The Lying Days

Exquisite writing by the great Ms Gordimer I could not put this down, even though some have said in reviews that it is slow moving and boring As a South African, I find this story fascinating as it is set during the time when my parents were children having emigrated from England as toddlers with their parents and the country was on a tragic path in our history Descriptions of the city of Johannesburg and Durban, especially the port area, are amazing The old airport on the Snell parade was still [...]

My favorite book.Stunning writing that exemplifies the the highest form of the craft The author is able to create an immediate, real and profoundly complete inner life The character of Helen is someone who I felt like I have not only met, but have the privilege of sharing her conscious The way the novel examines the human s ability to peel away the onion layers of one s soul, each truer then the next, is a lesson in humility and the inspiration for deep and continued personal development.Wonderf [...]

Set against the backdrop of segregationist South Africa of the 30 s and 40 s,and narrated in the 1st person by the young woman protagonist, Helen,of white middle class colonial background who grows up on the crust not the actual soil of the country, this book conveys a visceral sense of the profound unrest in South Africa It is an intensely wrought story with astute and universally recognizable insights Gordimer writes like an analytic philosopher poet.Her breadth of vision is huge.

It is amazing because it shows a great writer at her beginnings, a woman in her twenties displaying a rare ability to communicate emotion with the coolness of a antipodean Virginia Woolf The hallmark of a true artist showed early.

While the beginning of this book was slow moving as many reviews indicate , I eventually got into the story and connected with the main character As an American with limited knowledge of South Africa, it was a learning experience.

Excellent, beautiful novel This book is as much about South Africa and the roots of Apartheid as it as a fantastic girl coming of age story I ll take this over Catcher In the Rye any day I highly recommend

Such beautiful writing Written in the 1950s, a sort of coming of age story of a white South African girl, waking up to the realities of her country and her class Really liked it.

too boringdid not hold my attention

Some books live unread on our shelves for an inexplicably long time, so that when eventually we pick them up, we wonder what on earth took us so long That is certainly the case with The Lying Days, both this novel and Nadine Gordimer s Booker winning The Conservationist have been residing on my to be read shelves for several years I am very glad though that I started with this one, because it was, as I soon discovered, Gordimer s first novel As a first novel it is extraordinary there is a slow, [...]

Coming of age with disillusionThere is nothing novel about coming of age stories and yet this one seems different Of course a lot of it has to do with the way Gordimer writes those sentences as if she is going through painful but eloquent labour drawing out one idea at a time She seems to be discovering them at the same time she writes them.But the attraction of the book is also where the growing up is placed in a torn nation where the protagonist is sitting on a comfortable chair She feels for [...]

Actually, I couldn t even finish reading this book Her writing is beautiful and she draws lovely pictures with words But the fact is I don t visualize all that well, so for me the storyline was continually interrupted I finally just gave up Too bad, because I used to really enjoy reading her short stories in The Atlantic Monthly, and I was looking forward to a young girl s coming of age story in South Africa after reading The Power of One Who knows I may pick it up again when I have time to just [...]

It was fascinating to read this, knowing it was her first work I think she deftly illustrated the gradual disintegration that some but not all white people in South Africa experience as they started to see, and question, the apartheid state Some other readers have criticized the slow pace of the book, but I think for many of us, that kind of realization comes slowly and incrementally We don t see it all at once the What is water phenomenon, I imagine.

I ve just fished my copy of this from the loft Mine was published by Virago When they started in the 70s I can remember being attracted by their books on bookstore shelved, but can t remember which I read This one is published in 1983, so I must have bought it then A later phase in my life, I wonder what attracted me to it I don t think I read it I will now.

I would give it 3.5 stars It was a very densely written book with descriptions to plod through like wading through thick muddy water The rambling sentences had to be broken down piece by piece to decipher But it felt worth it in the end It was an enlightened coming of age story of a privileged girl during Apartheid in Johannesburg.

The Lying Days to me was a very decent novel Nadine Gordimer really did a good job at explaining the struggles that the main character Helen went through, and I really got a feel of what she was going through Even though I enjoyed the novel there were parts in the book that did not really capture my attention and made me lose interest Overall, I enjoyed the novel.

Her first novel written in the 1950s Continuing my life long love affair with this lyrical South African writer who has written all our days for us From her short story Treasures of the Sea that I read while at high school on, she has never failed to move me.

Beautiful and exquisite writing about a girl becoming a woman during the changing history of South Africa.

Another favorite

Couldn t get into this one at all.Shall maybe return to it later.

This will be my third book club book, I m very excited to find it and begin it

very interesting is it autobiographical

According to my notes I read this in 2005 I can t remember a thing about it