There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyound any singing of it.
Those are the first lines in Alan Paton's novel--Cry, The Beloved Country--which is No. 5 on the Amazon Top 100 list as I write this post. Paton's novel was first copyrighted in 1948, but has been popular since then. Recently, it's gotten new life thanks to Oprah's Book Club. (No, I don't really follow her book club.)
I was introduced to the novel in college in Modern World Literature with Dr. Kraus. I loved the book, and wrote an essay on it for class. (I think she read the essay to the class, she liked it so much.)
I've since reread the book several times and enjoyed it and noticed new things each reading. I highly recommend it. But if you are going to read it, please wade through the preliminary material to get an understanding of the book.
Don't be scared by the way dialogue is used. It's set off by em dashes; there are no quotation marks.
Enjoy.
Go well.
Posted by JRC at October 4, 2003 10:10 PM