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In the Fog of the Seasons' End
This is the story of those people who daily risked their lives in the underground movement against apartheid. This novel is purposely low key. This was what happened every day. This was the grind of political organization. This was the day-to-day work of dedicated people. Only at moments of crisis where their dying bodies flashed up on the television screens.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
15 people are currently reading
441 people want to read
About the author
Alex la Guma
32 books26 followersAlex la Guma was a South African novelist, leader of the South African Coloured People's Organisation (SACPO) and a defendant in the Treason Trial, whose works helped characterise the movement against the apartheid era in South Africa. La Guma's vivid style, distinctive dialogue, and realistic, sympathetic portrayal of oppressed groups have made him one of the most notable South African writers of the 20th century. La Guma was awarded the 1969 Lotus Prize for Literature.
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October 21, 2017dnf. Page 114.
This YoOL 2017 one of my reading trajectories is the works pub'd in the African Writers Series (I'm doing the same with Virago). This is designed as a total crap shoot. Let's say :: at a minimum it was a strategy for full=on irresponsible book purchasing. Every orange aWs spine was mine (so long as a) it weren't no duplicate and b) weren't too mark'd up and highlight'd and c) was mor-less under three bucks). Yellow hello ; into my stack, into my basket ; let the nice lady total up the $$$=cost.
So I've collected these. And really, well aware that the criteria for inclusion within the AWS was by no means fully aligned with my own literary criteria and preferences and predispositions and bias's and values and things of this nature. Grab blindly into the box (mor=less) and see what's there. Because in the normal run of things, I read according to my spidey=senses which are pretty spot on in the usual course of things ; so, right, one could say I'm running a little experiment by turning off my spidey=senses, laying down my sup(p)erPOWers and seeing what it's like to be an average Joe or Jill picking up spines reading backcovers frontcovers blurbs names titles flicking the pages like a fan seeing if any cool shit falls out or if there's pictures in there.
And so, no, I'm not going all balls to the walls demanding each and every xyz be mind blowing and earth shattering and totally moving the form of the novel forward and really reaching into the depths of human experience and the soaring to the heights of utter artistic achievement. I'm just reading shit folks wrote while living in a different part of the world, writing under circumstances more or less different from those in which I read about stuff that is more or less different and the same from that which I undergo. I can relate here and there and I can understand the stuff I don't relate to. It's not a problem ; it's all the same politics.
And of course there's just some crap stuff one runs across in the crap shoot. Or at a minimum, stuff that doesn't interest one in the least. Like this one. Despite the protag being this communist organizing in S.A. it reads as little more than what I'd imagine a socialist realist or a hardboiled book would read. It's just really kind of artless and there are a lot of words providing a lot of information that isn't really information we need. Not like non-fiction information so much as fictional information. A lot of words I didn't need. Flat.
Which is fine. Not every novel need soar so high. But neither do I need to read and/or finish reading every novel. I did however enjoy another of La Guma's books :: Time Of The Butcherbird.
This YoOL 2017 one of my reading trajectories is the works pub'd in the African Writers Series (I'm doing the same with Virago). This is designed as a total crap shoot. Let's say :: at a minimum it was a strategy for full=on irresponsible book purchasing. Every orange aWs spine was mine (so long as a) it weren't no duplicate and b) weren't too mark'd up and highlight'd and c) was mor-less under three bucks). Yellow hello ; into my stack, into my basket ; let the nice lady total up the $$$=cost.
So I've collected these. And really, well aware that the criteria for inclusion within the AWS was by no means fully aligned with my own literary criteria and preferences and predispositions and bias's and values and things of this nature. Grab blindly into the box (mor=less) and see what's there. Because in the normal run of things, I read according to my spidey=senses which are pretty spot on in the usual course of things ; so, right, one could say I'm running a little experiment by turning off my spidey=senses, laying down my sup(p)erPOWers and seeing what it's like to be an average Joe or Jill picking up spines reading backcovers frontcovers blurbs names titles flicking the pages like a fan seeing if any cool shit falls out or if there's pictures in there.
And so, no, I'm not going all balls to the walls demanding each and every xyz be mind blowing and earth shattering and totally moving the form of the novel forward and really reaching into the depths of human experience and the soaring to the heights of utter artistic achievement. I'm just reading shit folks wrote while living in a different part of the world, writing under circumstances more or less different from those in which I read about stuff that is more or less different and the same from that which I undergo. I can relate here and there and I can understand the stuff I don't relate to. It's not a problem ; it's all the same politics.
