Jump

by Nadine Gordimer

In sixteen new stories ranging from the dynamics of family life to the worldwide confusion of human values, Nadine Gordimer gives us access to many lives in places as far apart as suburban London, Mozambique, a mythical island, and South Africa.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Africa, South Africa, Nobel Prize, African Literature, Literature

272 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 1991

About the author

Nadine Gordimer was a South African writer, political activist, and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was recognized as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".

Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. Under that regime, works such as Burger's Daughter and July's People were banned. She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned. She was also active in HIV/AIDS causes.

Reviews

[Dolors · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gordimer’s probing into the complexities of the human psyche and her mastery of combining the allegoric device with the realistic narrative is undisputable. The themes that her stories treat loom larger than the multifarious characters that project the writer’s political disquisitions as means to convey the way collective conscience is forced to coexist, to ignore or to get revenge on the history of crippled a country, always from a perspective that focuses on the futility of the character’s thoughts, beliefs or actions.
In spite of the moral intelligence that Gordimer’s work dispels with sensuous elegance and without endorsing a specific ideology, her characters seem incapable of overcoming the doom-laden, ominous and rarified atmosphere of the African post-Apartheid system, and so they give an impression of stiffness, almost a lack of personality, a superficiality that conjures the artifice, the theatrical, and juxtaposes it with the tragedy that ravages their lives. Good will or compassion are presented as self-deceiving attitudes and the satirical, sometimes even gory vein the characters of all races and genders adopt in Gordimer’s tales don’t prepare the reader for the somber plot twists of her stories. There is no space for grace, no light at the end of the tunnel. Only disconsolation and a great sense of insurmountable injustice.

White colonizers that try to restore dignity to native people but can’t get rid of the terror about the prospect of more civil wars, genocide or permanent abuse; the moderate success of a small African middle class that mistakes the fight for human rights for terrorism and a frail democracy that hasn’t mended the insurmountable breach of a society split in two appear as the recurrent motives in the narrations, which sometimes add the menacing presence of the African wildlife as means to draw more visual, almost voyeuristic, metaphor for the cruel streak inherent in the human condition.

Many of the literary traits I encountered in Gormider’s stories remind me of Coetzee’s writing style. A similar self-accusatory undertone drenches their fictional chronicles, the same bleakness in regards to the convoluted history on the making of modern Africa and the banality of well-meant individual efforts haunt and obliterate their characters, but, whereas Gordimer’s pungent language lapidates all hope, all light, all faith in the goodness of people, leaving the reader in a parched desert drained of future, sacrificing words for the sake of delivering a message, Coetzee’s more artistic innuendo challenges the aberration of massive barbarity with the almost inaudible anthem of his prose, of sentences that quiver and flicker and shudder because of the injustices they describe but also because they nurture a muted faith in mankind, in the wondrous, inexplicable and absurd beauty of life. That sense of wonder, that mysterious, poetic limbo is what I mostly missed in Gordimer's staccato, pungent style, which pierced me but didn't draw blood.

My favorite stories in this collection:
“Once Upon a Time”
“A Find”
“Some Are Born to Sweet Delight”
“What were you dreaming”

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall just an OK collection for me, not quite my thing.

[Sidharth Vardhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extra half star since in this collection I rediscovred 'The Ultimate Safari' - a story I read in my school text book and that was sort of favorite, but back than I didn't know anything about author.

If I was to rate all stories individually, they will come more 4 stars, a few are brilliant five star stuff but as a collection, they are week and so are best read every once in a while. Almost all are about racism and African political movement. Often the theme is interaction or relationship between people of different sections of community - between a colored and white people, between a revolutionary and a white woman, between a every-woman and a terrorist (race and religion both unspecified) and so on. The way authors brings about the dynamics of communication between people is brilliant. Often it is about people met in chance encounters - a woman meeting a fellow passenger, once the author is imagining story of her fellow passengers and twice it is a white woman giving lifts to colored people. I wonder whether Gordimer wrote a few of them from personal experience.

