Cry, The Beloved Country

I just finished a really long book about the fictional land of Westeros, and there are two more to go. As much as want to keep charging forward into George R.R. Martin's series, I had a couple of thoughts. My first thought was: "If I finish the series now, what am I going to read on the 24-hour plane ride to South Africa?". So I decided to save the last two books in the series for the plane ride, which will give me about 2000 pages to read, which should hopefully keep me very busy. My next thought was "Well, what am I going to read now?" Then I remembered an AP English book called Cry, the Beloved Country, by a South African author named Alan Paton. I figured, "Hey, I'm going to South Africa. I need a book to read. What a crazy random happenstance!" So I'm reading the aforementioned book, and today's fact is going to be about Alan Paton.

Alan Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal on January 11, 1903 - a few months after the Boer War ended. His father was a Scottish immigrant and his mother was a third-generation British settler. He majored in physics and mathematics at Natal University College, where he also wrote verse and drama for the student magazine.
In 1934, Paton applied to be and got a job as a supervisor of a black reformatory in Johannesburg called Diepkloof. At that time, Diepkloof housed four hundred boys aged nine to twenty-one. When Paton came to Diepkloof, the boys were unable to use the primitive sanitary systems at night; instead, they were locked in cells of twenty people, with a container of water and a bucket for bodily needs. Despite the fact that there was little in Paton's background to prepare him for the task of running a reformatory, it only took him three years to change Diepkloof into a place where boys could attend and learn a trade. Those who roved themselves trustworthy could take paid employment outside of the reformatory.
When WWII ended, he decided to tour penal institutions in Scandinavia, Britain, Canada, and the United States in order to equip himself better professionally. While visiting Trondheim in Norway, and after visiting the Trondheim Cathedral, Paton wrote what would become the opening to Cry, The Beloved Country. He had scenario for the rest of the novel.
Also at the time, Paton was ruminating on the problems plaguing South Africa;  the decay of tribal culture, the poverty of the reserves, and the flight of the people to already overcrowded urban centers. These would all become themes in his novel. He traced the underlying causes of African crime to the disintegration of of tribal life and traditional family bonds under the impact of Western economy and culture. Paton continued to work on his novel, with such thoughts in mind, while continuing to travel and to visit penal institutions. He finished it on Christmas Eve 1947 (published in 1948) in San Francisco, California.
Alan Paton continued to write essays and novels after C,tBC. His themes continued to focus on race and politics in South Africa. In 1953, Paton founded the Liberal Party of South Africa, which fought against apartheid registration introduced by the National Party. He remained president of the SALP until it was dissolved in 1960 because it violated apartheid laws.
As I read the novel, I will update y'all with facts about the novel or what I learned from the novel. Stay tuned.

Cheetah book time! I loved these books when I was younger. Clare Bell is a great feline sci-fi young-adult author (lots of adjectives, sorry!). Her novel Tomorrow's Sphinx is very good. Publisher's weekly offers a description:
"As a rare black cheetah, Kichebo's color has always created problems. She was only reluctantly accepted by her kin when she was a cub and later, it was almost impossible for her to hunt without the camouflage of a cheetah's usual coloring. What's more, she is singled out for pursuit by humans in helicopters. Her one benefit is a heightened power of mental communication. While all of her species are telepaths, she can go back in time and enter the mind of Asu-Kheknemt, a favorite cheetah of young pharoah Tutankhamen. Although Kheknemt can sometimes share his thoughts with Tut, he is unable to prevent Tut's assassination. Kichebo uses that knowledge of human beings to protect an infant, the survivor of a car crash, whom she has adopted. Bell slowly weaves her exotic subjects into a tantalizing tapestry."

Bell's series called The Named focuses on primitive, cheetah-like, intelligent cats. The first book, Ratha's Creature, chronicles Ratha's discovery and mastery of fire, and her subsequent banishment from her clan. I am a big fan of this series, and suggest it to any cat-loving, sci-fi toting folks out there. 

So if you need a book to read, any of the ones mentioned in this post will serve you well.