a difficult choice, one which frequently leads to a crime of conscience and its concomitant feelings of guilt.
Gordimer’s characters are caught up in a South Africa in the grip of the violence and political turmoil of apartheid. With depth and breadth, she explores the subtleties and nuances of her characters’ emotions against this background. Her characters face a moral quandary and must choose. Why they choose to do what they do is sometimes not clear even to them. But in one form or another, they are all plagued with guilt for the choices they make.
The situations vary. A wife betrays her husband’s friend to the authorities. A white farmer’s son murders the infant daughter he has fathered with a black farm hand. A former guerilla leader remembers only too late how much he owes to the white lawyer and his wife for opening their home to him. A village chief reports the presence of strangers in his village with devastating consequences. A man reveals to his lover he has been sent to spy on her. The destruction of termites and their queen under the floorboards of a home takes on symbolic significance, haunting a child well into her adult years. A refugee grandmother must choose between saving her spouse or her grandchildren.
Gordimer’s movement from one situation to another, from one setting to another, and from one voice to another seems effortless. Her characters are authentic. They are complex and deeply felt. Her observations on people in morally complicated situations are honest, astute, and depicted with a sensitivity to their predicament and their weaknesses.
There are no easy answers to the dilemmas posed in these stories. Set against the background of an apartheid South Africa where systemic racism is the rule of law, Nadine Gordimer’s stories remind us that living under an oppressive government takes a tragic toll on people’s lives and thrusts them in moral dilemmas where they feel they have no choice but to commit crimes of conscience.
Very highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
Gordimer’s characters are caught up in a South Africa in the grip of the violence and political turmoil of apartheid. With depth and breadth, she explores the subtleties and nuances of her characters’ emotions against this background. Her characters face a moral quandary and must choose. Why they choose to do what they do is sometimes not clear even to them. But in one form or another, they are all plagued with guilt for the choices they make.
The situations vary. A wife betrays her husband’s friend to the authorities. A white farmer’s son murders the infant daughter he has fathered with a black farm hand. A former guerilla leader remembers only too late how much he owes to the white lawyer and his wife for opening their home to him. A village chief reports the presence of strangers in his village with devastating consequences. A man reveals to his lover he has been sent to spy on her. The destruction of termites and their queen under the floorboards of a home takes on symbolic significance, haunting a child well into her adult years. A refugee grandmother must choose between saving her spouse or her grandchildren.
Gordimer’s movement from one situation to another, from one setting to another, and from one voice to another seems effortless. Her characters are authentic. They are complex and deeply felt. Her observations on people in morally complicated situations are honest, astute, and depicted with a sensitivity to their predicament and their weaknesses.
There are no easy answers to the dilemmas posed in these stories. Set against the background of an apartheid South Africa where systemic racism is the rule of law, Nadine Gordimer’s stories remind us that living under an oppressive government takes a tragic toll on people’s lives and thrusts them in moral dilemmas where they feel they have no choice but to commit crimes of conscience.
Very highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
March 7, 2023
Recognized the powerful themes in these short stories - ethical dilemmas, betrayals, set in the apartheid-era South Africa - but the writing style, removed tone, and stilted structure left me cold.
Maybe a Gordimer novel/la will be a better fit?
Maybe a Gordimer novel/la will be a better fit?
April 18, 2019
Not sure how this ended up on my bookshelf. I was skeptical of another old white African POV on apartheid (or anything, really), but I grabbed it for plane reading because it was small ... and then it was fantastic. Gordimer makes writing outside herself seem so easy; she moves seamlessly from old to young, man to woman, black to white, close to distant, sometimes multiple times in the same story.
The only one that felt false/forced was (ironically) the title track, about a kid brought back to his home country to spy on leftists. On the flip side, there is another that seems to be, right up until the end, a bland and dispassionate recollection of termite exterminators in an African home. Still thinking about it.
The only one that felt false/forced was (ironically) the title track, about a kid brought back to his home country to spy on leftists. On the flip side, there is another that seems to be, right up until the end, a bland and dispassionate recollection of termite exterminators in an African home. Still thinking about it.
