Laurens Van Der Post

We're not just about Wilbur Smith!

Laurens Van Der Post

Postby bayside » Tue May 10, 2011 9:36 pm

Thirty years ago I started reading Van Der Post's works, starting with "A Story Like the Wind", written in 1972, "Lost World of the Kalahari" (1958), "The Heart of the Hunter", and "A Far Off Place", just to name a few. Mr. Van Der Post's writings all show his intense love and insight into his native country of South Africa. For those of you who have not read his works, you are missing something. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth. I wonder why Wilbur Smith has not? Too much sex in his novels, perhaps?
My wife and I recently took a cruise to the South Pacific on a Holland-American liner, during which I was privileged to share many conversations with an elderly gentleman who had been born in Djakarta, Indonesia. Listening to him tell of how his family had lived there for more than 300 years, and lost everything in the aftermath of independence really brought into focus some of Wilbur Smith's feelings about his family's long tenure in Rhodesia and its subsequent displacement. We here in the United States share a common history with the Dutch Indonesians and the British/Dutch South Africans in that we were all colonialists (As were the Canadians). I cannot imagine millions of Americans being uprooted and their properties being turned over to Native Americans.
bayside
Member
Member
 
Posts: 44
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2011 11:37 am
Location: California Central Coast
Currently Reading: Selects works of Graham Greene

Re: Laurens Van Der Post

Postby johnrogers » Sun May 15, 2011 4:56 pm

Again bayside thanks for the post I am interested in this author as well
Learn to appreciate what you have and quit worrying about what you don't - Remember to think before you speak,people judge you by what you say about others
User avatar
johnrogers
Crazy Canuck
Crazy Canuck
 
Posts: 677
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:17 pm
Location: Comox,BC,Canada - on Vancouver Island
Currently Reading: Raven:Blood Eye giles kristian


Return to Other Authors

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests

cron