Power of One

Rating:
Summary: INCREDIBLE!!!!
Review: Simply put, this is the best book I have ever read. It was assigned to me for summer reading and i knocked it out in less than a week. I just bought the sequel to it, Tandia, and am waiting for it to come in the mail. The message of Bryce Coutenay is so strong, even to me, a 15-yr. old. I strongly encourage anyone who reads this review to read The Power of One, and also to not be discouraged by the 500 pg. length of it.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Although there a few parts of this novel that are a little slow and maybe a little exaggerated, it's really worth wading through to get to the good, which comprise most of Courtenay's book. 'The Power of One' is really a fantastic historical fiction that describes people at their very best, and their most nauseatingly worst. Courtenay has managed to put the reader in the seat of the English, Native Africans, and Afrikaaners during the height of apartheid and shown these views through many amazing and eccentric characters. You get a front seat to see that each country and each tribe all harbored hate, and how they all worked together to create the conflict in South Africa that continues to this day. However, it's not only a novel about this conflict. The tale is aslo about boxing, literature, music, and the story of one boy's struggle to achieve his own personal best and how he found the power of one. The story that each of us have in ourselves. This is truly the best 'fiction' I've ever come across. I can't even describe how you'll feel while reading it. I couldn't possibly give justice to such a book.

Rating:
Summary: The most amazing book I have ever read!!!!
Review: Astonishing!! I was hooked on this book within the first 3 pages. Of the literal hundreds of books that I have read this is one of the few that makes me want to meet the characters. In only 500 pages these characters felt like family. I was rooting for them to win, and upset when they lost or were hurt. Not only is is a character driven book it is a plot driven book. The story is amazing, and I felt like going to south africa just to see all of the things that were described in the book, from the cactus to the mining. It was absolutly riviting. I guarantee that everybody will find this book at least entertaining, and not regret reading it. But more than likely they will love it and want to reread it time and again. Get it yourself, or give it to a student, friend, family member. My outlook on life is diffrent, and I truly was moved by the quotes and feelings that this book gave me. "First with the head, then with the heart, that's how a man gets ahead from the start." Life quotes like this were thrown in all over the place during the events that evoke feelings of anger, hatred, relief, sad, joy, excitement, and many more. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Fun read with a few flaws
Review: The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay and published by Random House, is a rather complex book to review. It is the story of a young boy in South Africa a generation after the Berber War in that region, and at the beginning of World War II. Peekay, as he comes to be called, is an extremely precocious child who is forced to learn his life lessons early. After an unpleasant experience at a boarding school at the beginning of the novel,Peekay sets goals which will guide him for the rest of his life, and these depend on the power of one. Books about child prodigies can often be difficult to read. That is, the main character cannot be sympathized with because he or she can be too perfect. In this case,however, the author does a masterful job of fleshing out a character with whom many will be able to identify. Peekay is gifted in academics of all kinds, but it is skills in another,more physical, area which he prizes and works for much more vigorously. It is his goal to become the welterweight champion of the world in boxing. This is what the books ideal hinges on: a boys struggle to overcome physical and social limitations within himself and others in a fierce battle for complete independence. In essence, The Power of One is a classical epic. Throughout the book Peekay encounters about three dozen people who change his life along his journey to independence, in the tradition of the wandering hero from the Illiad or the Odessy. Each presents something to help or hinder Peekay, and all represent specific changes in his ideals. There is also a strong mythical nature to many of the sequences in the book. All things lead up to dramatic consequences with clear morals. Peekay himself becomes a mythical figure to other characters within the novel. His abilities, when he reveals them, make Peekay a leader, not only among his schoolfellows and other peers, but among prison gangs and practically the entire represented black African nation. The latter produce many impressive, if sometimes strange, and moving situations in the book. The Power of One reads very easily and flows well. The writing makes the book very accessible and allows the reader to be quickly drawn in to the story. The characters are all sympathetic that should be, and once the story has been started, the reader feels almost instantly obliged to finish the book, if only to see what happens. Unfortunately, what happens is not very satisfying. The author is very good at building up to climaxes but is unfortunately not very skilled at pulling off the dramatic moments themselves. Only a select few lived up to their potential out of tens of climaxes in the novel. The end itself is rather unsatisfying and seems particularly petty and small when compared to the scope of the books other climaxes. Then again, the book had already taken several wrong turns earlier. About halfway through the book it loses most of its working-class appeal by placing Peekay in an elitist school where he faces very little adversity, which takes the bite out of the story. Then the author takes another wrong turn to the polar opposite end of the spectrum. He puts Peekay to work at a mine, which is extremely inappropriate and completely out of place, not to mention unprecedented. The mining sequence is rather boring as well and holds little appeal to non-mining folks with its abundance of vague mining technical jargon. Worst, the mines purvey little sense of real danger. The author had a few missteps in the beginning - including perhaps an unnecessary fascination with excrement and male anatomy, and not the best portrayal of the mind of a child - but after World War II ends, these two illogical plot shifts are his most terrible mistakes. The Power of One is also shifty when it comes to the message that it is trying to bring. The majority of experiences which Peekay has teach racial and religious tolerance. And although at each moral lesson point it seems that Peekay has soaked these in well enough, to a good degree he seems unmoved by them. He is often heard to use racial slurs and make prejudiced judgments, while at the same time in other situations he is inhumanly tolerant, sympathetic and generous with perhaps the same ethnic group. It is not very clear how the reader is supposed to interpret this phenomenon, and it leads to awkward sequences. Finally, the idea of the "power of one" is never capitalized on. Although Peekay is fiercely independent, it never seems to be at an appropriate time. His refusal to ever borrow money is the only decision other than boxing that is clearly driven by this mantra. At all other times besides in the boxing ring, Peekay is acutely dependent on the friendship of others. All in all, The Power of One is a book of fantastic potential. Although it may not have quite lived up to that potential, The Power of One is still a good, fun read. At five hundred and thirteen pages, it is a bit lengthly for a casual read, but may be appropriate for periodical attention. This book is best suggested to those who enjoy a combination of history and fiction. If we are all lucky, Courtenay will learn from his first writing experience and finally deliver on the hopes that he has created from this first novel.

Rating:
Summary: Onoshobishobi Ingelosi!!
Review: All I have to say is this book is awesome!! I am in ninth grade and would not have read this if my English teacher had not assigned it. I'm really glad she did, because this is my new favorite book. I liked the end, when... well, I'll let you read the book for yourself. Peekay inspired me to want to box. I also look up to him with a great respect because of all he went through. He had such a hard life and managed to avenge his best friend, Grandpa Chook, but it would be harder to "fix" the rest of his life. In short, this is a coming of age story that is very descriptive at the interesting parts and short at the "boring" parts. I really liked this book, and would definetly reccommend it to anyone who wanted to read about World War II, South Africa, or boxing.

Rating:
Summary: OH MY WORD!!!!!
Review: I was forced to read this book for an English class in high school. Forced is just how I started the book.. let's just say I had over two months to read it, and I finished it in about a week and a half, AND bought it and its sequel. This book is worth the time. I could not put this book down. If I could meet Mr. Courtenay...that man deserves a kiss! As does the wonderful woman I had for that English class. Everyone needs to read this book! It teaches you how to live your life, and shows you there are ways to cope through everything. It is great! bye

Rating:
Summary: the power of many
Review: The reason I chose this title is because Peekay not only uses himself but his friends he meets also. He goes through life trying to become the best and succeeds with the help of friends and although the friends come and go they always seem to make an impact on him. H e seems always to have hardship but manages to pull out no matter what.

Rating:
Summary: Enough Already!
Review: This book was recommended to me by a friend as her "all time favorite novel". I started it and was pleased to become immediately hooked. The writing is beautiful and the characters are endearing. Little Peekay stole my heart for the first half of the book. It had me laughing one minute and crying the next. I've never cared much about boxing, but the fight scenes were riviting. About halfway through the book something changes - our little Peekay becomes so full of himself that I'm beginning to wish some more bad luck would come his way just to bring him back to the status of a mere mortal. He is constantly in awe of his own intelligence and prowess as a boxer and a scholar. While in total command of thousands of African prisoners, he muses to himself that he "has become a legend". Now enter his new buddie Morrie - the two of them CANNOT LOSE. Everything they touch turns to gold. They are admired by all and cannot imagine life not turning out exactly as they wish it. YES, Peekay did have some terrible times as a young boy, but after that he becomes the chosen one and I for one am sick to death of him. I've got a third of the book left to read and I'm not sure if I can stomach any more of the tadpole angle. Maybe I'm being a little harsh, beause I really did enjoy the first half of the book. Peekay does make quite a few attempts at false modesty, but a little true humility would have made me continue to care about him.

Rating:
Summary: Peekay
Review: Although very recently apartheid has just ended, and this book was newly allowed, it tore my heart to think that all South Africans, like me, are thought as savagely from the newly shed light on the treatment of the blacks. I bought this book on a vacation to America, and I truly felt my heart pull; and yet, I experienced the terror day to day. Peekay is the Simple of South Africa, a blossom in a mud puddle. He is truly changed by meeting an unbiased Afrikaner, Hoppie Groenwald, who sets the rest of his life on course with his simplistic saying, "First with the head, then with the heart, that's how a man stays ahead from the start." Through the course of one day and one night, one man changes the life of one boy forever. He gives him the knowledge of the power of one-the power to think, the power to breathe, the power to act, the power to end destruction of a human race. As the minority white (British), Peekay did not have the leg up, and yet he taught every one he met something new, something different, and something that would change them all.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: When a summer reading book is assigned to a group of ninth graders, inevitably numerous groans and rolling eyes will be found throughout the room. My class was no different in this respect. The next year, though, on the first day of English when asked what we had thought of the novel, rather than the usual silence and shifting eyes that greets such a question, multiple hands shot into the air. Girls and boys had actually read and, even more shocking, loved the summer reading book. Since that time, multiple members of my class, including myself, have read this book time and again, and it has become a favorite throughout the school. Filled with love, relationships, cacti, apartheid, and boxing, Courtenay blends numerous themes together in order to create a moving coming of age story about a young boy growing up in a South Africa torn with strife around the time of World War II. The novel evokes numerous reactions in the reader but through it all remains uplifting. Good for the heart, mind, and soul, this book will leave you completely satisfied.