Star of the Morning

by Pamela Jooste

"I knew then that there were some things not even Ruby could keep from me forever and this was one of them. We were colored girls in a white world that didn’t want us."
 
Born on the wrong side of a racial divide in apartheid-torn Cape Town, young sisters Ruby and Rose exist in a world where they are not welcome. As part of the Cape Colored community, they are considered socially inferior, yet even within their own social group the sisters live in the poor end of town. Their father was killed when they were very small, so when their mother dies after a protracted illness, Ruby and Rose’s fate falls into the hands of Aunt Olive. Ruby knows without being told that their aunt’s home will not be opened up to them – charity does not extend to the poor relations who would cast a smudge on such a respectable house. Aunt Olive condemns her nieces to the local orphanage, relieving her conscience with monthly invitations to Sunday lunch. In the orphanage the girls grow up sheltered from a divided world that they do not yet fully understand, but the day approaches when Ruby and Rose must forge their own paths in life and confront the lessons that apartheid enforces. Like the award-winning Dance with a Poor Man’s Daughter, this beautifully observed novel of sisterly love once again displays Pamela Jooste’s poignant understanding of human nature.

Genres: Africa, South Africa, Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Pamela Jooste is a South African novelist. Her first novel, Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter, won the 1998 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, best first book, Africa, and the Sanlam Prize for Fiction. She worked for Howard Timmins publishers, and BP Southern Africa. She is married and lives in Cape Town.

Reviews

[Jayne Bauling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Orphaned children, an insensitive aunt, an orphanage run by nuns ... haven't we read this novel a few hundred times before?

All right, it redeems itself once Capetonians Ruby Jacobs and young sister Rose have grown up. Told mostly from the deeply reserved, rather joyless Ruby's point of view, her bleak outlook on life contrasts with that of Rose who takes life as it comes. Realistic to the point of pessimism, the occasionally wearying Ruby seems almost to take pride in expecting nothing good out of life and in 'knowing her place' - for this novel provides an important reminder as to apartheid's impact on small, ordinary lives.

The book is subtle in its portrayal of relationships, with the complex relationship that is sisterhood central to the narrative. If it is sometimes repetitive, this is due to the style Jooste has chosen for her story, and this is immaculately sustained.

So, this 'liked it' comes with reservations.

[Karen Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled through this book waiting for something to happen. It was only in the final few chapters that I got into it. Not sure that I would recommend it.

[Clare Grové · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a particularly remarkable read but enjoyable. The lives of the everyman are rarely remarkable but important in context nonetheless.

The closing pages contain a quote that is a summation of it all:
"Ordinary women going about the ordinary business of life, but small lives when you look at them closely are more than big enough to hold all those things in life that are important."

[Celeste · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impeccable writing. Beautiful yet poignant and thought provoking read.

[Alta Cloete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Môrester deur Pamela Jooste (http://www.randomstruik.co.za/about-t...) is nie meer ‘n nuwe boek nie (2007), dis oorspronklik in Engels geskryf en dit gaan oor bruinmense in die tagtiger-en negentigerjare. Dit alles het meegewerk dat ek die boek al herhaaldelik raakgesien en nié uitgeneem het nie. Nee, nie omdat ek ‘n rassis is nie, maar omdat ek so sukkel om by te bly met nuwe werk wat in Afrikaans verskyn, dat ek nie tyd spandeer op oues nie. Ek reken in elk geval ek ken alreeds die oues wat ek enigsins wíl ken. Daarby het ek ‘n vreemde afkeer aan Engelse Suid-Afrikaanse boeke (behalwe Stuart Cloete wat ek jare gelede vreeslik gelees het – http://www.stuartcloete.com/biography) en ek is regtig versadig gelees oor die politiek, al is dit ook ‘n onlosmaaklike deel van ons lewe. En dan is ek ook glad nie lief vir vertalings nie – ‘n swak vertaling is ‘n pynlike ding om te lees. Al hierdie (onsinnige) redes het gemaak dat ek vir jare ‘n juweel eenkant gegooi het. Op ‘n vriendin se aanbeveling vat ek toe egter die boek toe hy weer ‘n slag voor my op die biblioteektrollie lê. (Dit voel amper of hy deur die jare met opset so gereeld daar gelê het.)
Ek is van die begin af ingetrek, gehook, betower. Nee, dis geen wonderbaarlike, dramatiese storie nie. Dis bloot die verhaal van twee sussies wat as weeskinders grootword in die Kaap. Klein lewens soos derduisende ander. Die storie word in die eerstepersoon alternatiewelik deur Rose en Ruby vertel. Elkeen fokus meestal in haar vertelling op die ander. Dramatiese gebeure word meestal onderspeel en daar is nie veel van ‘n spanningslyn nie. Die gebeure is ook nie van die grootste belang nie. Dis die liefde vir mekaar wat die eintlike storie is. Moenie dink dis altyd vrede nie. Veral toe hulle ouer word, is daar dikwels verskille en die woordryke Rose vertel tydig en ontydig vir die stil, stemmige Ruby presies hoe dinge nou eintlik gedoen moet word. Die storie word nooit sentimenteel nie en die erns word getemper deur die karakters se humor en die wonderlike gebruik van die Afrikaanse taal. Die susters se behoefte is deurgaans om mekaar gelukkig te maak, te beskerm en te ondersteun, vir mekaar te gee wat hulle nodig het. En op die ou end is dit Rose wat die laaste beurt kry om vir Ruby iets baie spesiaals te doen.
As jy hou van diep menslike stories, is hierdie een vir jou. Die vertaling is vir my uitstekend en het my geensins gepla nie. Dis egter nie ‘n boek wat jou uitgelate en vrolik agterlaat nie. Dis ‘n weemoedige boek, ‘n boek oor gewone mense se gewone vreugdes en smarte. ‘n Boek wat die leser met ‘n gevoel van weemoed laat – en met nuwe mededoë vir elke gewone vrou met ‘n doodgewone lewe.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe the rating is harsh as I did finish it and did do so in a couple of days. But that was mainly because I'd gone to the trouble of bringing it to France with me after years of it sitting on my bookcase at home after it was given as a present (by someone who doesn't use goodreads) and me putting off reading it, so I wanted to get my weights-worth out of it.

There is a song from The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride which comes into my head every so often and starts `Deception. Disgrace! '... I don't think I need to outline the rest. But basically this book tweaked the Deception chord in my head, promising to be about the struggle and nuances of apartheid South Africa when actually it was a mundane and saccharine tale of two sisters with vague sporadic references to not being allowed to sit on rail carriages, but the protagonist not being bothered about it so who cares.
The narrative rotates between the two sisters - that is, mostly 1 but with random chapters from the other when the author got bored. But with no real change so it was difficult to distinguish between the two.
That felt bitchy and maybe I'm being harsh, but I do feel there is a reason I've seen this book in poundland. I cared nothing for the characters, the setting was irrelevant, and a whole subplot about religion I had no idea why it was felt to add anything to the book.

[Jacinta · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a pretty bland story, but not difficult to read. I doubt this book will change any lives or make people think about things, and it barely touches on apartheid.
It's a book about two sisters and the life they led, and how they felt about that life

[Samantha Hastie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting tale of Apartheid South Africa. At times a bit strung out in writing style but you certainly feel a connection to the protagonists.