Rating: 
Summary: This is not a book about South Africa
Review: The previous review to the contrary, this book will always be relevant as long as human beings judge other humans based on race. I just finished reading it and, as an American living in the Middle East, I faced innumerable home truths about myself and my own racist biases during the two days I was glued to it. It is a painful read, in terms of the atrocities it depicts and the questions it asks. However, it is an essential read, though I wonder if anyone who has not lived long-term outside their own culture can truly appreciate it. It's easy to be a white liberal at home, wrapped in one's own smug assurance and safe within the majority. (And I'm speaking of myself here). Surrounded by 20 million Arabs, Malan's own journeys into Soweto strike far too close to one's heart. On only the most superficial level is this a book about South African Apartheid. It is also about Israelis and Palestinians, Hindus and Muslims, Northern Irish and the English, the US and its every victim.
Rating:
Summary: This is not a book about South Africa
Review: The previous review to the contrary, this book will always be relevant as long as human beings judge other humans based on race. I just finished reading it and, as an American living in the Middle East, I faced innumerable home truths about myself and my own racist biases during the two days I was glued to it. It is a painful read, in terms of the atrocities it depicts and the questions it asks. However, it is an essential read, though I wonder if anyone who has not lived long-term outside their own culture can truly appreciate it. It's easy to be a white liberal at home, wrapped in one's own smug assurance and safe within the majority. (And I'm speaking of myself here). Surrounded by 20 million Arabs, Malan's own journeys into Soweto strike far too close to one's heart. On only the most superficial level is this a book about South African Apartheid. It is also about Israelis and Palestinians, Hindus and Muslims, Northern Irish and the English, the US and its every victim.
Rating: 
Summary: enlightening rambling
Review: The purpose of this book was very educational and interesting but the structure was confusing which resulted in my loss of attention. The brevity of the individual narratives gives no closure. I was left hanging with the middle facts without a beginning or ending to complete each narrative, then thrust into the next narrative without time to digest the previous one.
Rating:
Summary: heart 2 heart
Review: The SA paradox in a nifty pocket book guide. This should have been called 'how to survive when all around you, people are very screwed up'. It is the architypal South African experience; paranoid, hypocritical, self-conscious. It should be available for anyone going on holiday there. So peverse, it will have you reeling. But it cuts a fine line between personal white guilt, and journalistic integrity- somehow slowly working its magic. pick up the book, and POOF! you might find yourself enjoying it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointing Read
Review: There are many debates as to the process of somehow defining what makes 'good' literature. One argument suggests that good literature can be recognised in terms of whether it remains worthwhile reading a hundred years after it was first written. Admittedly by my own personal reckoning, Rian Malan's A Traitor's Heart has failed this test a mere thirteen years down the line. I will grant that in 1990 it would probably have made interesting and challenging reading for some people. However, the value that Malan's investigation into apartheid atrocities held a decade ago has waned in a South Africa that has been deluged with thousands of such images via the mechanisms of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Furthermore, Malan's Afrikaner angst is no longer fashionable or useful and such self-indulgent reflections as his own contribute little towards an imagining of 'the new South Africa'. Just because a book does not tie in to the government's project of nation building is no reason to dismiss it. One thing which the book did achieve was to remind me of the way in which the ANC government has sold out on its socialist beliefs since its ascension to power. However, overall Malan's book is not well-constructed enough to deserve the attention of readers for much longer.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Read
Review: There are many debates as to the process of somehow defining what makes 'good' literature. One argument suggests that good literature can be recognised in terms of whether it remains worthwhile reading a hundred years after it was first written. Admittedly by my own personal reckoning, Rian Malan's A Traitor's Heart has failed this test a mere thirteen years down the line. I will grant that in 1990 it would probably have made interesting and challenging reading for some people. However, the value that Malan's investigation into apartheid atrocities held a decade ago has waned in a South Africa that has been deluged with thousands of such images via the mechanisms of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Furthermore, Malan's Afrikaner angst is no longer fashionable or useful and such self-indulgent reflections as his own contribute little towards an imagining of 'the new South Africa'. Just because a book does not tie in to the government's project of nation building is no reason to dismiss it. One thing which the book did achieve was to remind me of the way in which the ANC government has sold out on its socialist beliefs since its ascension to power. However, overall Malan's book is not well-constructed enough to deserve the attention of readers for much longer.