July 16, 2017
There are quite a few wonderful stories in this slim volume (the story of the farmer's son & his relationship with the farm worker's daughter was particularly powerful). But it also contains a number of stories that didn't speak to me at all. This is my first experience of Nadine Gordimer's writing, and I've come away with a middling verdict.
May 24, 2013
This short story collection, quite imperceptibly resembles the tale "July's People" also written by the 1991 Nobel Prize laureate, whose own young life was intermingled with the webbed and uneasy politics of the apartheid run South Africa, and whilst so doing it, in the two stories I have read, most notably "Country Lovers", describes a seemingly honest encounter between two unsuspecting people, devoid of the knowledge to save themselves from the destruction and the separation their primitive lives know very little about.
Full of esoteric fauna and flora, so much that you can feel and taste the landscape- then again, Gordimer, like her predecessors, Wiccomb and Bassie Head, are natural minds of such vivid and incomparable will to detail and illusion; capturing readers at some point of the other- magic makers in other words.
It would be a conscious, ahem, a conscience crime not to read at least one story out of this bible of South African history, related poignantly by the hand of a woman, who carried and fought the resistance, at first hand.
Full of esoteric fauna and flora, so much that you can feel and taste the landscape- then again, Gordimer, like her predecessors, Wiccomb and Bassie Head, are natural minds of such vivid and incomparable will to detail and illusion; capturing readers at some point of the other- magic makers in other words.
It would be a conscious, ahem, a conscience crime not to read at least one story out of this bible of South African history, related poignantly by the hand of a woman, who carried and fought the resistance, at first hand.
March 14, 2010
I think for a long time I've always thought I have read things by Nadine Gordimer, but more recently I've realized I really haven't. I think it's because I know about her, and I've heard about her books and short stories, so I feel like I know them. But this was really the first book I've picked up by her.
These stories all take place in South Africa during the apartheid. Her characters all are in situations requiring them to make often difficult decisions that effects all individuals, hence the title Crimes of Conscience. Most of the stories are rather short, but none are without feeling. South African politics and violence riddle every page and Gordimer writes with strength and honesty. I'm happy to have read these first, if these stories are any indication of what her full-length novels are like.
These stories all take place in South Africa during the apartheid. Her characters all are in situations requiring them to make often difficult decisions that effects all individuals, hence the title Crimes of Conscience. Most of the stories are rather short, but none are without feeling. South African politics and violence riddle every page and Gordimer writes with strength and honesty. I'm happy to have read these first, if these stories are any indication of what her full-length novels are like.
January 21, 2012
Nadine Gordimer is one of the masters of short fiction, and her collection “Crimes of Conscience” represents that mastery well. The stories vary in tone and style, but they all contain keen observations on humanity, politics and philosophy, with the emphasis on exploring prejudice and discrimination. South Africa during apartheid serves as a setting for tales illuminating characters facing morally complicated situations, moments of weakness, hate and despair.
Gordimer doesn’t do a lot of experimenting, but her prose holds your interest through wisdom and nuance. Her language is beautiful, her characters undefined but fleshed out. It’s also wonderful how effective her stories can be without any easy manipulation or obvious contrasts of “good” and “bad”. Sharp, haunting, crystal clear.
Gordimer doesn’t do a lot of experimenting, but her prose holds your interest through wisdom and nuance. Her language is beautiful, her characters undefined but fleshed out. It’s also wonderful how effective her stories can be without any easy manipulation or obvious contrasts of “good” and “bad”. Sharp, haunting, crystal clear.
June 16, 2008
Nadine Gordimer, a native South African, jumps directly into the heavy things. This collection of short stories is a good beginning if you are new to Gordimer. "The Termitary' addresses domestic, societal, and personal roles we assign. Like most of her work, it is straight forward and never intimidated by niceties. She calls a spade a spade.
Read
May 6, 2016This book doesn't talk about what i imagined
i quit reading it
i quit reading it
June 13, 2016
Some of the best short stories I've ever read.
May 2, 2010
the stars are for the title story and a correspondence course. i haven't read the rest.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews