Rating: 
Summary: One of the worst books I have ever read
Review: I can't help but think the author is trying to voice her agenda through this novel. Although I do feel sorry for Sarah, I felt like the author emphasized certain aspects of her life to the point of exhaggeration. Not to mention, this book was extremely difficult to follow since there are no quotations when people speak and I had a very hard time trying to figure out who was speaking during conversations. To compound my frustration, the voice changed from chapter to chapter.
I felt the ending was to the point of almost being ridiculous. Speaking as a dead person. This destroyed any credibility, as far as I was concerned, that this story was really based on truth.
Rating: 
Summary: Do not miss reading this finest-kind novel
Review: I stayed up late last night finishing a truly tremendously fine book: Hottentot Venus by Barbara Chase-Riboud. It's definitely in the do-not-miss category and is very close to being best book of the year (so far). Sometimes a novel can be too heavily loaded with detail but, in this one, the superb writing and language balance perfectly the detail. The book evokes its time (1789-1820 or so) richly and satisfyingly with a story that is more than a match for the times and the writing. To my eye, there's only one misstep and, likely, others wouldn't find it so.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing story
Review: It's an embarrassment to humankind that this is based on a true story. Barbara Chase-Riboud must have spent years just doing research to write this, and it really shows. The narrator changed from chapter to chapter, without the author identifying the new speaker, which was a bit confusing, but didn't ruin the story. This was an intense read with a particularly enjoyable final chapter.
Rating:
Summary: Starts well ... then falls flat
Review: The early descriptions of Sarah's life in South Africa were fascinating, a window into another world and time. But once the story line moved to Europe, there was little to hang onto: what it was like for Sarah to live in a "zoo", to be treated as a scientific specimen, to be deceived and abandoned by her husband-in-name, to be lost in a card game, to be sold from one man to the next. I skimmed the last 200 pages and even then, could barely stand to finish it.
Rating: 
Summary: Truly engrossing read
Review: The Hottentot Venus was a wonderful book, one that pulled me in and had me sneaking reading time whenever possible. The book is indeed written in a stylitic manner, meaning no quotes available to designate a character is speaking, but I had little trouble following the narrative. Sara is a well drawn character and fully had my sympathy even as I pulled my hair out at her own self destructive actions. I highly doubt that the author had an "agenda" with this book. Quite frankly she didn't need one. It is a powerful commentary on colonization and human beings tendancy to revile those that we see as "different" from ourselves.
Rating:
Summary: stranger than fiction
Review: To be absolutely honest I have not read this particular book about Sarah Baartman but I know the story.About 6 years ago on Africa Liberation Day (25 May)I heard a BBC item about it and was so haunted I was compelled to write to London about it,to get it off my chest or in a manner or speaking, to exorcise the
ghost.
The sad thing however is that "scientific racism" still exists and with the current trends in the globalisation process ,the identity of humanity itself is stake.For starters,African women have been confined to the status of "permanent potential" as our male chauvinst states tinker around with livelihoods and psyches.As in Sara's day, the judeo-christian ideology still underpins postcolonial identity.The crusade advanced by the entertainement industry,through the commodification of women by the corporate/patriarchal alliance of Western companies peddling products banned in their contries of origin and miseducated African males,pours scorn on natural African skin hues, facial features, body shape and hair type.Women are walking all over Africa with orange peel skin,hair on the chin and bald heads under wigs not to speak of kidney and other complications as husbands or prospective partners insist on certain looks thus inflicting chemical, hormonal and biological warfare,a fate not far different from the humiliation visited on Sara.The patriachal and racist attitudes of centuries past are still with us.
Sara's body was returned to South Africa in 2002.The dignity of the African woman is still elusive and so:A luta continua!
Rating:
Summary: stranger than fiction
Review: To be absolutely honest I have not read this particular book about Sarah Baartman but I know the story.About 6 years ago on Africa Liberation Day (25 May)I heard a BBC item about it and was so haunted I was compelled to write to London about it,to get it off my chest or in a manner or speaking, to exorcise the
ghost.
The sad thing however is that "scientific racism" still exists and with the current trends in the globalisation process ,the identity of humanity itself is stake.For starters,African women have been confined to the status of "permanent potential" as our male chauvinst states tinker around with livelihoods and psyches.As in Sara's day, the judeo-christian ideology still underpins postcolonial identity.The crusade advanced by the entertainement industry,through the commodification of women by the corporate/patriarchal alliance of Western companies peddling products banned in their contries of origin and miseducated African males,pours scorn on natural African skin hues, facial features, body shape and hair type.Women are walking all over Africa with orange peel skin,hair on the chin and bald heads under wigs not to speak of kidney and other complications as husbands or prospective partners insist on certain looks thus inflicting chemical, hormonal and biological warfare,a fate not far different from the humiliation visited on Sara.The patriachal and racist attitudes of centuries past are still with us.
Sara's body was returned to South Africa in 2002.The dignity of the African woman is still elusive and so:A luta continua!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reading
Review: Wonderful book that was rich in detail and humanity. Yes the book is written without quotations and for some readers this seems to be proving difficult. However the personalites of each of the main characters is readily apparent in these different chapters. As to the person who felt this was an "agenda" ridden novel and doubts it's basis in truth, try using the internet to research Sara rather than post such statements in a review. It makes you appear as uneducated as those who used this poor woman.
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