Another theme is how revolution and racism are affecting lives of people - and she is not only talking about colored people there. 'A Children's story', most powerful story IMO, is about how racism of White people can cut both ways. It is a good thing she doesn't write children's stories more often.

[dianne b. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“When your stomach is full you don’t smell blood.”

So many of her stories speak to how we can live such propinquity and yet lead completely divergent lives; holding different values, morals, and most clearly here - conclusions and assumptions about ourselves and each other.
South Africa made this law, but people made it real of their own volition. These stories speak to this: within marriages, workplaces, neighborhoods, families.

South Africa is unrivaled in its sweeping physical beauty, dance and music (Vusi!). It is a place so rich with life; I remember the hippo that blocked our driveway one morning, and the green mamba snake (eating a gecko) who greeted us in KwaZulu Natal, the sunbirds, the hilarious monkeys who destroyed my laundry.

But also I think, it is a country unrivaled in its ability to break my heart. How many ways this could have gone differently - for the majority black population whose economic lives have worsened in the last 30 years, and for the remaining bits of wild nature still alive - the birds, the South Atlantic Right Whales, the cheetahs. They have all been the victims of outrageous theft.

My favorite story was Keeping Fit. A deft piece of writing that whipped me back and forth, as well as the protagonist, and left him with - well, maybe - an entirely new view on the value of life, not just human life.

Another was Amnesty, the last story in the book. A freedom fighter is released from The Island (Robben Island) and finally returns to his waiting mother, wife and daughter (who does not remember him). He is distant, but kind, Very Busy and Important. They are tenant farmers, hardscrabble, barely surviving, day-to-day.
He arrives with great fanfare and attention. It's quite lovely for a minute.
He is angry, amongst other inequities, that his mother and wife have to work the 'Boer’s land'.
He soon leaves, staying long enough to impregnate her again. He’s important, you see and has things to do in this changing country (he really does). Her life - of course returns to pre-release rhythms. Her thoughts:

“It’s the Boer’s farm but that’s not true, it belongs to nobody. The cattle don’t know that anyone says he owns it, the sheep - they are grey stones, and then they become a thick grey snake moving - don’t know. Our huts and the old mulberry tree and the little brown mat of earth that my mother dug over yesterday, way down there, and way over there the clump of trees round the chimneys and the shiny thing that is the TV mast of the farmhouse --they are nothing, on the back of this earth. It could twitch them away like a dog does a fly.”

“The child remembered the photo: she said That’s not him. I’m sitting here where I came often when he was on the Island. I came to get away from the others, to wait by myself.
I'm watching the rat, it's losing itself, its shape, eating the sky, and I’m waiting.”

This is a brilliant book, published in 1991; apartheid still in place but beginning to crack. The stories are wide ranging and from many viewpoints. If you’re interested in South Africa, or planning a trip, this is highly recommended.

[Shankar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book by Nadine Gordimer. Her stories are timeless- in the sense of how the characters situations described can continue to happen to anyone irrespective of the age they lived in. Her descriptions of the backgrounds and the themes around the individuals are exceptionally well done. And so casually introduced.

I kept getting reminded of Raymond Carver - but it would be an injustice to both if this was indeed a comparison. I however refer to the way the stories flow.

Her stories have wonderful endings and darkness baked in but do not take away from the ease of capturing the moment.

Can easily understand why she was indeed Nobel Prize awardee.

I look forward to reading more of her works.

[Deea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coetzee, Naipaul, Lessing and even Maugham wrote in their books about apartheid. They don't focus though only on that (maybe only Naipaul does, but I have only read one book by him), but they also insist on other themes. Gordimer writes about this theme in this book and she does it really well. Composed of short stories, it has as main theme the apartheid: the policy of segregation of non-white population in Africa. This is actually the main reason why I kept putting it off every time I would start a new book: I was thoroughly convinced that these stories will be so charged with politics that I will not enjoy the read. I was so wrong!

Although all the stories are mainly about that, they are written in such a creative and original way that they conquer your attention from the first lines even if politics doesn't interest you much. This is my first contact with Gordimer's manner of writing and I must confess that I am impressed: she writes in such a way that it's a total delight to read the stories not only for the subjects she chose, but also for the way she constructed phrases, for the way she created very plastic images and ideas. As any collection of stories, this one contains very good stories and also stories that are less good/likable. I however am so amazed with the way she manages to express her ideas and with the way she chooses her words and structures to construct all her stories that I will not only rate this book with five stars, but I will also make sure to read pretty soon other works written by her.

A few words about the stories I liked most: "Once Upon a Time", "The Ultimate Safari", "Some Are Born to Sweet Delight", "The Moment Before the Gun Went Off", "A Journey", "Safe Houses" - all these are amazing. The way she constructs these stories is really nice and the way she makes a point lets you dumbfounded. There's a lot of expressiveness in her style, a strength of sketching in a very imaginative way how the systems and practices separate people according to race and caste in Africa. I was only slightly conscious about what is happening out there from the books I have read before (all works of literature) and from the movies I've seen, but never was I as conscious as I am now, after reading this book, of all the brutality and lack of civilized practices going on there. I won't narrate the stories, I feel that by making short summaries for these above I wouldn't ever be able to do justice to the power that they emanate in the readers' minds and imagination.

A big bravooo for Gordimer, this is an amazing book!

[Mehjabeen Choity · Rating 4 out of 5]

ঈদের ছুটিতে নানুবাসায় বেড়াতে গিয়ে যখন মুখের উপর পিডিএফ ধরে রাখতে পারছিলাম না, তখনই বইয়ের তাকে এই বইটা পেয়ে গেলাম। নদিন গর্ডিমারের নাম আগে শুনিনি, আফ্রিকান যুদ্ধ নিয়ে লেখেন দেখে পড়তে আগ্রহী হলাম।
লেখক হতাশ করেননি।
প্রথম গল্প "ঝাঁপ"- এ যুদ্ধের নৃশংস বর্ণনার সাথে প্রথম পরিচয় ঘটে, এর পরের গল্পগুলোতে যুদ্ধের বা দাঙার সরাসরি বর্ণনা না থাকলে ও আছে কৃষ্ণাঙ্গদের দু:খ দুর্দশা পাশ কাটিয়ে বাঁচতে চাওয়া শ্বেতাঙ্গদের করুণ পরিণতির গল্প, শরনার্থী শিশুর আগামীর স্বপ্নের গল্প।
এই বইটা পড়তে গিয়ে একটা জিনিস বুঝতে পারলাম, যুদ্ধের স্বরূপ সব দেশেই এক। একাত্তরের বাংলাদেশ আর যুদ্ধবিধস্ত আফ্রিকার মাঝের পার্থক্য কম।

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nadine Gordimer has the gift of capturing people in characters, black or white, from all classes from the rulers down to the refugees and prisoners. Her short stories capture moments of human interaction, amid political turmoil and a decaying Apartheid system in South Africa and Mozambique.

'The Ultimate Safari' tells the story of child refugees from the Mozambique Civil War (1975-1992), from an unnamed daughter whose parents were both taken and probably killed. She flees with her two brothers and her grandparents, through the Kruger national park to South Africa, her grandfather leaving the pedestrian convoy to die alone in the national park, rather than slow them down. Gordimer has written a modern 'Grapes of Wrath' in a short story, from a child's point of view.

Absolutely deserving of the Nobel Prize for Literature, when it was written in 1991.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this collection, Nadine Gordimer has her sights set squarely on South Africa, her home and her goldmine for stories, set in the last days of Apartheid and in the first days of the new regime when positions are confused, politics nascent and insurrectionary, and when human inequality continues unabated.

