Too Late the Phalarope

by Alan Paton

A story about South Africa, Apartheid, and a young white police lieutenant who violates one of the strictest laws of the country, relationships between black and white. A wonderful story about dignity, loving relationships, worth, and conscience.

Genres: Fiction, Africa, Classics, Historical Fiction, South Africa, Literature, African Literature

276 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Alan Stewart Paton was a South African writer and anti-apartheid activist. His works include the novels Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), Too Late the Phalarope (1953), and the short story The Waste Land.

Reviews

[Justin Lonas · Rating 4 out of 5]

People try to pigeonhole Paton's novels as being about Apartheid and racial tension or simply lump him in with other African writers as a good portrayer of South African life in the 20th century.

I think that Paton deserves to be listed among the all-time greats of English literature. He writes about universally understood concepts like love, parenthood, broken families, etc. Mostly, Paton writes about sin--from temptation to commission to confession to consequences. The fact that his work is layered with the massive institutional sins of the South African racial laws simply makes his portraits of the multiplying and ravenous destruction of personal sin that much more powerful. (From my review of Cry, the Beloved Country)

Too Late the Phalarope is more nuanced and metaphorical in its storytelling than Paton's other novels, but it is perhaps the best showcase of his grasp of the effects of sin on the soul from an internal perspective. The plot centers around an adulterous affair between an Afrikaner man and a black woman, the racial and cultural consequences of which seem almost greater than the marital brokenness.

In the process of showing the unraveling of the protagonist's life, Paton peels back the layers of parental and religious repression and their affects on his heart. The result is a powerful parable, not just of the consequences of sin, but of the dangers of a graceless, unforgiving response to the failings of loved ones.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Yet it comes to me that it is not the judgment of God but that of men which is a stranger to compassion; for the Lord said, go thou and sin no more."

The feeling of finishing a book that tips you into a better world and a better self and a greater heartbreak.

I had to give this book some space before I wrote about it. Paton has long been one of my favorite authors, solely on the strength of his book Cry, the Beloved Country. While some girls were having normal childhoods and writing A Walk to Remember quotes on their Chucks, I wasn't allowed to read Nicholas Sparks (I understand now, Mom!! I understand!!) so I filled my entire copy book with passages from Cry. I still know some of them by heart.

So it's strange to me that I took so long (ten years!?) to get around to reading another of Paton's novels. I tried to start it once and was frightened away by the promise of tragedy in the first few pages. The novel is written from the perspective of a family member after a family tragedy has already passed. The aunt of the main character, our narrator reveals in the first few pages that her nephew brought destruction on her family, but that she feels compelled to tell his story without judgment.

I won't say any more at the risk of spoiling anything, but I will say -- don't let the darkness of the premise turn you away from this novel. Like Cry, Paton's most popular book, Phalarope reaches deep into the most broken parts of human relationships, human systems, and the human soul. He forces us to look at the complexity of good and evil, demanding justice for systematic evil, but refusing to condemn. I haven't been able to stop thinking about the nature of shame, acceptance, friendship, and the ways in which we choose either to destroy or give life to one another.

[Mika · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had a completely different feel from Cry, the Beloved Country, although the writing style was (obviously) similar. It has been likened to a modern-day Greek tragedy, with an admirable hero whose one weakness brings destruction not only on himself but upon his family; the narrator is his aunt, and selections from the hero’s own writing add depth to the story.

Although some readers assume that Too Late the Phalarope is about apartheid or Puritanical morals, I disagree. What I saw as the central theme of the book was the inability to let other people see weakness, even if they can help. The protagonist had countless opportunities to stop the destruction he knew would come — but each time his silence won. In a way it reminded me of people who suffer from depression and are unable to admit their need, are unable or unwilling to cry out.

If you’ve read Cry, the Beloved Country (and liked it), I definitely think you should give this book a try. The writing is captivating, the story compelling. However, Cry, the Beloved Country is in many ways a richer, more textured work that may be easier and more enjoyable for many people to read.

[Diane Gihring · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It is so powerful, especially to discuss in a class situation. And it is well written.

The story is a classic Greek Tragedy: the tragic hero is one of high standing in society, everyone loves and respects him. He has a tragic flaw-pride-and he makes a mistake in judgment and then he falls and hard! But he is not completely destroyed and actually in this case, I think the end result is all the better for Pieter and his immediate family.

I like how Paton has adopted the Greek Tragedy, but set it into South Africa during the time of Apartheid, which also plays a big part in the novel.

The main character is Pieter, who has a dualistic nature, half all hard and strong like his father, and half all soft and sensitive like his mother. The struggle between his two sides is one of the struggles that we see in the book.

The other really interesting aspect of the writing is the point of view. He has half of the story told from Sophia, Pieter's aunt, and the other half of the story told through Pieter's journal. So we get an outsider's perspective and an insider's perspective.