And of course there's just some crap stuff one runs across in the crap shoot. Or at a minimum, stuff that doesn't interest one in the least. Like this one. Despite the protag being this communist organizing in S.A. it reads as little more than what I'd imagine a socialist realist or a hardboiled book would read. It's just really kind of artless and there are a lot of words providing a lot of information that isn't really information we need. Not like non-fiction information so much as fictional information. A lot of words I didn't need. Flat.
Which is fine. Not every novel need soar so high. But neither do I need to read and/or finish reading every novel. I did however enjoy another of La Guma's books :: Time Of The Butcherbird.
January 3, 2016
This is a powerful voice of what it was like to live in South Africa under the apartheid system. Not as imagined by sincerely opposed whites but by a non-white, someone who was therefore subjected to it.
It isn't easy reading if you are caring person, who is susceptible to human emotions, pain and empathy for all. The brutality of the life in SA, before the current and astonishingly peaceful transition, is portrayed in agonizing detail. The writer didn't know and therefore the book doesn't, but the question today's reader must ask is: what is still to be rectified in a land that is now politically free but remains locked in economic fetters?
There are wonderful metaphors and similies but La Guma isn't looking to be the most beautiful of writers. What he does is no doubt what he wanted and that was to craft a clear and honest picture of the society he was writing about.
It isn't easy reading if you are caring person, who is susceptible to human emotions, pain and empathy for all. The brutality of the life in SA, before the current and astonishingly peaceful transition, is portrayed in agonizing detail. The writer didn't know and therefore the book doesn't, but the question today's reader must ask is: what is still to be rectified in a land that is now politically free but remains locked in economic fetters?
There are wonderful metaphors and similies but La Guma isn't looking to be the most beautiful of writers. What he does is no doubt what he wanted and that was to craft a clear and honest picture of the society he was writing about.
December 1, 2009
In his essay, Ndebele is arguing against literature within Drum Magazine and La Guma'a story moving to "revealing the spectacular ugliness of the South African situation in all its forms" (44). When addressing La Guma's example, Ndebele is ultimately concerned that there is no subtlety in his work because it is "spectacular[ly:] demonstrat[ed:]" where "thinking is secondary to seeing" (46). Ndebele clearly favors thinking over simply seeing, and this seems to serve as the basis for his general argument.
While I'm not an authority to comment for all of South African literature, I don't believe applying Ndebele's argument is apt for La Guma's In the Fog of the Seasons' End. The reason the novel works so well is that La Guma managed to weave together "the spectacular ugliness" with a well-crafted plot and character development. I don't know if anybody else thought of this when reading the novel, but when I was reading In the Fog of the Seasons' End I kept on comparing it in my head to Modisane's Blame Me On History. Granted one is an autobiography and the other is fiction (based on truth), Modisane is far more direct when explaining the dehumanizing effects of apartheid in South Africa. In contrast, I got this same general theme from La Guma's but its more sandwiched in between non-race issues, such as a mother looking for a park bench with her child. With La Guma, the effects of racism and segeration come naturally in the course of the novel, through the characters' dialogue for example. It's not so overt as in Blame Me On History, and I admire La Guma for that. There are some really beautiful descriptions which have nothing to do with apartheid: "The blue evening fell like a curtain over the last act of the day" (61). That's a nice line. Of course, La Guma's overall theme is the same as Modisane, and I don't think it's overtly obsessed with horrible violence. The novel starts with an intense descriptions of torture, but then quickly moves away from that. However, Ndebele's argument would apply to literature that only contains violence and is not balanced out by the techniques of what makes a good story. While there's nothing wrong with having violence in writing, it's all about knowing how and when to use it effectively for the writer's purpose.