These are internal stories, often taking place in the minds of the narrators, many of whom do not have names, for names are not needed, their voices are more important, and Gordimer captures the voices of her country with dexterity and darkness: the white housewife living in her enclave unaware of the changing politics of the land, unaware of the stranger she invites into her home and into her bed; the white hunter sent to an island off the coast of South Africa to kill feral cats, a job he is well prepared for, having killed big game and humans at home; the black village child fleeing persecution from her own people; poor kids from the township exposed to the opulence of a white person’s house; a black village wife’s attempt to visit her jailed activist husband on Robben Island; the coloured hitch hiker exaggerating his stories to achieve his selfish ends with gullible whites and tourists.

The angle of entry into each story is oblique; a phrase here, a word there conveys a world of meaning: “Linnaues, his countryman” tells us a character is Swedish; the horror of what is going to happen to a white mother imprisoned by the secret police of the post-Apartheid regime is shown in the anxious behaviour of her daughter, who is free; the degree of integration and inseparability between black and white, despite their historical apartness or Apartheid, is revealed only in the last line of the story “The Moment the Gun Went Off.”

The stories do not recommend solutions to the country’s ills for there can be no solutions to an inhuman legacy from a system that lasted for over two generations; only the evolution over another two generations can provide some hope that the worm will turn. The stories are therefore inconclusive snapshots of situations taking place across a spectrum of South African society over the recent past. In “Spoils,” the typical goings-on in a hedonistic private game reserve are revealed; the relationship that the black guide shares with the lion is not understood by the white guests - i.e. “share, don’t kill.” In “What Were You Dreaming,” we are introduced to the fact that young black girls (and boys) have their front teeth extracted so that they can “service” their male clients better. In “Keeping Fit,” a white jogger strays across the road into a black township and enters a barbaric world that has always existed on his doorstep. The stories “Father Leaves Home” and “Once Upon a Time” are autobiographical; the former told in fragmentary memory, the latter is like a children’s bed-time story, horrific though it is.

I have always preferred Gordimer’s short stories to her novels. Her acuity, brevity, and cold-blooded delivery are evident in the short story. Having visited post-Apartheid South Africa, these stories had particular resonance to me. I highly recommend this book.

[Julia Landgraf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como coleções de contos costumam ser: alguns muito interessantes e eu queria viver no mundo deles por mais tempo, outros passam batido. De qualquer forma, no total é uma obra que eu com certeza recomendaria, me transportou a alguns lugares inusitados que gostei muito de imaginar. É o tipo de contos que te fazem sentir coisas e te tiram um pouco da dualidade com a qual costumamos nos posicionar perante a vida.

[Ikra Amesta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dalam cerita-cerita pendek Nadine Gordimer ini yang pertama harus dipastikan adalah warna kulit si tokoh utama. Setelah itu pastikan juga warna kulit tokoh-tokoh pendampingnya, bahkan si narator juga, atau bila perlu kucing-kucingnya juga, apakah mereka si Kulit Hitam atau si Kulit Putih. Baru kemudian kita menentukan warna kulit kita sendiri, termasuk di golongan yang mana dan berpihak kepada siapa, dan rasakan sendiri efeknya bermain sudut pandang.

Seperti yang saya rasakan ketika “memilih” menjadi si Kulit Putih saat membaca kisah detik-detik mengungsi melewati hutan sarangnya singa-singa lapar (“Safari Paripurna”), atau kisah seorang imigran yang diam-diam ditaksir anak gadis si induk semang berkat keanonimannya ─ tanpa identitas, tanpa negara, tanpa kekuatan politik (“Beberapa Orang Terlahir Bahagia”), atau nikmatnya berhubungan tanpa status dengan orang acak yang ditemui di bis setelah bebas dari pengasingan pemerintah (“Rumah Perlindungan”).

Tidak kalah asyik juga saat menjadi si Kulit Hitam dan membaca kisah tentang keluarga kelas menengah yang sibuk memasang sistem keamanan rumah dari para gembel yang berkeliaran di komplek perumahan (“Pada Suatu Ketika”), atau kisah sial dikeroyok orang-orang kampung saat jogging pagi-pagi (“Berolahraga”), atau menikmati rasa bersalah kaum elit yang tak sengaja menembak pembantunya sebelum mulai berburu (“Momen Sebelum Senapan Meletus”).

