Scan barcode
magsmybags's review
dark
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
sarah_dietrich's review
5.0
Jump is a collection of stories by Nadine Gordimer, a Nobel winning writer from South Africa. Gordimer draws on her experience as a South African to cut straight to the bone, with stories of apartheid and violence. This is a really cohesive collection and works well when examined as a whole - I enjoyed the collection more and more as I read further, I think these stories are best read together. I also felt like I understood Gordimer's message and vision better the more I read. Gordimer is an excellent writer, both in the quality of her prose and in the content of her unapologetically challenging stories.
dianaale's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest
Moderate: War, Violence, and Death
foggy_rosamund's review against another edition
1.0
Nadine Gordimer, a South African writer of Jewish origins, in these stories writes primarily about the impact of apartheid, and about terrorism and violence. Unfortunately, I found these stories lacked depth and nuance. In "The Ultimate Safari" she writes from a young black girl's perspective, as she and her family walk across a huge game reserve in the hope of finding relief from famine: but though the story is supposed to point out white tourist's utter lack of understanding of what is going on in the unnamed African country, this story feels like misery porn. The girl and her family aren't given characterisation, but their pain is described in gratuitous detail, and I felt like a voyeur rather than a witness. "Some Are Born to Sweet Delight" describes a young English girl who falls in love with a foreign man (presumably Muslim, but from an unnamed country) and is manipulated by him into plating a bomb on an aeroplane. Do we really need a story where a brown man is depicted as a corrupting villain? I don't think so. In other stories, like "The Moment Before the Gun Went Off", I'm just baffled by what point Gordimer is making: in this story, a white man accidentally kills a Black worker on his farm -- he's sorry to have done so: I want to give Gordimer the benefit of the doubt and assume she's saying something beyond "not all white people are terrible" but I honestly don't know what it is. These stories are at best a mess; and at worst offensive.
bobbo49's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
4.5
Like almost any good volume of short stories, some were merely good and others were great.
Overall this is a very powerful collection of glimpses into southern Africa in the post-apartheid 1980s, and the fraught lives and relationships of black and white and brown people in cities and townships. Gordimer's writing is beautiful, and the best of the stories are gripping and breath-taking, the characters and their interactions both believable and startling. Another excellent Gordimer book.
Overall this is a very powerful collection of glimpses into southern Africa in the post-apartheid 1980s, and the fraught lives and relationships of black and white and brown people in cities and townships. Gordimer's writing is beautiful, and the best of the stories are gripping and breath-taking, the characters and their interactions both believable and startling. Another excellent Gordimer book.
adam_channing's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
100onbooks's review
4.0
I love Gordimer's short stories.
First exposed to her in high school, she moves me in ways I can't explain.
For me, these stories resonate in a multitude of ways.
First exposed to her in high school, she moves me in ways I can't explain.
For me, these stories resonate in a multitude of ways.
deea_bks's review
5.0
Coetzee, Naipaul, Lessing and even Maugham wrote in their books about apartheid. They don't focus though only on that (maybe only Naipaul does, but I have only read one book by him), but they also insist on other themes. Gordimer writes about this theme in this book and she does it really well. Composed of short stories, it has as main theme the apartheid: the policy of segregation of non-white population in Africa. This is actually the main reason why I kept putting it off every time I would start a new book: I was thoroughly convinced that these stories will be so charged with politics that I will not enjoy the read. I was so wrong!
Although all the stories are mainly about that, they are written in such a creative and original way that they conquer your attention from the first lines even if politics doesn't interest you much. This is my first contact with Gordimer's manner of writing and I must confess that I am impressed: she writes in such a way that it's a total delight to read the stories not only for the subjects she chose, but also for the way she constructed phrases, for the way she created very plastic images and ideas. As any collection of stories, this one contains very good stories and also stories that are less good/likable. I however am so amazed with the way she manages to express her ideas and with the way she chooses her words and structures to construct all her stories that I will not only rate this book with five stars, but I will also make sure to read pretty soon other works written by her.
A few words about the stories I liked most: "Once Upon a Time", "The Ultimate Safari", "Some Are Born to Sweet Delight", "The Moment Before the Gun Went Off", "A Journey", "Safe Houses" - all these are amazing. The way she constructs these stories is really nice and the way she makes a point lets you dumbfounded. There's a lot of expressiveness in her style, a strength of sketching in a very imaginative way how the systems and practices separate people according to race and caste in Africa. I was only slightly conscious about what is happening out there from the books I have read before (all works of literature) and from the movies I've seen, but never was I as conscious as I am now, after reading this book, of all the brutality and lack of civilized practices going on there. I won't narrate the stories, I feel that by making short summaries for these above I wouldn't ever be able to do justice to the power that they emanate in the readers' minds and imagination.
A big bravooo for Gordimer, this is an amazing book!
Although all the stories are mainly about that, they are written in such a creative and original way that they conquer your attention from the first lines even if politics doesn't interest you much. This is my first contact with Gordimer's manner of writing and I must confess that I am impressed: she writes in such a way that it's a total delight to read the stories not only for the subjects she chose, but also for the way she constructed phrases, for the way she created very plastic images and ideas. As any collection of stories, this one contains very good stories and also stories that are less good/likable. I however am so amazed with the way she manages to express her ideas and with the way she chooses her words and structures to construct all her stories that I will not only rate this book with five stars, but I will also make sure to read pretty soon other works written by her.
A few words about the stories I liked most: "Once Upon a Time", "The Ultimate Safari", "Some Are Born to Sweet Delight", "The Moment Before the Gun Went Off", "A Journey", "Safe Houses" - all these are amazing. The way she constructs these stories is really nice and the way she makes a point lets you dumbfounded. There's a lot of expressiveness in her style, a strength of sketching in a very imaginative way how the systems and practices separate people according to race and caste in Africa. I was only slightly conscious about what is happening out there from the books I have read before (all works of literature) and from the movies I've seen, but never was I as conscious as I am now, after reading this book, of all the brutality and lack of civilized practices going on there. I won't narrate the stories, I feel that by making short summaries for these above I wouldn't ever be able to do justice to the power that they emanate in the readers' minds and imagination.
A big bravooo for Gordimer, this is an amazing book!