The Conservationist (1974)
The Rough Guide to Apartheid South Africa. No, wait…
Who wrote it?
Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014, active from 1951), born Springs, South Africa. Recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize for Literature, anti-Apartheid activist, of Jewish heritage but raised in a secular household.
What's it about
Another very difficult novel to summarize in a short paragraph, it's essentially a dense, occasionally impressionistic and highly symbolic look at the life of a wealthy industrialist, Mehring, who buys a farm in Apartheid-era South Africa as a tax write-off. He's the "Conservationist" of the title, telling himself that he's conserving nature via his lifestyle choice while actually conserving the foundations of Apartheid.
There's not a central coherent narrative, but rather a series of time-shifted incidents that reveal Mehring's character (typically through his own words) and expose his hypocrisy and and deeply ingrained colonialist tendencies. This is bookended by story of an unnamed black man, killed on Mehring's farm and given a burial that later proves wholly, and horrifyingly, inadequate as rising floodwaters resurface his corpse, in a powerful denouement that's laden with symbolism.
What I liked
After finding it a tough read for the most part, I found the ending hugely captivating and couldn't put it down for around the last 100 pages. Strands come together, what seemed like abandoned threads resurface, and I finally begin to understand the level of respect this novel is held in.
The writing is hugely poetic. At times this is frustrating (see below) but when it works, it really works.
The way Gordimer allows Mehring to incriminate himself via his own words, without further commentary, is really impressive. From the start it's obvious that he has an inflated opinion of himself and his own "goodness" but the extent to which this is the case only really unfolds in drips throughout the novel.
For anyone who enjoys long, poetic, descriptions of landscapes and nature, this will keep you more than happy.
Gordimer is extremely adept at describing (often deeply uncomfortable) sexual encounters. In a novel where nature often dominates over humanity, these moments provide the most obvious glimpses of character (for better or worse).
Similarly, the resurfacing of the body towards the novel's conclusion is extraordinarily powerfully described.
What I didn't like
It took me a long, long time to get into this one. To the point where I'm sure I would have abandoned it if I wasn't reading as part of this project. I'm thankful that I didn't!
What I'd describe as the somewhat "impressionistic" nature of the writing made it hard going at times. Perhaps it was reading it straight off the back of the Middleton novel which was so straightforwardly plain-speaking and eloquent, but I really found that it struggled to hold my attention for large parts of the book, with pages of (albeit beautifully-written) description before getting to a point.
I felt at times that it necessitated a more thorough and detailed understanding of the politics of South Africa at the time than I actually had. This is a failing on my part, and I definitely learned something in my bits of research while reading, though.
I've just noticed that despite being five years, eight books and two female winners into the history of the Booker, we've yet to have a significant female central protagonist in a winner. While you can’t blame Gordimer for this, The Conservationist brings us no closer to this goal.
Food & drink pairings
Mealie-meal - which, let's be honest, I had to Google.
A bottle of whisky to see in the new year.
Fun facts
Without the shenanigans around Mr and Mrs Kingley Amis, this may have been a slam dunk choice for winner (see previous post).
It was ultimately rewarded by inclusion in the 40th anniversary "Best of the Booker" shortlist, though. More on that much later.
Vanquished Foes
Kingsley Amis (Ending Up)
Beryl Bainbridge (The Bottle Factory Outing)
C. P. Snow (In Their Wisdom)
As mentioned elsewhere, Gordimer shared the award with Stanley Middleton's Holiday.
Context
In 1974 (repeated from the last post for obvious reasons):
Harold Wilson returns to power in the UK following the resignation of Edward Heath
Nixon resigns in the aftermath of Watergate
IRA bombing in Westminster Hall; Birmingham pub bombings
Turkish invasion of Cyprus
Terracotta Army discovered
Ceefax launched by the BBC
"Rumble in the Jungle", Ali v Foreman
ABBA win Eurovision with “Waterloo”
FIFA World cup in West Germany
First episode of Bagpuss
Kraftwerk, Autobahn
Life Lessons
Nothing stays buried
Your time is up, but you don't know it yet
I’m also learning not to give on initially unpromising novels, via this process!
Score
7
Wow, this was a difficult one to score. As discussed above, for a whole chunk of the book I found it a slog, but the concluding chapters and its overall sense of quality makes it hard to score any lower than this.
Ranking to date:
Troubles - J.G. Farrell (1970, "Lost Booker") - 8.5
The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell (1973) - 8
The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens (1970) - 7
The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer (1974) - 7
Holiday - Stanley Middleton (1974) - 7 .
In a Free State* - V.S. Naipaul (1971) - 6.5
G. - John Berger (1972) - 6
Something to Answer For - P. H. Newby (1969) - 5.5
Tied in my list as in the judges' minds. Fitting. Yet still somehow confusing for two such different novels.
*Read in later condensed edition.
Next up
On to 1975 and back to India with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Heat and Dust. My edition's cover looks like terrible soft p0rn - hopefully the contents are more interesting.