While I'm not an authority to comment for all of South African literature, I don't believe applying Ndebele's argument is apt for La Guma's In the Fog of the Seasons' End. The reason the novel works so well is that La Guma managed to weave together "the spectacular ugliness" with a well-crafted plot and character development. I don't know if anybody else thought of this when reading the novel, but when I was reading In the Fog of the Seasons' End I kept on comparing it in my head to Modisane's Blame Me On History. Granted one is an autobiography and the other is fiction (based on truth), Modisane is far more direct when explaining the dehumanizing effects of apartheid in South Africa. In contrast, I got this same general theme from La Guma's but its more sandwiched in between non-race issues, such as a mother looking for a park bench with her child. With La Guma, the effects of racism and segeration come naturally in the course of the novel, through the characters' dialogue for example. It's not so overt as in Blame Me On History, and I admire La Guma for that. There are some really beautiful descriptions which have nothing to do with apartheid: "The blue evening fell like a curtain over the last act of the day" (61). That's a nice line. Of course, La Guma's overall theme is the same as Modisane, and I don't think it's overtly obsessed with horrible violence. The novel starts with an intense descriptions of torture, but then quickly moves away from that. However, Ndebele's argument would apply to literature that only contains violence and is not balanced out by the techniques of what makes a good story. While there's nothing wrong with having violence in writing, it's all about knowing how and when to use it effectively for the writer's purpose.
May 8, 2009
A very intense and emotionally draining book. Like the cover blurb states it looks at South Africa through the day to day experiences of the people fighting against apartheid. This is not a what-if theory book but a first person account of the hardships and injustices. Written in 1966 published in 1972.
November 10, 2021
Бейкс - один з останніх борців за свободу африканців, якого не схопила влада африканерів. Він змушений жити у підпіллі, що кілька днів змінювати місце проживання, перебиваючись по конспіративних квартирах у прихильних до визвольного руху громадян, розносити ночами листівки із закликом до опору і раз-по-раз озиратися, шукаючи очима поліцію у цивільному. Вельми детально описано побут підпілля і передано напругу, з якою доводиться миритися його членам.
October 4, 2015
In the wake of the death of Nelson Mandela, it seemed an appropriate time to read La Guma’s book, In the Fog of a Seasons’ End which I bought from the Africa Book Club a little while ago. It is one of the Heinemann African Writers Series, and while the book paints a bleak and almost hopeless picture of the struggle against apartheid when the regime was at the height of its power, it is also a vivid depiction of the heroism of activists who refused to submit to it.
Alex La Guma (1925-1985) was a distinguished South African author who was also one of the leading figures in the struggle against apartheid. According to the brief bio in the front of the book, he joined the Communist Party as a young man, and was active in the movement until it was banned in 1950. In 1956 he was among those who drew up the Freedom Charter and was one of the 156 accused in the notorious Treason Trials. He wrote for a progressive newspaper called New Age, and was under house arrest by 1962. But before his sentence had elapsed the authorities passed the No Trial Act and La Guma and his wife were placed in solitary confinement. Shortly after their release, they fled to Britain in 1967 but ended up in Cuba until his death in 1985.
This brief outline of his life gives moral authority to every word of this short novel. It’s only 180-odd pages long, but it’s a powerful work, the more so because it is undramatic. The sombre prose brings to life the courage and tenacity of men like Nelson Mandela and his supporters who struggled so long against an implacable and immoral regime.
The novel begins with the capture, imprisonment and torture of an unnamed man. The reader doesn’t find out who this man is until towards the end of the book, which adds to the tension because even when one knows the likely outcome, one can’t help but wish for it to be different.
There are two main characters, Elias and Beukes. Beukes, whose task it is to distribute handbills about a forthcoming strike, reminded me in some ways of the couple in Hans Fellada’s Alone in Berlin who distributed postcards around Berlin to alert people to the evil of the regime. Beukes risked the same appalling penalty if caught, and was also engaged in a seemingly hopeless task. The difference in La Guma’s novel is that while few can be trusted because of fear of reprisals, Beukes works as part of a clandestine network and he has the silent support of the Black Majority behind him. The other difference is that the struggle in South Africa went on for decades. This meant that there was a constant struggle not to give in to apathy or despair.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/12/24/in...
Alex La Guma (1925-1985) was a distinguished South African author who was also one of the leading figures in the struggle against apartheid. According to the brief bio in the front of the book, he joined the Communist Party as a young man, and was active in the movement until it was banned in 1950. In 1956 he was among those who drew up the Freedom Charter and was one of the 156 accused in the notorious Treason Trials. He wrote for a progressive newspaper called New Age, and was under house arrest by 1962. But before his sentence had elapsed the authorities passed the No Trial Act and La Guma and his wife were placed in solitary confinement. Shortly after their release, they fled to Britain in 1967 but ended up in Cuba until his death in 1985.
