(publ. W. H. Allen & Co.)
An Instant in the Wind (Afrikaans: 'n Oomblik in die Wind) is a 1975 novel by André Brink which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Set in 1751, the novel focuses on the relationship of a white woman and a black slave. Kirkus Reviews describes the novel as beginning with conflict, but quickly descending into "sensual, cerebral dialogues on love and personhood."
Because Brinks's 1973 novel Looking on Darkness was banned by the Apartheid government, the novel was initially published privately for subscribers only.
Critical reception
Reviewing the novel in 1976, Kirkus Reviews described the novel as a success, writing that "Even Poitier and Jane Fonda couldn't carry off these explorations , although some readers will relish the torrid zones." The New York Times reviewer Raymond A. Sokolov described the novel as an indicator of the "cracks appearing in the South African wall of racism." Sokolov emphasizes how the novel is more about " political acts of defiance", writing that the novel is a "overwritten hackneyed love story that drags on and on through long passages of tedious landscape descriptions and stilted romantic interchanges."
References
- ^ "André Brink, novelist - obituary". The Telegraph (UK). 10 February 2015.
- ^ "AN INSTANT IN THE WIND by Andre Brink". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
- ^ Sokolov, Raymond A. (27 February 1977). "Review". The New York Times Books. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
Further reading
- Wenzel, Marita (August 2001). "Reading the ideological subtext in André Brink's An Instant in the Wind and Patrick White's A Fringe of Leaves". Literator. 22 (2): 61–75. ISSN 0258-2279.
- Cho, Peggy C (31 December 2011). "André Brink's An Instant in the Wind: A Post-colonial Revision of the Captivity Myth" (PDF). 영미문화 제. 11 (3). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 April 2016.
| Works by André Brink | |
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