The Pickup | The Pickup

At a glance:

Author: Nadine Gordimer
First Published: 2001
Type of Work: Novel
Time of Work: The late twentieth century
Setting: South Africa and an unnamed desert country
Principal Characters: Julie Summers, Nigel Ackroyd Summers, Danielle Summers, Beverly, Dr. Archibald “Uncle Archie” Summers, Ibrahim “Abdu” ibn Musa, Mother, Yaqub, Maryam, Khadija, Zayd
Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism
Subjects: Africa or Africans, Love or romance, Twentieth century, South Africa or South Africans, Aliens, illegal, Deserts, Arabs, Bedouins
Locales: South Africa

In The Pickup, Nadine Gordimer again explores the theme of interracial, intercultural relationships such as those at the center of The Lying Days (1953) and A Sport of Nature (1987). Here, however, the context is not apartheid. Rather it is the plight of the immigrant, especially the illegal immigrant, that draws her attention. What if, Gordimer asks, a well-to-do young woman, a white South African with Irish and Scots ancestry living on her own in a kind of bohemian independence, with a wealthy and well-connected father, were to encounter a young, attractive Arab...

The Pickup | The Pickup

At a glance:

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