January Sun: One Day, Three Lives, a South African Town

by Richard Stengel

Reports the lives of three individuals--a white Afrikaner, a black activist and a middle-class Indian merchant--as they intersect in the South African town of Brits on a single day

Genres: South Africa, Africa

202 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1990

About the author

Richard Stengel is the former editor of TIME. He collaborated with Nelson Mandela on his bestselling 1993 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and later served as coproducer of the 1996 Oscar-nominated documentary Mandela. He is also the author of January Sun: One Day, Three Lives, a South African Town. Stengel is married to Mary Pfaff and they have two sons.

Reviews

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that I began and put on the back burner because of the fact that it is very slow moving. I contemplated abandoning the book, and I would suspect that anyone who is not a South African might do the same. However, the author does bring into stark focus the issues of race and social standing in South Africa during the apartheid era. After reading half of the book in July 2011, I put it down and did not pick it up again until April 20th, 2012. It gives a somewhat unique insight into the lives of three South Africans: a white Afrikaner, an Indian and a coloured (mixed race) person. The book languishes in detail so trivial that it is difficult to maintain interest. In a country where so much happened amongst the races he could have made the narrative more readable.