This brief outline of his life gives moral authority to every word of this short novel. It’s only 180-odd pages long, but it’s a powerful work, the more so because it is undramatic. The sombre prose brings to life the courage and tenacity of men like Nelson Mandela and his supporters who struggled so long against an implacable and immoral regime.
The novel begins with the capture, imprisonment and torture of an unnamed man. The reader doesn’t find out who this man is until towards the end of the book, which adds to the tension because even when one knows the likely outcome, one can’t help but wish for it to be different.
There are two main characters, Elias and Beukes. Beukes, whose task it is to distribute handbills about a forthcoming strike, reminded me in some ways of the couple in Hans Fellada’s Alone in Berlin who distributed postcards around Berlin to alert people to the evil of the regime. Beukes risked the same appalling penalty if caught, and was also engaged in a seemingly hopeless task. The difference in La Guma’s novel is that while few can be trusted because of fear of reprisals, Beukes works as part of a clandestine network and he has the silent support of the Black Majority behind him. The other difference is that the struggle in South Africa went on for decades. This meant that there was a constant struggle not to give in to apathy or despair.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/12/24/in...
September 17, 2019
Ennek a könyvnek az is lehetett volna a címe, hogy A mozgalmár egy napja. La Guma az apartheid-rendszer felkeményedésének idején kíséri el hősét Johannesburg utcáin, miközben az a fehér kormány aláaknázásán dolgozik, mellesleg pedig rövid portrékat mellékel mindazokról, akik a rendszer áldozatai – akár tisztában vannak e ténnyel, akár nem. A szöveg hangulata folyamatosan ingadozik az összeesküvői munka tárgyszerű (helyenként naturalista) ábrázolása, valamint a fehér uralom bűneinek didaktikus taglalása között, a mozgalmárkodást olyan állapotként mutatva be, amiben sajátos módon elegyedik a lebukástól és a kínzásoktól való elemi félelem, valamit az olyan apró-cseprő hétköznapi gondok, hogy akkor most kinél aludjunk, és kit küldjünk el az illegális nyomtatványokért. Megrázó és tanulságos (akár jövendő mozgalmároknak is), de ezen jellemzőket korlátok közé szorítja a tény, hogy a benne szereplő fehérek sosem tudnak komplexebbek lenni, mint Hófehérke gonosz mostohája*. El tudom persze képzelni, hogy ez a koncepció része: olyan Dél-Afrika-kép megalkotása, ahol a fehérek kvázi idegenek, igazi űrlények, akik valamiért mégis azt hiszik, hogy övék a csehó – ám nem éreztem benne a tudatosságot. Aminél fogva folyton az járt a fejemben, hogy: „Te jó ég, Graham Greene mekkora sztorit tudott volna írni ebből az egészből!” Ami nyilván nem jó jel.
* Illetőleg akad e regényben egy szimpatizáns orvos, aki marha jó fej, de róla nem tudtam eldönteni, melyik etnikai csoporthoz tartozik. Külső jellemzői között a „kis sárga ember” nem igazított el e tekintetben. Valahogy nem tűnt kínainak.
* Illetőleg akad e regényben egy szimpatizáns orvos, aki marha jó fej, de róla nem tudtam eldönteni, melyik etnikai csoporthoz tartozik. Külső jellemzői között a „kis sárga ember” nem igazított el e tekintetben. Valahogy nem tűnt kínainak.
December 23, 2024
La Guma’s powerful novel describes the underground political organization in South Africa fighting against the apartheid system. It portrays the everyday challenges, injustices, and the brutal consequences faced by those arrested by the police.
September 4, 2019
Absolutely loved it !
August 14, 2022
Page turner. Superb writing, could really visualize it. Heavy. Really boils the blood...which reading about the disenfranchised should do if you have any sense of justice.
November 7, 2023
I feel like I have a better understanding of apartheid and what it was like to fight against apartheid after reading this book in some ways.
May 23, 2024
A heartbreaking but beautifully written story that shows the brutality of apartheid and brings awareness to the racial discrimination and injustice in South Africa during this time.
October 5, 2024
quite interesting, uni read
December 19, 2019
Brutal and not without its flaws, yet rewarding till the very end.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews