Power of One

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Summary: The Story of a Boy With More Adventures than Huck Finn
Review: Set in Pro-Nazi South Africa during World War II, this novel combines historical fact with the compelling story of a young boy named Peekay. After being sent to boarding school, his life drastically changed from a safe, nurturing family to world where he is the enemy. Peekay is confronted with prejudice and superstition, yet perseveres through unbelieable odds by believing in himself, and the power of one.

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Summary: Engrossing
Review: I first read this book for mandatory summer reading in high school about six years ago. I thought it was an excellent novel and I promised myself I would read it again. I picked it up in the bookstore over this past Christmas and after two years of college, I think it still holds the same meaings that it did six years ago, but deeper. I don't want to be superficial and say that this book has changed my life, but it has definitel changed my thinking. If you don't read this book, you don't know what you're missing.

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Summary: A story that I had to tell
Review: I throughly enjoyed writing this novel. I think it's major purpose is not to simply inform the reader but to give them inspiration to overcome all problems that they face in life.

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Summary: Some style but no substance
Review: Seeing all the rave reviews for this book made me feel a need to add some balance to save others from purchasing this mental comfort food. IF YOU MUST READ IT, GET IT FROM THE LIBRARY!

When I read the book the action carried it along, but when I'd finished it I was totally unsatisfied. At even the low level of self-examination of the book itself the plot was unrealistic. It was all too easy. The hero had everything work out just right for him. He never suffered real setbacks and everything he touched turned to gold.

If you accept the message of this book, eternal vigilance is more than you need to pay for freedom; if anything goes wrong the good guys will always win through. Yuk!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: The Power of One is one of the best books I have ever read. It is about a boy growing up in South Africa during and after WWII. As a young boy, Peekay is tormented by the Boers at his 1st boarding school. At times, his child's perspective is extremely funny, ("Adolf Hitler had taken Poland, which I took to be a place somewhere in South Africa, like Zululand, but where the tribe of Po lived."). With the innocence of a child, he observes the prejuidice and racism prevalent in South African society at the time. It is at this time he first dons his "camoflage", to disguise his precocity and to blend in. As he grows up, he acquires a set of mentors, beginning with Hoopie, the train guard who takes Peekay under his wing for two days, and leaves him with the ambition to become "the welter-weight champion of the world" and the mantra, "First with the head, then with the heart." This mantra becomes Peekay's personal motto, his way through any challenge. With Doc, a German professor, he learns to think and to reason on his own, and with Geel Piet, a black convict, he learns the first steps to the art of boxing. The Power of One is more than a story about a boy with a dream. It is about the power of one; one person, one thought, one dream. It is about not being afraid to be the loner, the one on the sidelines, for then you are the only one who thinks for themself, and has their own personal sense of justice. This book transcends the typical themes of racisim, prejuidice and not belonging. It is about finding yourself, being yourself (more complicated than it seems, and fighting for yourself

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Summary: Save time and Money
Review: We must have read different books because the one I read was putrid. The book was a bust in the US, rightly so, and was given to me for christmas along with many others out of the bargain bin. Must have cost a dollar and I still think we overpayed. Anyway, synopsis : boy is bullied by other children who are depicted as almost nazi, boy works out for about the next 18 years getting lean and mean, boy miraculously finds the chief bully who is now a drunken mess, boy proceeds to beat the hell out of him. Who can can ever forget, and over the past few years I have really been trying, but who can ever forget those immortal words uttered just before Peekay delivers the well deserved clobbering,"..YOU KILLED GRANDPA CHOOK!". (Grandpa Chook was the beloved family chicken). If I'd have known there were people like you out there I would have tried to sell this book instead of throwing it away. Just like the chubby little jewish boy who's name I've forgotten. Well if you aren't English(this book was #1 there), and if you aren't adoloscent( the proponderance of this books fans are), if you've never really been bullied(hey it's an English thing), and you're iq is above 96 I urge you to save your time and money. Unless a book is a known masterpiece such as 'Don Qioxote' or 'Brideshead Revisted', people who claim to read a five hundred page book over and over again should make you suspicious.

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Summary: A great read highly recommended for ex-South africans
Review: A great book for all South and Ex-South Africans

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Summary: As had it been written for you!
Review: It is a magnificent story about hope. It lifts you up and feels like had it been written just for you. It's a story bigger than life as young Peekay learns, from the humiliation by bullies at school as a small boy, to let life never defeat him again. But in a search for his essential Self he finally sloughs the bitterness of these early years and he becomes truly free.

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Summary: This is the best book I have ever read.
Review: This is the way books should be written. Years after reading this novel, I can simply think of it and feel happy knowing that a book like this exists. It made me feel good in the way that books used to make me feel when I was a child.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic book!!
Review: At first I decided to read THE POWER OF ONE for extra credit in my Global Studies class. We were learning about the South African government and apartheid. However, the story of Peekay is something unique that you cannot find in a textbook. After a few pages of this book, I became enraptured. The injustice of apartheid was made clear to me through this book. Peekay, a young boy who dreamed of being a famous boxer seemed to be at odds with the world. At boarding school, he was tormented and teased. And yet, he continued on through the stormy sea of injustice in South Africa. Peekay contains inspirational characteristics that we all should strive to possess. As a freshmen in high school, I decided to read this book to boost my average. When you pick up this book, you learn a valuable lesson on social predjudices and the courageous people who fight those injustices. This is truly an inspirational book.