Skip to main content

Review: The Enemy Within

Author: Steve Jacobs

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Genre: Fiction/Literature

Year of Publication: 1995

Date Read:16/08/2017

Number of Pages:185

ISBN: 9780435909987

SUMMARY
A black man, brutalised by apartheid, murders his wife. His fate is in the hands of a young Jewish lawyer, Jeremy Spielman. As Jeremy prepares to defend his client, he discovers uncomfortable facts about his own life: the racism of his girlfriend, the injustice of the legal system and his own weakness in the face of his country's enemies.



MY THOUGHTS
The Enemy Within  is one of numerous books, which are part of the African Writers Series (AWS). If you don't know what the African Writers Series is, click here to educate yourself :) This book was really quick and easy to read, yet it carried so much depth in it's pages. This is a quality that all the AWS books I've read all possess and for this reason, I hope to read all the books in the series- all 200+ of them.

 I caught a glimpse of how horrible the apartheid in South Africa was just by reading this book. It honestly amazes me how people can despise a whole class of people simply because of the colour of their skin- It baffles me, honestly. And I guess that was why I disliked Elmarie. I sympathized with her on some occasions, but disliked her for the majority of the book. She is the prime example of what a flawed perception of others can do to a person.
From Jeremy's character, I could somewhat determine the author's views on apartheid and racism.

 I disliked the fact that Jeremy  had to quell his racial views because of Elmarie and I believe that when two people don't share the same views it can jeopardize any relationship, whether romantic or platonic. I hoped that the author would write more on the accussed, Themba, but I guess he intended for Jeremy to have the spotlight.

 I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, especially with all the racial tension rising in the world at the moment. I look forward to reading more books on apartheid, because this book ignited  a desire in me that I need to satisfy . I highly recommend this book. You can purchase it at the bookshop in Terra Kulture or here.

Thank you for reading!
P.S: Check out my favourite quotes page xx


Comments

  1. Unknown15 September 2017 at 23:27

    I love AWS. But I haven't read this one. When I was opportuned to, Ama Ata Aidoo's "Changes" stole my attention.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chiamaka Amonye17 September 2017 at 17:56

      Oh that book is on my wishlist. How was it? It looks great. Maybe we can swap books sometime. Thanks for stopping by Sikemi :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE FULANI CREATION STORY

    Right from the moment Mr.Salami -my social studies teacher in year 8- taught us about religion and what different ethnic groups in Nigeria believe the true creation story is ;according to their norms and traditional orientation. I took a  particular interest in one story , which was The Fulani peoples' story.      I guess my reason was because it was so different from all the other stories. I was captivated by how they incorporated different elements of life ; how it was presented in  poem form ,but it isn't a poem lol. Let me spare you the detail . Here is a brief history of the Fulanis , for those who aren't too familiar with who they are and what part of Nigeria they hail from. Fulani, people of Africa numbering about 7 million and dispersed in varying, often sizable, concentrations throughout the grassland areas of West Africa from Senegal and Guinea to Nigeria , Cameroon, and Chad. Their Fulfulde language is closely relate...
5 comments
Read more

REVIEW: A COWRIE OF HOPE

Author : Binwell Sinyangwe My Rating : 3 Stars Genre : Fiction/ Literature Year Published : 2000 ISBN : 9780435912024 Number of Pages : 152 Date Read : 03/12/2017 SUMMARY 'These were the nineties,' reflects the narrator of A Cowrie of Hope , and for the young widow Nasula they are years of relentless economic hardship and privation. She dreams of a better life for her beautiful daughter, Sula, free from poverty and independent of marriage. But when Nasula finds herself unable to pay for Sula's education, her hopes seem to have been extinguished - until a friend advises her to go to Lusaka and sell her last sack of highly sought-after Mbala beans. Nasula makes the journey, but in the city she finds herself exposed to new, and predatory, dangers. MY THOUGHTS The author's writing style was pretty basic. The plot was kind of predictable, nothing mind-blowing, but pretty decent. I especially loved how the story gave me Joys of Motherhood vibes....
Post a Comment
Read more

REVIEW: BLACKASS

Author : A. Igoni Barrett Genre : Fiction | Satire My Rating : 4.5 Stars Year of Publication : 2015 Number of Pages : 302 SUMMARY Furo Wariboko- born and bred in Lagos - wakes up on the morning of his job interview to discover he has turned into a white man. As he hits the city streets running, still reeling from his new-found condition, Furo is amazed to find the dead ends of his life wondrously open out before him. As a white man in Nigeria, the world is seemingly his oyster - except for one thing: despite his radical transformation, his ass remains robustly black... Funny, fierce, inventive and daringly provocative - this is a very modern satire, with a sting in the tail. MY VERDICT I initially came across this book late last year and the title caught my eye immediately . I in cl ud ed it in the first ever Wishlist on the blog here  . So when i was gifted this book by my friend back in July,  I was super eager to read it . Now...
7 comments
Read more