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The Word For Love
De Luxe
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1968
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January 19, 2020
I bought the Companion Book Club version of this book in 1968 as a monthly choice. I must have read it then, yet cannot recall it from memory. It has sat on my To Read Again bookshelf the years between then and now. I went to the shelf in response to an urge to read a yester-year author and am delighted with my choice. Written as contemporary fiction in 1968, during the last days of Southern Rhodesia as a British colony and immensely readable today. Action and adventure with a literary tinge. Full review when I have finished.
Now finished!
‘The Word For Love’ by Alan Burgess is as fresh today as when it was written and first published in the late 1960’s. Sadly out of print, and deserving of reissue, since good writing is timeless.
A well-researched book set in the uncertain days of post-colonial Rhodesia with the winds of change blowing against white racial superiority. The author cleverly draws the distinction between the more racially tolerant state of Rhodesia and its southern apartheid afflicted neighbour in the Union of South Africa.
The tale is a four-cornered love story involving Bill Field, a forty year-old inspector in the British South African Police Force, passed over for promotion to higher rank, locked in a loveless marriage and finds love in the arms of delectable Boer farmer’s daughter twenty years his junior. Divorce involved court hearings and carried stigma in the times of the story. The illicit lovers decide to sacrifice their love for propriety and in a moment of perverse lunacy Bill seduces an African servant girl. They are seen together by a peeping-tom ZIPP party activist and the troubles for Bill Field begin- bigtime. Rape carried the death penalty in post-colonial Rhodesia.
I loved the descriptions of the Rhodesian countryside and the depth of the characterisations. Words have been chosen to convey a precise sentiment, scene or emotion, one can almost smell the dampness of the veld at sunrise.
The climax is a courtroom scene deserving of Rumpole at the Bailey. Wonderful writing.
This is an excellent book that moved me considerably and I give it five stars without hesitation.
Now finished!
‘The Word For Love’ by Alan Burgess is as fresh today as when it was written and first published in the late 1960’s. Sadly out of print, and deserving of reissue, since good writing is timeless.
A well-researched book set in the uncertain days of post-colonial Rhodesia with the winds of change blowing against white racial superiority. The author cleverly draws the distinction between the more racially tolerant state of Rhodesia and its southern apartheid afflicted neighbour in the Union of South Africa.
The tale is a four-cornered love story involving Bill Field, a forty year-old inspector in the British South African Police Force, passed over for promotion to higher rank, locked in a loveless marriage and finds love in the arms of delectable Boer farmer’s daughter twenty years his junior. Divorce involved court hearings and carried stigma in the times of the story. The illicit lovers decide to sacrifice their love for propriety and in a moment of perverse lunacy Bill seduces an African servant girl. They are seen together by a peeping-tom ZIPP party activist and the troubles for Bill Field begin- bigtime. Rape carried the death penalty in post-colonial Rhodesia.
I loved the descriptions of the Rhodesian countryside and the depth of the characterisations. Words have been chosen to convey a precise sentiment, scene or emotion, one can almost smell the dampness of the veld at sunrise.
The climax is a courtroom scene deserving of Rumpole at the Bailey. Wonderful writing.
This is an excellent book that moved me considerably and I give it five stars without hesitation.
Displaying 1 of 1 review