Alan Paton (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

Alan Paton is best known for his novel, CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY (1948), a searing account of the inhumanity of apartheid marked by a lyrical love for his native South Africa. Paton was hailed as a major new novelist and as political voice of extraordinary moral authority. His novel would eventually be translated into twenty different languages and sell more than fifteen million copies.

As Peter F. Alexander demonstrates, Paton’s book came at precisely the moment when the world was becoming aware of the injustice of apartheid. In the late 1940’s, the Afrikaner-dominated National Party had taken power and was determined to enforce a rigid separation of the races and to enforce policies that ensure white dominance of the political and economic system. Paton’s biography parallels the twentieth century history of his country. His moral growth and politics—which seemed for much of his life out of kilter with his surroundings—have come to seem, since the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s President, prophetic of his country’s potential for reform.

On Paton’s private life, Alexander is compassionate. Paton’s first wife never gave him the full affection he craved, yet he remained loyal to her despite some lapses on his part. His second wife gave him a new lease on life, stimulating him in his last fifteen years to write another novel and to complete a second volume of his autobiography. Paton’s children found him aloof and tyrannical, although he did not subject them to the relentless beatings his father had administered to him.

Not all readers will agree with Alexander’s assessment of Paton’s importance as a writer. To be sure, CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY is a classic. Alexander seems to think that Paton has been somewhat neglected as a poet. Judging by the examples he quotes (and he quotes too many of them), Paton’s verse does not merit much reevaluation.

Sources for Further Study

Booklist. XCI, September 15, 1994, p. 100.

Kirkus Reviews. LXII, August 1, 1994, p. 1033.

New Statesman and Society. VII, August 12, 1994, p. 40.

Publishers Weekly. CCXLI, August 8, 1994, p. 406.

The Spectator. CCLXXIII, August 13, 1994, p. 21.

The Times Literary Supplement. September 2, 1994, p. 22.

The Washington Post Book World. XXIV, November 27, 1994, p. 4.