The lying days
The lying days (1953) by Nadine Gordimer tells the story of Helen Shaw, daughter of white middle-class parents in a small gold-mining town in South Africa. As Helen comes of age, so does her awareness grow of the African life around her. Her involvement, as a bohemian student, with young blacks leads her into complex relationships of emotion and action in a culture of dissension.
Quotes
[edit]- I have learned since that sometimes the things we want most are impossible for us. You may long to come home, yet wander forever.
- page 375
- the state of the liberal consciousness at this early stage in the history of modern South Africa
- Page 36
- Though the leaves are many, the root is one;Through all the lying days of my youth; I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun Now I may wither into the truth.
- Page 76
- A time of special intimate gaiety and friendship with some vague companion” arrives soon
- Page 52
- The job that Paul did first interest then excited me
- Page 7
- Even a doctor working in a native hospital only touched the lives of his patients in one situation, that of hurt or illness. However, as a welfare officer-first, he had been a junior, now he was an assistant to the chief –Paul entered into the gamut of the Africans' lives
- Page 240
- You always see yourself such a high standard, Helen. That is the trouble. You are such a snob when it comes to emotion. Only the loftiest, the purest, will do for you. Sometimes I have thought it is a kind of laziness. If you embrace something that seems to embody all this idealism, you fill you have achieved the loftiest, the purest, the most real.
- Page 361
- Her discussion with Joel reveals the mother's attitude towards the natives because her mother was afraid of the Black people in the country "You do not like the way your mother speaks about natives. You told me only the other day that it 'made your blood boil' when you heard her describe someone's way of living as 'worse than a native.
- Page 119
- Mother …I was thinking, there’s a young African girl in my group, she is a bright girl and it is so important for her to pass. She lives in this awful location place, with people milling around all the time. She was telling me; she does not get a chance to work at all…. couldn’t she come
home here for a while?
- Page 187
- The friendship with Mary breaks as her parents do not accept her in the house.Well, Mary, I do not understand you. Either you think that because you are Black, you are not good enough to be a guest in my parents’ house or you are distressed at the idea of my is agreeing with my mother.
- Page 203
- I am not practicing any self-deception any longer. Moreover, I am not running away. Whatever it was I was running away from-the risk of love? The guilt of being White? The danger of putting ideas into practice? I am not running away from now because I am coming back here.
- Page 376
External links
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