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jeppesen's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
trappednerve's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
zmull's review
4.0
Read immediately after Noami Alderman's The Power. The two books share quite a lot thematically about the nature of power and the societal structures that support/deny it.
sineadb's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25
emmacspoor's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
alanffm's review against another edition
2.0
This is a hard book to digest for a range of reasons. Its writing style is bland and its plot is weak and often confusing. Gordimer does make great use of 'the body' as a symbol for race, poverty, and tribe throughout the book, but fails to add novelty anywhere else.
Perhaps the contents of July's People are important -- this is after all a book about race in South Africa -- but on the surface, and in 2018, it's hard to say this book resonates like it must have thirty years ago.
Perhaps the contents of July's People are important -- this is after all a book about race in South Africa -- but on the surface, and in 2018, it's hard to say this book resonates like it must have thirty years ago.
fiberreader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
rkkmistry's review
4.0
ok this book was very cool. So it's like a speculative fiction account of a world where South African apartheid is ended by a violent black uprising. which is very cool because I think it was written a bit before apartheid ended and I don't think I know of much speculative fiction that deals with imaginings of such real and contemporary political issues—but where it really gets you is what it's actually about. The book just chronicles a liberal white family whose black servant brings them back to his village to help them hide out. Like it's ultimately pretty mundane plot wise,, there's no dramatic escape, nor do we hear much about the revolution itself. The result is this very very nuanced portrait of racial issues that I feel like really just speaks to how complicated they are without like being super apologist.
niknakpattywhack's review
2.0
While the political aspect and overall concept of this novel is nothing short of spectacular, Gordimer's writing becomes so thick that I felt like I was trudging through mud trying to get through this novel DESPITE the fact that it's in the present tense! The changes in the perspective and really well done though and there are some great lines in July's People. I think it just has to be your kind of writing for it to be the truly enjoyable experience I was looking for.