The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer

I love to read, although I struggle to read in public places such as on the train or sat in a café, as I too easily become distracted by my surroundings and conversations around me.  I like to think, contrary to cynical thought, that your book/newspaper/Kindle isn’t a barrier to interaction with others say on the underground (although sometimes useful!), it’s that the daily commute/travel is often a welcome opportunity to read. 

Unfortunately though I seem to have read a considerable amount of ‘The Conservationist’ while travelling (it may be the curse of a thin book, as it’s easy to carry around in my handbag!) and I fear that the combination of my easy distractibility and its rambling sentences and subtleties, has resulted in this book failing to make much of an impact on me.  It is most definitely not a plot-driven narrative and for large parts of the book I struggled to work out from whose point of view it was written, what was happening and what, if any, relevance it played.

The book is set in apartheid South Africa and based around the protagonist, Mehring, a white man who had made sufficient money to buy a farm, which he visits at weekends and supervises the black workers who basically run the farm.  Amongst other events, they discover the body of a dead African on the farm, which is just buried instead of being thoroughly investigated by the Afrikaans police, and there is flood during which amongst other occurrences, the body reappears.  But as a said, it’s not really about what actually happens, as the writing is more metaphorical of the bigger picture of apartheid and the sometimes strained relationship between the various people existing together in South Africa. 

Gordimer’s writing can be poetically descriptive but overall I fear that this particular book has not left much of a lasting impression on me except for a sense of ambivalence –and I apologise for the profound lack of analysis in this review.  It’s interesting to note that this book was in the running for the “Best of the Booker” award to mark the 40^th anniversary of the prize, despite not winning outright in 1974, when it won jointly with Stanley Middleton’s ‘Holiday’ – however, I fear when I compile my own “Best of” list after completing this challenge this particular title will not feature.