Get a Life: A Novel
3/5
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About this ebook
A young man's treatment for cancer inspires profound changes in his family.
Paul Bannerman, an ecologist in South Africa, believes he understands the trajectory of his life, with the usual markers of vocation and marriage. But when he's diagnosed with thyroid cancer and, after surgery, prescribed treatment that will leave him radioactive, for a period a danger to others, he begins to question, as Auden wrote, "what Authority gives / existence its surprise."
In the garden of his childhood home, where his businessman father, Adrian, and prominent civil rights lawyer mother, Lyndsay, take him in to protect his wife and child from radiation, he enters an unthinkable existence and another kind of illumination: the contradiction between the values of his work and those of his wife, Benni, an ad agency executive. His mother is transformed by the strange state of her son's existence to face her own past. Meanwhile, projects to build a nuclear reactor and drain vital wetlands preoccupy Paul as if he were at work. By the time he is cured, both families have been changed. On his return to his home and career, his parents go to Mexico to fulfill the archaeological vocation Adrian sacrificed to support his family. The consequence of this trip is the final surprise in this extraordinary exploration of passionate individual existences.
"This novel begins superbly and ends wonderfully, and in between there are passages of high intelligence, not without Gordimer's signature asperity.” -- Ward Just, The Washington Post Book World
Nadine Gordimer
Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014), the recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in a small South African town. Her first book, a collection of stories, was published when she was in her early twenties. Her ten books of stories include Something Out There (1984), and Jump and Other Stories (1991). Her novels include The Lying Days (1953), A World of Strangers (1958), Occasion for Loving (1963), The Late Bourgeois World (1966), A Guest of Honour (1971), The Conservationist (1975), Burger's Daughter (1979), July's People (1981), A Sport of Nature (1987), My Son's Story (1990), None to Accompany Me (1994), The House Gun (1998), The Pickup (2001), Get a Life (2005), and No Time Like the Present (2012). A World of Strangers, The Late Bourgeois World, and Burger's Daughter were originally banned in South Africa. She published three books of literary and political essays: The Essential Gesture (1988); Writing and Being (1995), the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures she gave at Harvard in 1994; and Living in Hope and History (1999). Ms. Gordimer was a vice president of PEN International and an executive member of the Congress of South African Writers. She was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in Great Britain and an honorary member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was also a Commandeur de'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France). She held fourteen honorary degrees from universities including Harvard, Yale, Smith College, the New School for Social Research, City College of New York, the University of Leuven in Belgium, Oxford University, and Cambridge University. Ms. Gordimer won numerous literary awards, including the Booker Prize for The Conservationist, both internationally and in South Africa.
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Reviews for Get a Life
42 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I hadn't read any of Nadine Gordimer's books before and after this I'm not sure I'll be in a hurry to read any more. Uninvolving plot and characters together with a difficult writing style don't make things easy. There is no doubt that Ms Gordimer is a clever and intelligent writer. The fault probably lies with me in that I didn't think the reward from trying harder with the book would be worth the effort. Or maybe this was a good writer just churning out another novel to keep the production line going and the brain ticking over.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Get a Life is a relatively new book by the South African Nobel Prize winning author Nadine Gordimer. Gordimer is known for her spare, yet descriptive and lyrical prose. This novel is no exception. Get a Life tells the story of Paul Bannerman, a 35 year old father of a young son who is diagnosed with thyroid cancer. As part of his treatment regimen, Paul is left temporarily radioactive, and unable to be around his young son. So Paul decamps to his childhood home, to be cared for by his parents and Primrose, the faithful family servant.This novel follows Paul and his family through his recovery, as well as his parents’ journey towards their upcoming retirement. As in real life, the family’s journey takes unexpected turns; some happy, others less so.Like other novels by South African writers, the shadow of apartheid, now abolished, underlays much that the family experiences.The book is also peppered with typical South African phrases, based on native languages. Fortunately, there is also a brief glossary.Gordimer’s writing style requires a bit of adjusting. She appears to skip through events but if read carefully, it is possible to follow the plot. If you’ve never read Gordimer before, keep plugging away. Get a Life is worth the difficulties involved.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found the reading difficult sometimes, but the plot and characters compelling. How does a man respond when he becomes off-limits, radioactive? How does it affect the rest of the people in his life? Wife, mother, son, father? Interesting to catch a glimpse of post-apartheid South Africa.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nadine Gordimer is a brilliant author. She starts off her books at a slow pace, then the story suddenly picks up a whirlwind speed and the equations alter significantly.Get a Life is about a man's emotions on being quarantined after receiving radioactive treatment for cancer, and how he rebonds with his mother and takes a look at his life during this phase.As is usual with Nadine's themes, she weaves in racial divisions and moral questions into the story.A good read. And a great author.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm very ambivolent about this book:the writing is very poetic, but very difficult;the characters unfurl slowly until we get to know them well, but they are easily confused - the women are strong and independant, the men are sensitive and understanding (although both have major faults)the plot seems stereotypical (ecology vs industrial development) but at the same time we get a unique glimpse into modern South Africa.As I said, I'm ambivolent...