Julys People (1364)

Rating:
Summary: Great book because it is confusing.
Review: This book is great because of how Nadine Gordimer shows the reader how the characters feel through her writing. The reader feels the same way that the characters and experiences the same things that the characters do. The only qualms I have about the book are the use or shall I say the way that quotes are not used. This leads to some confusing reading but if you wish to enjoy a good book this is it because of its thought provoking material and controversial topics.

Rating:
Summary: This book BLOWS!
Review: This book is the last one I would ever read in my life! Gordimer made absolutely no sense!

Rating:
Summary: Know what you're getting in to....
Review: This book was manditory for a class and would never have been a personal choice, Her punctuation was confusing, but looking back, her use of grammar and pronouns was very important in setting the scene of a confused family. Gordimer left many open-ended ideas that gave us room to reflect. And what's with the symbols. Only one chapter worth of information could have told the same story. The rest was unnessisary.

Rating:
Summary: July's People: About the relationship between cultures.
Review: This is a good book if you are interested in politics, Africa, and the relationships between races in south Africa. It is a bad situation down there now and this helps show that. I would recomend this book to mature audiences, some material is unppropriate for children of a ceartain age. Nadine writes this book's quotes not with quotation markes but with lines. (Example: -Thank you, July, thank you very much.- ) Instead of havving: ""

Rating:
Summary: AVOID!
Review: This must be the most forgettable book I've ever read. That's because it lacks a sense of real feeling, empathy or humanity. The required "suspension of disbelief" is impossible in Gordimer's fiction. Stated plainly: it's not about real people or situations, it's not believable and the punctuation really adds to the overall irritation. It is said that very few people ever force themselves to finish a Nadine Gordimer novel, and July's People shows why.

Rating:
Summary: Ms. Gordimer, please lose the dashes and the "mystery"
Review: This would be a great book, save for the "mystery" that Gordimer wants to impart on us. I am an English major at a respected university and read it in a class. The book left me wondering "What is going on here?" Gordimer's favorite punctuation is the dash which makes the story hard to follow. Does the dash indicate a different speaker or different thought or something completely different? Gordimer also tries to make this book inaccessable to all but the most enlightened by substituting pronouns rather than use proper names and giving very little background to the characters and story. It's hard to care for people that you don't know. I lost interest in the book after the first few "chapters" (more like breaks in the story) but was forced to finish because it was for a class. This book goes into the "don't bother" pile. Read Heart of Darkness or Things Fall Apart instead if you're interested in British Colonialism.

Rating:
Summary: Just interesting
Review: What Gordimer wants to tell us is that , even at that time the blacks people had the power of asking their right, after so much of torture. The Smales family(who was the white) had to come and live in the hut of July.That was a wonder to see the whites asking aid from the blacks. At first , Bam was the master but now it's JULY.

Rating:
Summary: Choppy writing, confusing and no sense of direction
Review: While the subject matter was interesting, the style of writing was confusing and irritating. Many times I found myself rereading paragraphs two or three times to understand what was happening, and even after the rereading, was left dumbfounded and confused, only to skip over the text hoping that I wasnt missing something vital. Definitely not worth your time and effort.