Inilah Afrika Selatan (atau inilah Afrika), tempatnya Kulit Hitam dan Putih berbaur dalam kekontrasan. Buku Nadine memberikan kesempatan yang luas untuk menikmati kekontrasan tersebut dan saya melakukannya dengan memilih sisi sebaliknya dari identitas fokus cerita. Reaksi yang datang kemudian adalah hal-hal semacam empati, superioritas, alienasi, yang terpotret secara ambigu lewat kamera kolonialisme. Dan saya adalah turis, Nadine memandu dengan serius, nyaris tanpa dialog atau deskripsi bertele-tele, jalan yang ditempuh adalah yang paling aman namun belokan-belokannya terkadang buas. Tak ada terang dan gelap, baik dan jahat, semua itu dilemparkan langsung ke muka pembaca. Persis seperti si turis dalam “Apa yang Kau Mimpikan?” yang bertanya kenapa pria Kulit Hitam yang menumpang di mobilnya tidak mengenakan sandal, dan apakah ceritanya tentang keluarganya yang tergusur cuma karangan, saya pun diliputi keterpesonaan yang sama pada kekhasan lanskap sosial Afrika, yang herannya selalu direcoki peradaban Barat maupun Timur.

Ini memang sebuah safari yang mengesankan. Nadine tidak memberi aba-aba kapan kisahnya berhenti namun ketika kisahnya berhenti ia justru meninggalkannya di tempat yang tepat buat mengulanginya lagi. Dan sebagai seorang guide, di akhir tur agaknya ia hendak menegaskan bahwa omong kosong semua manusia itu sama, Kulit Hitam dan Putih adalah pembeda yang tidak mungkin disamarkan, kedua ras itu saling bertolak belakang, masalah baru timbul ketika ada orang yang mengangkat perbedaan tersebut sebagai dasar kebijakan politik. Artinya, dengan kata lain, perbedaan itu indah sedangkan politik itu busuk!

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nadine Gordimer, a South African writer of Jewish origins, in these stories writes primarily about the impact of apartheid, and about terrorism and violence. Unfortunately, I found these stories lacked depth and nuance. In "The Ultimate Safari" she writes from a young black girl's perspective, as she and her family walk across a huge game reserve in the hope of finding relief from famine: but though the story is supposed to point out white tourist's utter lack of understanding of what is going on in the unnamed African country, this story feels like misery porn. The girl and her family aren't given characterisation, but their pain is described in gratuitous detail, and I felt like a voyeur rather than a witness. "Some Are Born to Sweet Delight" describes a young English girl who falls in love with a foreign man (presumably Muslim, but from an unnamed country) and is manipulated by him into plating a bomb on an aeroplane. Do we really need a story where a brown man is depicted as a corrupting villain? I don't think so. In other stories, like "The Moment Before the Gun Went Off", I'm just baffled by what point Gordimer is making: in this story, a white man accidentally kills a Black worker on his farm -- he's sorry to have done so: I want to give Gordimer the benefit of the doubt and assume she's saying something beyond "not all white people are terrible" but I honestly don't know what it is. These stories are at best a mess; and at worst offensive.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[belisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

zorlayıcı ve yaratıcı öyküler...

"Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş", "Kimi Güzelliklere Doğar", "Tüfek Patlamadan Önce", "Bir Yolculuk" ve "Formunu Korumak" özellikle güzeldi...

[Madalena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that was depressing!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

really sharp short stories - enjoyed this more than her novel I read

[Olivia Conway · Rating 3 out of 5]

the focus of this collection was interesting and worth reading more about, but the stories just weren’t for me

[Arina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book needs a trigger warning for mentions of rape , violence , and other heavy topics. After getting over the initial shock I liked the stories very much. I like the way how brutally honest they are.

[David Mccarrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book of short stories was engaging and thoughtful. I had read some of these stories before, but many were new. I always enjoy stories about South Africa and this did not disappoint. Character development is hard to do in short stories, but she manages to flesh out interesting characters. The only reason why this gets a four is the ending of "Some are Born to Sweet Delight".

