Bryce Courtenay

Bryce Courtney was born in South Africa and now lives in Australia.  This is his first book - many followed.

   "The Power of One" (1989) has an interesting opening sentence: "This is what happened".
    Peekay, aged 5, moved into a boarding school.  Another student, nicknamed "The Judge", constantly tormented Peekay. 
  While Peekay was on the train going home for the holidays, he met Hoppie, the conductor, who introduced him to boxing.  This short relationship set Peekay on the road to the boxing welterweight world championship and taking control of his life.

    Later in Peekay's life, he met Doc, a famous German pianist, who taught him to play the piano.  Doc also was a botanist and a fascinating character.  

   This story exposes apartheid, prejustice, hate in a powerful way!
The quotes are one of the best things about this book:

"Good conversational debate was an end in itself and talking for the love of conversation is what makes us human."

"When a man knows somebody cares, he keeps some small place, a corner maybe, of his soul, clean and lit".
"I learned that in each of us there burns a flame of independence that must never be allowed to go out.  That as long as it exists within us, we cannot be destroyed."

"All children are flotsam driven by the ebb and flow of adult lives. The tide had turned and I was being swept out to sea."
 "The loneliness bird had entered to build a nest of stones in the hollow place inside of me".

"Deep inside me the loneliness bird laid a large stone egg".

"I knew I would be in control of loneliness and no longer its servant".

The power of one- one idea, one heart, one mind, one plan, one determination.  Great book!

   "Tandia", which followed in 1992, was a real disappointment after "The Power Of One", although it continued many of the characters. "Tandia" is 900 pages with a convoluted plot.  There still were some philosophical thoughts: 
"When you cut hope from the heart, the hole you leave is filled with the worms of hate."
"The tragedy of the human condition is that the very things that make us interesting and culturally important and progressively brilliant are our differences: and these are also the principle reason for our prejudices."
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A very short (87 pages) sketch of Courtney's childhood in South Africa.  When he was five years old his sister was six and a half.  Their mother was delirious with malaria.  A very large doctor arrived at their door, picked up their mother, took her to the hospital and took the children to his home.  They stayed there for six months with nine other kids- all eleven in two beds.  There was a theft on the property and Monkey Man (a witch doctor) was brought in to  find the thief.
When the thieves were discovered they were badly beaten.  Bryce was very upset and the witch doctor taught him, by counting forward and backward, how to go to the 'Night country' when he was afraid or lacked courage.
The witch doctor called him a white Zulu.
A sad little story of a frightened little boy.  The basis of his first novel.