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The Conservationist | 
 enlarge | Author: Nadine Gordimer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £1.20
You Save: £6.79 (85%)
New (41) Used (9) from £1.20
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 5868
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0747578249
EAN: 9780747578246
ASIN: 0747578249
Publication Date: November 21, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Customer Reviews:
 This is writing at its best. September 21, 2008
Xaves (Leicester, UK)
Form and style are matched to content in this expertly crafted novel by Gordimer. 'The Conservationist' was my introduction to Gordimer's writing and I wasn't disappointed. Her Modernist style, with its rapid shifts of narrative viewpoints, stream of consciousness and insertion of flashbacks is exactly suited to the tragedy that is Mehring's life and times - capturing his increasing ennui, uncertainty and his inability to fit. It's not difficult to understand why they gave her the Nobel.
 Disappointing September 7, 2008
BookWorm (UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Despite having won the Booker Prize, and Gordimer herself being a Nobel literature laureate, I found 'The Conservationist' rather disappointing. It's not terrible, but it's unexciting and often quite hard work to read. It does improve as it goes along and you become more familiar with the style, but it was one of those books I had to make a conscious effort to pick up and read.
The story is set in South Africa during the seventies, and focuses on a rich white businessman who owns a farm as a weekend hobby. Other characters are the farm workers, the local shopkeepers, and the son of the businessman. I found it hard to get to know or really empathise with any of the characters. The prose from Mehring's point of view frequently refers to his former mistress, a liberal humanist, and his arguments with her. There are some interesting points in there but I found the intrusion of flashbacks into the past and sudden changes into second person narration irritating and confusing.
This is a story that may have more resonance for those who lived in or visited South Africa during the seventies. For those who haven't, this book doesn't bring the setting or era alive enough to draw the reader in.
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