[Grandpa Jud · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given that Nadine Gordimer is a Nobel Prize winner in literature (whether for this book I am not sure), my 2-stars is a pretty low rating. These short stories provide glimpses of life in South Africa as seen from multiple points of view. In the aggregate, South Africa is portrayed as a land of hardship and struggle, with class warfare among the blacks, the colored, and the whites - the underprivileged classes struggling to free themselves from the yoke of oppression of the whites.

I found the stories hard to read. We are routinely introduced into the middle of a character's life with no name or context being given. Events or places are described in significant detail as we struggle to understand what is going on or why any of what we are being told matters. Very frequently, there is some previously withheld disclosure at the very end of a story - a disclosure which drives home a point or makes sense of what we have been reading - except that if it doesn't (and for me it sometimes didn't) then we think we may have missed the point of the story.

Amidst the struggles and hardship are acts of kindness and sacrifice. These are stories of real human beings - but it seems to me their stories could be told more clearly.

[Anushka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read the book for the IB diploma English Literature, I kinda found this nice. I mean this is definitely not the type of book I'd have read by myself.

Nadine Gordimer is an amazingly good author. I mean to put in so much meaning in between the lines is remarkably awesome! Hats off for that. Still, I think I'm not really ready to face up the reality of the true world - I'm better off in my paranormal and YA world, I guess. But here and there, such books hit you. Hard. I'm glad I read it. Some of my favourite stories are (Well, favourite is a wrong word) - Once Upon A Time, The Ultimate Safari, Some are Born To Sweet Delight

This is definitely a must-read for all the people who love to read in-between the lines - this is the best book you can probably get. it's one of those reads that make you realise what true world is all about - the hardships, the deaths and whatnot. After this, I'd probably read a few more later in my life. :)

P.S.: I can't believe I've chosen The Ultimate Safari for my Internal Oral Presentation (IOP). And it was pretty good. I like The Ultimate Safari a lot I guess due to many reasons apart from its less complex nature.

[Bess · Rating 5 out of 5]

A favorite author, influential to the development of my thinking about international affairs and social justice when I was in high school and college, yet I can't remember the names of the books I read!

"Some are born to sweet delight" was the first story I ever read by Gordimer, and it shook me to my core. 11th grade English, end of the day, classroom lights out and reading quietly with sunshine and bees floating in the open window on a summer breeze ... and I was stunned, horrified with the story ending. I was hooked. Many hours were lost sitting on the floor of the the college library stacks as I would read her short stores and novels between researching the science topics I had come there for in the first place.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous writing.

[sadie! · Rating 1 out of 5]

i’m so sorry but some are born to sweet delight should never have been written

[Brian Dahmen · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was terribly depressing. I'm not going to finish it. I read the first three short stories and could hardly distinguish them. The writing style was at times intriguing, but at other times It was more like I imagine "The Diary of Anne Frank" reads, though admittedly, I never read that book either. The stories are all gloomy tales of apartheid South Africa, but not about the sun or the animals, mostly about colonialist oppression. I'd rather read Nelson Mandela than these stories. The author is a White woman. Writing these little acts of penance may have been an important part of her own therapy, but didn't need to be also published. I hope she donated all the proceeds to help poor blacks in her home country, otherwise its adding insult to injury.

Sadly, It made me think of the stack of books I brought home a few years ago from a wonderful bookstore, Von's, in West Lafayette, Indiana, where my sister lives. Since high school, I always look for books by JMG Le Clezio that have been translated into English. Oh how I loved his novels from the 60's and early 70's. So fresh, so full of life. When I found a stack of his books I had never read, all side by side on the shelf in this Indiana bookstore I bought the whole lot of them, hook line and sinker. It turns out in the 80's LeClezio had some bad bout of White Man's Guilt, and knowing he had a broad international readership, and that his books would be purchased and read no matter what he wrote, he decided that would be HIS penance, his volunteer work, his righteous contribution. And he stopped writing books that were full of joy, and instead wrote one dreary tale of rape and poverty after another. Several miserable books, told only from the point of view of orphans, slaves, derelicts, but mostly from those subject to tyrannical colonial rule by the French. Did I mention he's a White Frenchman? I dutifully read them, out of childhood allegiance, but I owe this "Nadine Gordimer" nothing, so I'm putting "Jump" down.

