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White Boy Running
In 1987, after a twelve year absence, Chistopher Hope returned to South Africa to report on the run up to that year's whites-only election. The nature of the election campaign and the bitter defeat of the liberals lead him to write this satirical, evocative portrait of what it looked and felt like growing up in a country gripped by an absurd, racist insanity. Full of exquisite and despairing descriptions of the landscape the White Boy is running through, this mordantly witty account of escape, displacement and disillusionment is a modern classic of journalistic memoir. 'beautifully written' - "The Times". 'mocking, angry and beautiful' - "Washington Post". 'exactly the right note of cold, poetic irony' - "Financial Times". 'exquisite and despairing' - "Newsday". 'An exceptional book' - "Los Angeles Times".
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First published January 1, 1988
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About the author
Christopher Hope
62 books12 followersHe studied at universities of Witwatersrand and Natal. He is an author of poems and novels, also published autobiography, biography of Robert Mugabe, dictator of Zimbabwe, and travel book Moscow! Moscow!, which he got prestige PEN Award. Debut novel A Separate Development (1981), satire on apartheid system, forbidden in South Africa, got the David Higham Prize for Fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 19, 2019
Brilliant. I would give it 6 stars if I could. He has nailed it. This is the South Africa I grew up in, down to the smallest details. A tour de force into the madness, futility and tragedy of Apartheid.
December 4, 2017
Anybody who has lived in South Africa would find Christopher Hope's book interesting. It is a mix of personal/family stories and political/social/historical ones.
Having studied history at my Cape Town school in the 1970s, it was fascinating to be reacquainted with many of the stories I learned including the Great Trek and everything that followed as the interior of the country was settled. The burning desire for a place of their own, free of hated English interference, led eventually to the Afrikaner National Party winning the general election in 1948.
The book is not an apology for Afrikaners - far from it. It attempts to tell the story of how the whole mad evil of apartheid came into being.
The book might be a bit too much densely packed information for someone with only a passing interest in South African history.
Written in the 1980s we now know how the story has proceeded. Because of its age, the book is possibly of more interest to people who have lived in South Africa or are particularly interested in its history.
Having studied history at my Cape Town school in the 1970s, it was fascinating to be reacquainted with many of the stories I learned including the Great Trek and everything that followed as the interior of the country was settled. The burning desire for a place of their own, free of hated English interference, led eventually to the Afrikaner National Party winning the general election in 1948.
The book is not an apology for Afrikaners - far from it. It attempts to tell the story of how the whole mad evil of apartheid came into being.
The book might be a bit too much densely packed information for someone with only a passing interest in South African history.
Written in the 1980s we now know how the story has proceeded. Because of its age, the book is possibly of more interest to people who have lived in South Africa or are particularly interested in its history.
December 12, 2019
Very powerful story about what South African racism looks like at ground level. In this case, it's told by a white man -- the most privileged class -- but a man who was an outsider in one important aspect. He was the descendant of Irish immigrants, not of the German-Dutch Afrikaners who dominated the country from the election of 1948 until they lost power in the mid-1990s.
The author is smart enough to not compare his exclusion from some aspects of society with the deep suffering of Africans, Indians and coloreds. But he effectively uses his outsider status to explain how crazy the Afrikaner system was and to show how everyone outside of it knew that it was all based on lies, racism and religion. It's a story that fills you with outrage, especially knowing that although the worst of apartheid was dismantled when Nelson Mandela came to power, the economic inequality has hardly been affected in the 25 years since the end of white rule.
Interestingly, this book was written somewhere in the middle of the decline of apartheid, during the run-up to the elections of 1986 that many people thought would present the first big cracks in the system. At the time, of course, only whites could vote. But there was a groundswell of frustration within the country over economic sanctions and pariah status for South Africa among nations, as well as a recognition that other countries on the continent had moved toward the appropriate system of government by Africans. White liberals were expected to vote against the radical-right Afrikans leaders, and so author Christopher Hope returned to his native country to see what was happening.
He weaves his personal history (and his family's) with the rise of that right wing through his lifetime. And his history is kind of remarkable because he seems to have been everywhere for a little bit of time. You get a sense of how it played out in a rural area, where the author was born; then in a major liberal city, Johannesburg, that was able to ignore much of the restrictions when he was a teen; and then Pretoria, which was the heartbeat of the worst of it, and where his family moved when his mother remarried.
