117 Days: An Account of Confinement and Interrogation Under the South African 90-Day Detention Law

An unforgettable account of defiance against political terror by one of South Africa's pioneering anti-apartheid activists An invaluable testimonial of the excesses of the apartheid system, 117 Days presents the harrowing chronicle of journalist Ruth First's isolation and abuse at the hands of South African interrogators after her arrest in 1963. Upon her arrest, she was detained in solitary confinement under South Africa's notorious ninety-day detention law. This is the story of the war of nerves that ensued between First and her Special Branch captors-a work that remains a classic portrait of oppression and the dignity of the human spirit. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.… (more)

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LibraryThing member Tinwara

A hard one to judge.
Ruth First was an anti-Apartheid activist. She dedicated her life to this struggle and was killed because of it, in 1982, by a parcel bomb that she received while living in exile in Mozambique. So sadly, she didn't live to see the day that ended Apartheid.
This book is an

account of 117 days she spent in jail, without charges made against her. The imprisonment was meant to make her talk, give information about other ANC activists. In this book she gives insight in her mental struggle to keep up her good spirits and to keep her mouth shut. It's a rather unemotional account, analytic almost. It's hard for me to say if that is because she was that kind of person, or because - when this book was published - the anti-Apartheid struggle was still in full swing, and she still had to keep information from her former interrogators.

The difficulty in judging this book is in separating the book and its author. The author was a heroine, however, the book is not suberb. It's an important historical account, it gives insight into the cruelties of the Apartheid system. But at the same time, it is strangely cool and distant. And in retrospect, her story doesn't stand out next to those of people like Steve Biko and NElson Mandela.

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