[Alisha Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

For my English class, I had to read a compilation of these short stories. These stories frequently startled me by deviating from my expectations, and by including not-expected plot twists. The depressing state of society is reflected in the dismal tone of many of the stories. It offers an intriguing insight into how many ethnicities and cultures interact in South Africa. These accounts gave me insight into a culture I didn't fully understand and into the situation of South Africa. "Once Upon a Time" is one of my favorite stories in this collection. This whole story was fascinating to read, and I really enjoyed it. Gordimer's juxtaposing point of view makes it appear almost as though we live in a dystopian future where everyone is striving to hide from one another and defend their families from a terrible foe. In my perspective, this incident is especially helpful in portraying how deeply racial inequality infiltrated society in South Africa. Overall, I highly recommend this collection of short stories to anyone that is interested in learning more about topics dealing with racism and society as a whole.

[Scout · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed these short stories within “Jump and Other Stories.” For a summer reading assignment, it was not too bad. With mentioning summer reading, I feel like I have to say I would have enjoyed this a bit more if I did not have to do it for summer reading. I liked the abrupt ending of these short stories. They fit the story that Gordimer had set up. She kept it consistent. With another collection of short stories I had to read for another class, the endings were abrupt in the worst way. They didn’t match with the rest of the story and left me feeling unsatisfied. With Gordimer, I felt satisfied with these endings. The topics she covers are intense and deep, and the abrupt endings, sometimes twist-endings, are a great addition to them. The shock-factor some of these short stories left me with are feelings I have never had with short stories before, like in the short stories “Once Upon a Time” and “Some are Born to Sweet Delight.”

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific collection of short stories, none of which are made to make you feel comfortable. There is a distance Gordimer maintains between the characters’ psychologies and motivations and the reader, and this is just as well. As “What were you dreaming”’s white South African matron says, Complicity is understanding. If understanding is complicity then maybe the reader would rather not empathise with Gordimer’s characters.

The exception is The Ultimate Safari, a sarcastic look at holidays for foreigners in territory those - now famine-striken - who have lived in Africa before it was divided into countries and national parks have to cross to survive. Their welcome is dependent on other dispossessed tribes who recognise ancient alliances and relationships. Here the humanity of those who really are innocent resounds, while across the other stories innocence cannot be achieved, not as a political prisoner, or a bystander, or a foreigner.

[Kenny Kidd · Rating 4 out of 5]

TL:DR, a college course on Nobel Prize winning literature had this on its syllabus; I did not take this course, but the syllabus had some mighty intriguing reads on it, including this! I read many selections from that syllabus while in college, and now I’ve finally picked this up and read it :)

Nadine Gordimer is a unique writer—it’s hard to explain exactly what constitutes her style, but these stories all share an interest in African political intrigue, deep psychological probing of their characters, and a sort of indirect, atmospheric style that at times is difficult for me to engage with, but is always evocative and builds a hazy, almost dreamlike and anxious tone to most of these stories.

Almost all of these stories REALLY landed for me, with the most hard-hitting being “Some Are Born to Sweet Delight.”

[Rajul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that existed in South Africa from the late 1940s to early 1990s.

Jump and Other Stories was published in 1991, when apartheid was on decline but the wounds still fresh.

The stories are harsh, horrific, barbarous and in your face. The one where the white people have added extra security measures to keep the black people out (out of fear and insecurity) and how they get trapped in their own cages (won't go into details) will stay with me for a long long time (It was more tragic than The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) Holocaust was one of the terrible things that humans did to their own species, but some things are even more horrific than holocaust.

Read only and only if you have a strong heart. I do not so I just wanted to throw away this book as far as possible.