is the story of Peekay, a frail, young, English boy growing up poor in South Africa and of his refusal to be demoralized by the racial torment surrounding him.
On the road to becoming a young man he cultivates some uniquely, diverse friends and discovers many truths, not the least of which, are that loyalty, strength, love and compassion, coupled with a insatiable, thirst for knowledge and armed with the focus and courage to stay true to one's own self, can all be fused together, thus harnessing a power so potent that any worthy goal can and will be achieved.
For me the message that rings out loudest and clearest in this story is how ridiculous racial hatred truly is.
Wow incredible!!!
I fell in love with Peekay even 'before' he was five years old, starting in South Africa, when he shares of being nursed from his lovely black nanny before being sent to boarding school.
although we follow him from agetofrom the late's to mid's,
Our oldest daughter attended a boarding High School in Michigan for a short time an academic/arts school.
The family separation was painful, I can't begin to imagine sending ayear old away to a boarding school even in the 'best' of conditions.
And the fact that this story is inspired by the authors real life, for me, this is one of the most wrenching parts of the entire book, "being sent away from his family at agefrom 'love' he was receiving to 'hatred' he was walking into.
Peekay is bullied and abused almost immediately upon arrival as ayear old at his boarding school.
He's the youngest child in the school,
Missing the comfort of his Black nanny Peekay is English and white, who would soothe his hurts.
. . missing his mother who was sent away due to a nervous breakdown, Peekay was the first live example of the congenital hate they carried for his kind.
"The Boer War had created great malevolent feelings against the English, who were called the 'rooineks', It was a hate that had entered the Afrikaner bloodstream and pocked the hearts and minds of the next generation".
Given that Peekay, spoke English, he pronounced sentences that killed their grandfathers and grandmothers to the world's first concentration camps.
Little Peekay had no advance warning that he was wicked before coming to the school,
One of the other kids called 'Judge' abused Peekey regularly, Peekay even made a deal with him to do the Judge's homework and make sure he didn't fail but he still continues to abuse him.
really 'tortured him.
We see how Peekay begins to survive horrific conditions at such a young tender age: Peekay says:
"One thing got to them more than anything else.
They could make me cry, Even the Judge, with all of the fear he could provoke, could not make me cry, I suspect they even began to admire me a bit, Many as them brothers my age at home, and they knew how easy it is for a fiveyearold to cry.
In fact, I had turned six but nobody had told me, so in my head, I was still five".
"Not being able to cry was the hardest part for me as well, Crying can't be a good camouflage, In truth, my willpower had very little to do with my resolve never to cry, I had learned a special trick and, in the process, had somehow lost the knack of turning on the tap".
Peekay is a diamond in the rough, an inspiring character. He's smart, open minded, and doesn't have an ounce of bitterness or hatred in him, He develops meaningful friendships with teachers and mentors who teach him to read, He meets a healer, and a boxer, We learn a tremendous amount about boxing, We also learn a lot about the history of South Africa through the eyes of a child,
The themes of discrimination were well defined by the author: the Boers vs, the English South Africans vs, the Germans the Jews vs, the Germans white Africans vs, the Black Africans.
Violence is graphic so be warned,
It's a cruel and beautiful world we live in!
Excellent, superb and intellectually challenging,
I was impressed in different ways,
On Peekay his character development and self knowledge, From a boarding schoolyear old : facing daily physical brutality, That brought tears to my eyes, Even the 'matron' used a cane! His childhood friendship with the 'Doc' really a Professor of Music being the most influential on developing his intellect while giving him the most 'parental' love.
His next boarding school experience, starting a few years later, was mostly shaped by friend Hyman, A youth who also had a complex character and sharp, curious intellect, Through this time Peekay's desire to be 'the welterweight champion of the world ' gained force,
The incredible cruelty of the social and political South African attitude to people of colour was brought out so clearly by Courtenay.
A system which also brought out the worse in some white people also,
I have meet people over the years who have left South Africa to come to New Zealand.
They, like Peekay, were people with no racist feelings, But who found living in South Africa to be a daily frightening experience,
This book appealed to me on many levels, Mostly the power of Courtenay's writing allowed me fully enter the minds of his character, Plus feel the horror of the,, South Africa political and social system: which also, I believe, handicapped the 'whites' too.
Unputdownable. Courtenay is now a top favourite author for me, What a nice surprise this book was for me, This comingofage story set inSouth Africa has a focus on the sport of boxing throughout, which I am generally not a fan of, but certainly loved every minute of it in this story.
Peekay endures awful humiliation and abandonment at such a young age yet he struggles along through adversity and heartbreaking losses.
Numerous comments by readers mention they did not care for the ending, but I, for one, loved it! A touching and uplifting story I plan to read again, Absoloodle! you'll have to read the novel to appreciate that one Highly recommend! I
was immediately hooked by this story as it followed a young boy, Peekay, to boarding school where he excelled academically, but was subjected to pretty miserable treatment by his older/bigger peers.
Set in South Africa during the time of WWII, it showed a nation beset by cultural divisions white/black, English/Afrikaner, Christian/Jew, Germany/everyone else.
Within this stew, Peekay tries to find safe ground, developing a tendency for human camouflage, The first part of this epic saga focuses on his efforts to understand the world around him and to survive it.
Despite some pretty despicable events, there is much humor in the telling, which softened events that made me want to claw some characters from the pages.
As the story proceeds, Peekay leaves boarding school and reintegrates into his family and surrounding town.
As we follow Peekay through this comingofage journey, we meet a number of memorable and instrumental characters instrumental for leaving a mark on an impressionable boy, for influencing his view of the world, himself, and his choices.
As the story progressed, and became more focused on boxing, my interest did wane somewhat, But the characters, choices and outcomes kept me reading, The cultural background Peekay existed in was everpresent, and was interesting and informative and apropos of the times.
Occasionally, almost too much information was given which seemed to bog things down, but also provided some vivid understanding of his surroundings and activities mining, boxing, living within a prison setting.
I confess that as I neared the end of the story, I wondered where this was going to end.
. . where were we headed in his journey, When the end came, I thought, "Oh, of course. " And although it seemed abrupt, it left me with as much satisfaction as Peekay must have felt,
.