Tajuk : The Promise
Penulis : Damon Galgut
Penerbit : Vintage
Genre : Historical Fiction
The Promise charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria. The Swarts are gathering for Ma's funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for -- not least the failed promise to the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. After years of service, Salome was promised her own house, her own land... yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled.The narrator's eye shifts and blinks: moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams; deliciously lethal in its observation. And as the country moves from old deep divisions to its new so-called fairer society, the lost promise of more than just one family hovers behind the novel's title.In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home. Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest.
Phew… I don’t know how I managed to finish this book. This was so
difficult to read because of the writing styles. Honestly, I skipped some of
the parts of this book because I was struggled with the writing styles. The author decided not to use
punctuation for the character's dialogue, kept switching from one
character to another and it made me so difficult to differentiate if a
character is talking… or thinking. I also need to re-reading and turn previous pages
to figure out what was happening and to whom. The only reason I finished tis
book because I tried to avoid DNF in my list.
The book starts with the death of Ma and a promise between Ma, Pa
and the maid that the maid should have title to the house that the White family
stays. The main of ths book was about Salome, a Black maid in apartheid South Africa
around 1980an, which was Ma made a promise to. This book was supposed to be
about the promise (but they ignored the promise and led to consequences for
each of them) and Salome. But instead, the whole page was about lives and struggles of the
White family she works for. These book also more to death and funeral stories
from each Swarts family members. I was hoping that was interesting to read
about South Africa, but nah.. there did not seem to be.
All the characters in this book are so plain, dull and boring. Personally,
I think the storyline is ok but the writing styles ruined it and should not
exist!
This book wasn’t for me. Sorry for the bad review
here, just 2 stars from me.
