On July 30th we met at Carol's lovely Mystic Bay condo
which is the new home of the Santas.
Those present were Julie, Kathy, Madeleine, Nancy, Carol, Janet,
Donna, Betsy and Nettie.
Carol made a healthy steak salad with corn bread
and nice fudgie brownies. It was a treat.
We had a discussion of the book and most people
had read and liked it.
It was written by a man who had grown up in South
Africa during apartheid but eventually migrated
to Canada.
So the story is about a white woman named Maritt
who marries a farmer and they have no other family when
they move to a very remote region on the southern
border of South Africa. He is killed by black
insurgents and she is left adrift in a strange land.
Having no family and other home she decides
to make the farm her home with the help and
companionship of a black servant Tembi.
The story delves deeply into the friendship
of the two women as they cross racial lines
as well as servant-employer lines.
There are many travails and hardships such
as a plague of locusts, famine, loss of
cattle and electricity and the ever encroaching
war between the blacks and the whites. When most of the
whites leave the area she is still present and manages
to survive with the help of some black drifters.
There are some shifts in loyalty on the part
of the black woman Tembi especially when
a black man who is a love interest enters the picture.
But in the end all the two women
really have are each other. The white lady dies
but we think the book ends on a note of hope as
Tembe once more sets out to plant some seeds in the
hope of establishing a home.
This was a very sad time in history and this story
was just one man's view of that appalling period
of apartheid.
We decided to meet again on the 18th of September.
If I am wrong on that please correct me.
Donna chose another Elizabeth Strout book
called "Olive Kitteridge" which is several
different stories which has a tie in to one character
who is Olive Kitteridge.