I highly recommend to anyone interested in reading a good book.

[Elizabeth Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my touchstone book. I check out every book store to see if they have a copy of it. I love everything by Alan Paton but I think this tells more about the repressive nature not only of apartheid but the society that produced it. It is a very personal experience. I lived this man,s fear and loneliness and intense personal struggle with his demons. It is told through the loving and sensitive eyes of his aunt, herself an outsider, and that gives it such a wonderful depth of emotion.

[Skye Pratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book of all time. I know that if I were open minded I'd be willing to have a new favorite book of all time, sometime. But no. This is it. Forever.

[Adam Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was turned on to this book because I put Paton's Cry The Beloved country on my top ten novels of all time list on Facebook and someone suggested I read it. Found it at one of my favorite used book stores and snatched it up for a buck or two.
Paton is most famous, I think, for Cry The Beloved Country, which was made into a major motion picture starring James Earl Jones. The simplicity of Paton's use of language sparkles, and the earthy imagery his characters pull out doesn't feel contrived but always poignant and spot-on with analogous meaning.
Cry, The Beloved Country literally makes me cry every few pages, and this book was an excellent read as well, though I only teared up once or twice, it also made me laugh a few times.
A Phalarope is a bird.
I know it's symbolic of something because it's part of the title, but I can't quite put my finger on it, which makes me feel a little stupid. But then, I want to be reading books that push me a little bit, and if that means maybe I feel a bit stupid for missing a major piece of symbolism, oh well. And it could just be a cultural thing.
If you liked Cry the Beloved Country (movie OR book) then read this for sure.

[John Sharrock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book ever. Paton has such profound insight on the topic of justice. I enjoyed this book even more than Cry the Beloved Country!

[Beck Henreckson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paton couldn't write anything but 5 star books huh.
this inspired many complicated feelings. deeply painful and sorrowful and confusing. too much for words or judgements.

[Pascale · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly powerful read. The narrator of the story is the central character's maiden aunt, Sophie, who has always had an affection bordering on illicit love for her tall and charismatic nephew. Lieutenant Pieter van Vlaanderen, a decorated war hero and champion rugby player, is a moral authority in his small town, a fact of which his father Jakob is both proud and resentful. In spite of his manly achievements, Pieter has a softer side to him, which manifests itself in his passion for birds and stamp-collecting. Pieter is married to Nella, a sweet girl whose interest in sex, unfortunately, doesn't match his. This leads to Pieter's downfall. Three times he has sex with a black vagrant, Stephanie. The first 2 times he gets away with it, but the third time a spiteful colleague puts pressure on Stephanie, who is terrified of losing custody of her only child, to inform on the infallible Lieutenant. Back then, any contact between white people and black people was forbidden by the Immorality Act, which a lot of Afrikaners considered as sacred as the Scriptures. Pieter's disgrace is total, with only a few people remaining loyal to him, including his Captain, his mother, his aunt and his best friend, the Jewish shopkeeper Matthew Kaplan. Sophie's account is based both on her recollections and on the diary Pieter started keeping when he understood that the temptation of sleeping with Stephanie would ultimately prove irresistible. Paton describes the starchy, self-righteous society of rural South Africa in biblically inspired prose. Sophie, a troubled soul who blames herself for failing her beloved nephew, is a great narrative voice. This book falls into the category of chronicles of a tragedy foretold. We know from the start that Pieter committed an unspeakable transgression, and we can even guess what it was. Yet Paton manages to build the battle within Pieter's tormented soul into an epic suspense.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diving into this book is taking a trip to South Africa. He puts you there so fast and so effectively with his beautiful writing and thoughtful prose.
I think this book has a bit of weak start. The narrators voice isn't strong and I found myself confused as to whether we were talking about Pieter or his parents. Once I got that straightened out the pages really flew by. Also, when you find out the narrator is his weak, fragile aunt he may have done this perfectly.
Didn't anyone else think Alan Paton was describing a sex addiction? He must have been ahead of his time to do it so well. Pieter didn't love Stephanie he was just using her.

Loved this quote: 70: And laughter heals mankind and makes the darkness light and eases pain and it makes the eyes light up, and the soul throw off its heaviness, and send the blood quicker through the veins, so that it casts out its evil humours.

I find his writing style poetical and profound. If you haven't read, "Cry the Beloved Country" read that first. It made my list of all time favorites and is a book you will never forget.

