The Glass Barrier

by Joy Packer

Growing up together in close intimacy, exchanging hopes and confidences, then discovering that there is a barrier between them, transparent but impermeable...that is the situation between the young people in this book. The situation occurs everywhere, but here there are special tensions, because this is a book about young South Africans.

This story has in it all the light and shadow of the African scene it shows us the South Africans, white, coloured and black, as they see themselves. Lady Packer, who attended personally throughout the inquiry into the Langa riots (fully and dramatically reported in this book) has written an absorbing novel; it is her richest and most striking book.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Joy Petersen was born and educated in Cape Town, graduating as a journalist from the University of Cape Town. She worked initially as a free-lance journalist, in 1931 becoming a reporter for London's Daily Express. After this she spent time on radio in Hong Kong as well as a stint writing for British publications in the Balkans. World War II saw her as a broadcaster to South Africa for the BBC, then later working in the Ministry of Information in Egypt, as at Allied Headquarters in Italy. Her travelling was tied up with her marriage to a British admiral, Sir Herbert Packer. When her husband was knighted in the 1950 Honours list Mrs. Joy Packer automatically became known as "Lady Packer", a courtesy title.

Her first works of note were three volumes of memoirs published from 1945 to 1953 dealing with her travels throughout the world during the period before, during and just after World War II with her husband. Places visited included Britain, the Mediterranean, the Balkans and China. In the early 1950s she went on a substantial tour of Africa, which is included in her later published final three volumes of memoirs.

In the 1950s, she also began publishing novels, starting with Valley of the Vines in 1955, which sold more than 600 000 copies in English, and was translated into at least nine European languages. Although her novels principal themes were romantic, several sources state them as also important for their sociopolitical commentary of South Africa at the time. Her second novel, Nor the Moon by Night was made into a British film of the same name. In America, it was released as Elephant Gun.

Reviews

[Dorcas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really dislike love triangles.

Having read "Nor The Moon By Night" and loving it, I was hoping this one would also be suspenseful, and although there are some tense moments with the South African apartheid "emergency" of the 1960s, primarily this was a novel about two cousins in love with the same man.

'The Glass Barrier' refers to a subject so fragile, so charged with feelings that one must never cross it. In this case, the two girl's love for Simon.

Joy Packer can write, it's the subject that just doesn't click with me. In some ways this novel is a cross between Robert Standish's "Storm Centre", and Dorothy Evelyn Smith's "Proud Citadel". I don't know if that means anything to you, but it really struck me as I was reading.

It's a good character study but I was a little disappointed with it. The characters reflect the 1960s cavalier view of morality, and while accurate, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I couldn't root for them.

Content:
No sex shown to reader but characters are clearly promiscuous. Abortion is mentioned as an option at one point.

Violence: Again, not shown to reader but there are riots and people are hurt.

Profanity: Not really an issue. Very mild

[Pippa Catterall · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a child I was always intrigued by the Phoenix design on the cover of this book but it has taken me until now, too late to discuss it with my mother, to read it. It was written in 1961 against the immediate backdrop of those tumultuous years in South Africa. Packer brings a journalist’s eye to events ranging from the war years in Italy and their aftermath to the 1960 Langa riots on the outskirts of Cape Town. Although there is a love story that threads through this book this is much more than a romantic novel. Sidelights on all kinds of facets, from totemic beliefs and punishment practices to the bedsit life of 1950s London enliven finely observed passages. Yet the narrative thrust is about barriers: to women; to the peoples of Africa as the wind of change blew through the continent; between black and white and Anglo and Afrikaner; between families, friends and lovers - not least because of the divisions imposed by apartheid. The rationales of that system are explained and gently critiqued with considerable skill here. And, if this is a love story then in the end it is about what does the love of freedom (that ubiquitous yet elusive concept) actually mean for any of the characters in the story, or indeed for any of us. The notion that something has to die to be born again from the ashes applies not only to the phoenix that recurs as a motif throughout the book but also to the South Africa then transitioning from Union to Republic only, thirty years later, to be born again. Nations, like people or characters in books, are constantly renewing.

[Cathygillespie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve loved this book ever since I first read it in the 1960s and it was great to reread it whilst recovering from a broken leg. It was great to reacquaint myself with the characters dealing with the changes in South Africa and the reforms necessary to integrate all the different communities despite all this prejudices and customs. It’s a wonderful story too all about the four young people involved and their lives and loves and the intensity with which they carry these out. Not an easy read but I think it has great depth and shows South Africa during a fascinating period in its development.

[Katherine Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the early 1960s, this novel centres on the intense relationships between three cousins. The characters are well drawn and believable and you get drawn into the complex web of relationships. The glass barrier referred to in the title is the divisions that separated different cultures in South Africa at the time - black, white and Coloured. Packer sketches a realistic portrait of a country wracked by political uncertainty at the time, but still achingly beautiful. The ending was a bit strange and in some ways disappointing, but the strength of the protagonist Maxie and the hope that she embodies made up for it.