Rating:
Summary: one in a million
Review: There are very few books to read more than once. I recommend this book as an annual reader to get an idea of human beings. Though english is not my first language I refused to read in german and so you should, too
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent, brooding work
Review: This book came out when I was working in South Africa. It explores in an uncompromising way two rival phenomena: the hopes of 'white liberalism' and some harsh realities of South Africa's 'African-ness' which many urban liberals at that point seemed to pretend either were not there or were somehow only a function of apartheid.
The passages on Creina Alcock, a 'white' South African who stepped far away from her background to live as a Zulu are are especially poignant, even stunning. I visited Creina in her remote hut on the strength of this book and was astonished by her courage and wisdom. Rian captures this extraordinary story in a moving if (for the average reader?) pessimistic way
This book has universalist insights for anyone interested in whether Civilisations really do Clash. Rian Malan was on to something very profound in this book. It is vivid and appalling in places, and not always easy reading. So what? These issues are as difficult as anything we face. Read it, lots of times.
Rating:
Summary: Tales from the inside looking out
Review: This book gives an astonishing look into the reality of man(kind) and the desire to maintain an existence, virtually by any means necessary. Clearly, Mr. Malan's vivid writing style captures you and really makes one think about; Why are human race relations the way they are? Truly a courageous piece, which will undeniably pierce your soul.
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing
Review: This book is an investigation into the attitudes of a liberal who was raised in South Africa. In the book, Malan tells us that his original charge was to write the history of his racist ancestors, who were among the first Boer settlers in the region. But when Malan began his project, he found he needed to first explore and develop his own perspective on race in South Africa before he could begin. And once he began doing this, he never really got around to the history project. The book is divided into 3 sections. In the first, Malan describes his own childhood and adolescence, leading up to his forced flight from South Africa, with a major focus on his youthful love for Blacks (especially in the abstract). The second part of the book details a number of violent murders that Malan investigated upon his return to South Africa in 1986 to write this book. In this section, Malan describes the intense violence that was occurring in South Africa at the time, and how all Whites, even doctors providing humanitarian services in the townships, became targets for Black rage. He also explores violence between rival Black political groups. In the closing section, Malan visits a White woman named Creina Alcock, who lived on the border of Msanga, a tribal homeland, where she and her husband had struggled to build a sustainable rural development project with the local Blacks. The woman was widowed after her husband was killed while trying to negotiate peace talks during a tribal disturbance in Msanga. The book doesn't have a strong narrative thread- -instead it seems that Malan was trying to communicate some of his own confusion and ambivalence about racial questions by presenting so many stories and sides of the picture, and flipping rapidly from one to the next. The loose organization is effective to some degree; the reader slowly comes to understand the enormity and complexity of South Africa's problems. Yes, many Whites provoked anger from Blacks by their abominable behavior and laws. Blacks in turn responded with violence that was so overwhelming that even those Whites who tried as hard as they could to do the right thing were in mortal danger. And the worst and most senseless violence seemed to occur in Black communities that had no White involvement at all. The entire society was so focused on violence that as one White living on a farm in a rural area told Malan "The guy with the bigger stick wins." In closing with Creina Alcock's story, Malan tries to leave us with a little hope. He argues that Alcock's and her late husband's love for their community has made a marginal difference in the social structure, despite the ongoing attacks on them and thefts of their property by children they had adopted and raised as their own, and even the murder of Alcock's husband. With the infinitesimally small improvements that the Alcocks managed to make in their community by giving their entire lives over to the project, how many millions more Alcocks would it take to turn such a country around, and where might they come from?
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