[Cyr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to call this a 4.5. This has so much a Crime and Punishment feel to it, I'm starting to think of Paton as the English-language Dostoevsky. In fact of those two, I'm not sure I don't prefer Paton. I can live without the long, long rabbit trails the old Russians give you that are basically treatises about some aspect of Russian culture or history. Paton sticks right to the story at hand. And doesn't let his dialogue get out of hand, characters talking interminable silliness for pages; Paton keeps his dialogue spare and lean, and somehow keeps a feeling of spareness in his prose even while giving it a poetry and at times a lushness. But above all, Paton gets you right into the human heart like a Dostoevsky does, depicting broken people realistically and believably, and managing to arouse our compassion for the wretched sinner rather than our scorn. Any book that shifts our way of looking at people in that direction is good and useful, whether they're as deft with language and storytelling as Paton or no.

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent. This is a book that I bought years ago, perhaps as long as a decade ago, and never read until this past fall. What a marvellous book Paton has written. First published in 1955, the story could have taken place anytime during South African apartheid. It is the story of young police lieutenant Pieter van Vlaanderen, whose illegal and suspect relations with the black residents in his district eventually lead to his downfall. His relationship with his father is particularly poignantly drawn, as is the scorn and hatred which Pieter's wife feels for black people. Excellent handling of tricky material and one of the most beautiful books I've ever read.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book I read once in college and don't plan to reread. But I did pick up Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country.

[Sandra Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful

[Patrick Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paton tends to be viewed largely as a political novelist, which is understandable given his role as a founder of the Liberal Party and his role as a witness for the defence at the Rivonia Trial. Paton's politics, although admirable for their time and considered dangerously subversive by the Apartheid government, have come under justifiable critique from post-colonial critics. He is on surer ground when it comes to universal themes of sin and redemption.


To Late the Phalarope' isn't as explicitly political as 'Cry, the Beloved Country'. There is reference to the fact that the father is the leader of the local branch of the National Party, and that he considers his son 'a Smuts man', and of course the central plot point revolves around an offence under the notorious 1927 Immorality Act. But the real themes are universal ones of familial relationship, guilt, and the possibility of forgiveness/ redemption. From a literary perspective, this plays to Paton's strength, although it is disturbing, not to say bizarre, that the morality Immorality Act never seems to be explicitly questioned. The absence of any explicit critique of South African politics in the 1950s can feel strange, but is probably explained by the use of an elderly Afrikaner woman as the narrator. This also leads to a rather more tightly structured novel, lacking the sort of long apostrophes to the reader on the virtues of political liberalism that characterize 'Cry, the Beloved Country'.

As a final note, Paton was Anglophone and Anglican, but in the novel he writes in voice and persona of an Afrikaner Calvinist, complete with odd turns of phrase, which I assume to be calques. Some bits of dialogue are left untranslated, mostly in the case of very common words that I presume would be familiar to all South Africans, but as a foreigner I needed to keep Google Translate open.

[Tasha Chinnock · Rating 3 out of 5]

We'll be discussing this book in my book club on Saturday, so I may have different insight into it after hearing my friends' opinions. It was very hard for me to relate to the characters and culture. Not just the extreme racial segregation but their South African patriotism, their Dutch heritage and their contempt for Europe. It was all so foreign that it was sort of difficult to follow.

It disturbed me that Pieter saw his sin to be a relationship with a black woman rather than his unfaithfulness to his wife, which should have been the real reason for his guilt. Paton never makes a judgement about the racism being wrong, OR Pieter's infidelity being wrong. As a result, the reader who understands that racism should not be a moral issue, is left feeling sympathy for Pieter, when what he did - cheating on his wife - was totally wrong. Still, we know that the consequence of his actions is completely unfair - being written out of his family, sent to prison, his family's complete social ruin. Especially his father's response is so UN Christian that it seems completely incompatible with their devotion to the Bible and Christ.

I have to admit though that there is some beautiful prose. It has a moving rhythm to it.

[Bradford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely devastating. Having just finished Mandela’s autobiography, it was enlightening to read a tale of tragedy from the other side of apartheid. While the story is not an explicit critique of apartheid, the experience of the van Vlaanderen family dives deeply into themes of guilt, justice, love, and forgiveness in an unjust system populated by fallible people.

I also appreciated the cursory but meaningful introduction to Afrikaaner history and culture. While apartheid was a damnable system, the people within it were just as human and relatable as anyone else.

“Yet it comes to me that it is not the judgment of God but that of men which is the stranger to compassion; for the Lord said, go thou and sin no more.”

“It is true of all good men, that life makes them look more gentle in the end.”

“To punish and not to restore, that is the greatest of all offenses.”

“There’s a hard law, mejuffrou, that when a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.”

[Mary Town · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heavy read. Searching for words to describe it, somber is the closest I can come. For, as the narrator says, "he was struck down" and they were all destroyed by the secrets of an ordinary man esteemed as a god and unable to maintain that facade.
There is much to relate to in this story and these characters- small exchanges and struggles, everyday pettiness, admiration and jealousy that all feel far too normal. The description of systemic racial injustice in South Africa is grotesque and difficult to read without cringing (though the reminder feels essential now). Yet that part of the story is merely a single layer of the tragedy in this book. In the end, this is a story about marriage and family, about sin and shame, about consequences, about mercy, about the truth. "Because he would not tell one man, therefore the whole world knew."

