Hime Street – My Violent Haven by Irene Fynn (Durban, 2024)
This short 90-page testimony packs more references to violence, death and social derangement than the average 280-page crime horror written by Karen Slaughter or Lynda La Plante. As such, it is a tribute to Irene Fynn’s determination to survive and to succeed under circumstances which saw two of her brothers imprisoned and three die from
Book Review: Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Published in March 1852, it sold 300,000 copies in the US in its first year and 1 million copies in Britain. It was translated in Polish, Hungarian and Russian. By 1861 sales had reached 4,5 million. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was banned by most of the Southern states which subjected Harriet to vicious abuse. They claimed
Red scarf girl: a memoir of the Cultural Revolution, Ji-Li Jiang
An insight into the life of a Chinese girl in Shanghai, Ji-Li Jiang, during the years 1966-1967 of the so-called Cultural Revolution when she was between 12 and 14 years of age. She belonged to a tightly-knit family, was devoted to her Grandmother and her parents. They stayed in an upmarket apartment compared to most
Life of Frederick Douglass
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, 1845 This 76-page account is astonishing in terms of its eloquence considering that Douglass as a slave had no schooling at all and became literate by his own efforts. Its contents, however, reveal the lives of slaves in the American South which is appalling
Franklin D Roosveldt
Franklin D Roosevelt: a political life, by Robert Dallek, (Penguin, UK, 2017) In April 1945, when FDR’s body was conveyed by train from Warm Springs, Georgia, to the White House where it lay in state, thousands of people stood along the railway tracks and crowded stations to catch a glimpse of the funeral train. There
A Memory From Soviet Russia
Living a Delusion by Olga Morozova, (Oshun Books, Cape Town, 2004) Olga’s perspective as an ordinary citizen of the Soviet Union demolishes impressions held by some that despite the dark side of communist rule, the lot of the masses was improved. Certainly, literacy was vastly improved but, as with every aspect of communism, there was a
Richard Nixon
The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New york, 1978) Memoirs often tend to be hagiographies. Richard Nixon’s Memoirs do not fall into that category. His 1,090-page account of his life up until his final day in the White House is a compelling read and a necessary counter to the malevolent and vitriolic campaign against his character
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