In 1987, after a twelve year absence, Chistopher Hope returned to South Africa to report on the run up to that year's whites-only election. The nature of the election campaign and the bitter defeat of the liberals lead him to write this satirical, evocative portrait of what it looked and felt like growing up in a country gripped by an absurd, racist insanity. Full of exquisite and despairing descriptions of the landscape the White Boy is running through, this mordantly witty account of escape, displacement and ...
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In 1987, after a twelve year absence, Chistopher Hope returned to South Africa to report on the run up to that year's whites-only election. The nature of the election campaign and the bitter defeat of the liberals lead him to write this satirical, evocative portrait of what it looked and felt like growing up in a country gripped by an absurd, racist insanity. Full of exquisite and despairing descriptions of the landscape the White Boy is running through, this mordantly witty account of escape, displacement and disolusionment is a mordern classic of journalistic memoir. 'beautifully written' - The Times 'mocking, angry and beautiful' - Washington Post 'exactly the right note of cold, poetic irony' - Financial Times 'exquisite and despairing' - Newsday 'An exceptional book' - Los Angeles Times
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New York. 1988. Farrar Straus Giroux. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0374289255. 273 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Cynthia Krupat. Jacket photograph by Andreas Heumann. keywords: South Africa Literature Autobiography. FROM THE PUBLISHER-White Boy Running describes Christopher Hope's first return visit to South Africa in twelve years. Born in Johannesburg and raised there and in Pretoria, in an Irish Catholic family whose background inevitably set them apart from the ruling Boer faction, Hope grew up with a keen sense of the rigid boundaries that are the organizing principle of South African life. In 1987, on the eve of what was touted as the most significant election in many years, Hope revisited the scenes of his youth to see what had changed in his beautiful and troubled homeland. As he describes what he found, Hope narrates the story of his own family in South Africa, interweaving it with the bloody story of Boer, Zulu, and Briton that is the patrimony of all South Africans. This artful melding of personal history with larger events makes White Boy Running one of the most trenchant of commentaries on South African life, because it brings home the reality of a political predicament in a way that only personal experience can. Hope's unique perspective as both a native South African and an observer from outside makes his book a deeply thought-provoking and affecting status report on a tragedy that bears on the lives of all people the world over. Christopher Hope's three novels have earned him a reputation as one of the most gifted and biting satirical novelists in the English-speaking world, a writer with a keen eye for the absurdities and the tragic failings of the human animal. Now, with White Boy Running, he establishes himself as a gifted reporter and political commentator as well. inventory #10109.