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Passage From Book:

I knew a man that counted the days, each day, everyday, tearing them off on the little block that stood on his desk. He was always looking at his watch, and saying it’s one o’clock or it’s four o’clock or it’s nine o’clock, as though it were something for satisfaction. When April went, he would say, April’s gone, and wait for May to go too. I never saw him on New Year’s Day, but I suppose he would have said, the old year’s gone; he was waiting for death, though he didn’t know it, because he was afraid of life, though he didn’t know that either.

I have no recollection of reading this book - but a lot of highlighted material from it. I suppose it must have been good. :)

[Cindy Marsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes us into another world, showing the struggle of one man against his own heart in his own culture, and the far-reaching effects his failure has. We know this from the opening pages, narrated by his elderly aunt, who is a nearly omniscient narrator throughout. We hear the protagonist's voice sometimes, too. But what happens when you're obsessed with the idea of possessing a woman not your own? And you live in Apartheid South Africa mid-twentieth-century? And you are from a deeply religious family with mythically-strong family traditions?

The conflict is strong enough on its own, and in the hands of Alan Paton (*Cry the Beloved Country*) it is especially heartbreakingly beautiful.

[Fergie · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one speaks to the human soul through the use of language like Alan Paton. His exquisite use of prose is as powerful as it is lyrical. While not as emotionally rich as his masterpiece, "Cry, The Beloved Country", this novel is almost as enduring in its scope of human nature. One begins to really feel what it must have been like to be a white South African in a racially-divided world in post WWII almost as much as one can suppose the issues covered in the book are still faced to varying degrees by all South Africans today. Reading Paton is like reading poetry...sublime, touching and beautiful.

[T.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too Late the Phalarope offers a devastating look into human brokenness, confession, and ultimately a failure of redemption. How many of us have secret selves? How many of us struggle to share those selves with others and fail? A painful, and beautiful book, although a bit rambling in style, this is the Paton that people should read just as often as cry the beloved country.

[Erin McIntosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the surface, this is a simple story of forbidden desire. But, the themes stay with you long after: the driving power of lust, and the internal conflict of right vs wrong. It is haunting and tragic and real.

[Linnea R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply one of the best books ever written about human feeling, human struggle, and the need for people to know all of you. I loved this book for what it reminded me about myself and other humans. A masterpiece!

[Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Same beautiful language as in Cry, the Beloved Country, but just such a sad story. Sin, guilt, regret, forgiveness.

[Jaime W · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do not recommend. Slow. Painful.

[Esko Lehtonen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kuin sipuli.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me almost a third of the book to get into the story, I was confused by the characters and their names and what others called them. Then the inevitable fall of the hero came, and the story began to move. A story of infidelity nestled into the time of Apartheid, the tale is ancient and universal with the flaws of men, the choices and consequences of actions and the limits of forgiveness.

[Cori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had to mull this one over for a few days to decide how I really feel about it. It was definitely not as impactful as "Cry, the Beloved Country." But a powerful story on its own. Here's what I liked:

*Paton's writing - I think some people would find it a bit detached and repetitive. It connects with me, though, and makes sense, approaching a senseless societal situation like apartheid with understated emotion. You certainly feel what's being portrayed without it being overly in your face.

*I liked the way he completed the portrait of Pieter, the main character, and his family. It took a long time to get to the climax of the story but when it did, I understood the reactions of his family members because their characters were solid.

*This was an interesting and insightful study of the human mind and emotions, especially as it deals with guilt, love, and passion.

*Kudos to Paton to writing about a sensitive topic without getting sexually graphic.

Here are the things with which I took issue:

*I wanted more about what made this situation (white man having relations with black woman) so terrible under apartheid. Sure, it was mentioned in many ways. But overall I felt this could have been the story of any man having an affair. Pieter's guilt could easily have translated to any man's self-abhorrence and horror at his immoral acts. I guess society's reactions to his crime were supposed to convey the injustice...but I would have felt a lot more impact had it been two single people in love, choosing to have relations despite a law that forbade it.

*The way Pieter was portrayed, it made it sound like his "dark, serious" nature was responsible for his attraction to the woman Stephanie. Again, this could have been any man, attracted to any woman because she is a woman, simply because that's nature. I don't think Pieter's attraction to her was animal or wrong (although his ACTIONS were wrong), but perhaps that's what Paton is trying to get across. Perhaps decent men just didn't cross the line, but Pieter did because of his "broken" childhood.

Overall, not a book I would insist all my friends run out and read, but I'm still glad I read it.