The book isn't quite a conventional history, but it gives enough information that you get a sense of the sweep from 1948, as more and more restrictive rules were put in place. But because it's a memoir, too, the author writes about what he hopes for, as well as what he sees. And so he writes over and over that at some time, inevitably, it will crumble. We know as readers today that it took another decade, and it seems that he suspected as much because he foreshadows the terrible election results of 1986 that was a huge increase in the power of the most reactionary elements. Of course, their success led to the seeds of their destruction, as everyone else in the country realized they had to work harder.
As a final note, because the author is a novelist, not a historian, it's a history told with flair and memorable phrases.
The author is smart enough to not compare his exclusion from some aspects of society with the deep suffering of Africans, Indians and coloreds. But he effectively uses his outsider status to explain how crazy the Afrikaner system was and to show how everyone outside of it knew that it was all based on lies, racism and religion. It's a story that fills you with outrage, especially knowing that although the worst of apartheid was dismantled when Nelson Mandela came to power, the economic inequality has hardly been affected in the 25 years since the end of white rule.
Interestingly, this book was written somewhere in the middle of the decline of apartheid, during the run-up to the elections of 1986 that many people thought would present the first big cracks in the system. At the time, of course, only whites could vote. But there was a groundswell of frustration within the country over economic sanctions and pariah status for South Africa among nations, as well as a recognition that other countries on the continent had moved toward the appropriate system of government by Africans. White liberals were expected to vote against the radical-right Afrikans leaders, and so author Christopher Hope returned to his native country to see what was happening.
He weaves his personal history (and his family's) with the rise of that right wing through his lifetime. And his history is kind of remarkable because he seems to have been everywhere for a little bit of time. You get a sense of how it played out in a rural area, where the author was born; then in a major liberal city, Johannesburg, that was able to ignore much of the restrictions when he was a teen; and then Pretoria, which was the heartbeat of the worst of it, and where his family moved when his mother remarried.
The book isn't quite a conventional history, but it gives enough information that you get a sense of the sweep from 1948, as more and more restrictive rules were put in place. But because it's a memoir, too, the author writes about what he hopes for, as well as what he sees. And so he writes over and over that at some time, inevitably, it will crumble. We know as readers today that it took another decade, and it seems that he suspected as much because he foreshadows the terrible election results of 1986 that was a huge increase in the power of the most reactionary elements. Of course, their success led to the seeds of their destruction, as everyone else in the country realized they had to work harder.
As a final note, because the author is a novelist, not a historian, it's a history told with flair and memorable phrases.
July 14, 2019
I only learnt once I'd started reading that it is quick an old book. Given some other reviews here, not knowing that much about South Africa, maybe I should have started with a somewhat lighter book on SA: at times I struggled to follow the plot or to keep my interest going.
I think I expected a more non-fiction type book, whereas this one clearly had 'fiction ambitions' too, and a language that had higher ambitions that just repeating facts.
I think I had also expected more anecdotes/stories of what happened/how it felt then, and the perspective felt more like an 'in hindsight analysis' than that.
I think I expected a more non-fiction type book, whereas this one clearly had 'fiction ambitions' too, and a language that had higher ambitions that just repeating facts.
I think I had also expected more anecdotes/stories of what happened/how it felt then, and the perspective felt more like an 'in hindsight analysis' than that.
March 24, 2018
Not quite as effective as Brothers Under the Skin. A bit episodic at times I thought, but that's probably down to my going through this in 10/15 minutes here and there. Also, I did feel Hope sometimes hit slightly bum notes in its portrayal of black South Africans, all the cheerful nannies and intense young men. These points did detract from the overall success of the book for me, but on the whole, it's still extremely strong stuff. Not quite despair, but as near as you can get, and bleak, brilliant writing.
July 11, 2018
A brilliant read for those interested in the history of South Africa. I particularly enjoyed his explanation of why some people leave the country: sometimes if you can't change something on a large scale, it may be best to leave, rather than live in despair.
June 20, 2019
Interesting and urgent to read!
November 4, 2019
Fascinating history. Worth a read if you had read the sequel The Café de move-on Blues.
February 16, 2017
After a twelve year absence, Chistopher Hope returns to South Africa to report on the run up to that year's whites-only election. The nature of the election campaign and the bitter defeat of the liberals lead him to write about how it felt like growing up in a country gripped by an racism and madness. A brilliant read.
December 4, 2015
Bitter, funny, and beautifully written.
September 5, 2008
Mostly historical, but good book about the history of South Africa.
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January 18, 2018I have no comment.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews