Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin (Non-Classics) (1983), Paperback, 160 pages
Description
Athol Fugard is renowned for his relentless explorations of personal and political survival in apartheid South Africa -- which include his now classic playsMaster Harold and the Boys andThe Blood Knot. Fugard has written a single novel,Tsotsi, which director Gavin Hood has made into a feature film that is South Africa's official entry for the 2006 Academy Awards. Set amid the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto, where survival is the primary objective,Tsotsi traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader. When we meet Tsotsi, he is a man without a name (tsotsi is Afrikaans for "hoodlum") who has repressed his past and now exists only to stage and execute vicious crimes. When he inadvertently kidnaps a baby, Tsotsi is confronted with memories of his own painful childhood, and this angry young man begins to rediscover his own humanity, dignity, and capacity to love.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member herschelian
As far as I know this is the only novel written by the great South African playwright Athol Fugard. "Tsotsi" means gangster in the South African vernacular, and that is the name and life of the central character of the book. Sophiatown, in which the book is set, is one of the oldest black satellite
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townships that ring Johannesburg, and was for years, a vibrant, wild, lawless community thrown together because of the race laws. This is an illuminating book, but also a strange one, and I felt it was very like a play with extended cast notes and stage directions. It would make a good play, or in the right hands, an even better film. Show Less
LibraryThing member normaleistiko
Loved the actor. Engrossing film. Performers so natural. Language South African with English subtitles
LibraryThing member HenkEllermann
Tsotsi is a gang leader in Sophiatown, one of the more depressing townships in South-Africa. He doesn't know his past, he seems to have no conscience. He kills and rapes like a machine. One day, when he is about to rape a young woman, she manages to force a shoe box onto him, containing a baby.
This book will never leave you as you were.
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That baby changes his life, he takes care of it as well as he can (which is not well at all), it brings back memories of his own past, brings back a conscience. No matter how rude the society, there will always be hope, is what fugard seems to say. Then, near the end, Fugard, surprises you in the most macabre way possible.This book will never leave you as you were.
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LibraryThing member FicusFan
This was a book that I read for a RL book group, although I had already purchased it for myself.
It is set in South Africa during apartheid in a township outside Johannesburg. The township, Sophiatown, was destroyed in the 50s, to make way for the white city to expand. The townships are the only
The buildings are flimsy shacks made of odds and ends and the roads aren't paved. There is a communal water standpipe that blocks and blocks of people have to share. The only people who should be living there are those who work in the white city and have a pass. If they don't have a pass they are supposed to be go to black homelands, that have even less of the necessities of life.
Periodically the police conduct pass raids and pull people out of their beds, not even letting them get their pass to prove they belong. Mothers are torn from children, and old people are given no slack. Demolition gangs also come in and start destroying shacks, even if they are inhabited, the people with no place to live are carted off.
In this setting the POV character lives. He is a young man, early 20s and he is a criminal. A tough, vicious, thug who preys on those who try to eke out a poor life in the township. These young men are called Tsotsi as a group. Because the POV was a street child he has no past, no parents and no memories -- not even his name. He takes Tsotsi as his name.
He runs with 3 others like him. But one is a time-bomb that will soon shake Tsotsi's life. Boston is not just a thug, but a thinker, and a formerly decent man with a conscious. He infects Tsotsi with questions about his past, and his cruel actions currently.
Tsotsi ends up with a baby when the woman he is trying to rape, shoves a shoe box at him and runs off. Tsotsi has begun to change because he keeps the baby and tries to care for it. It triggers his memories of life before the streets. He makes further changes by breaking with his gang.
The end is quite devastating.
The writing is very simple and it works so well for the characters who are not educated, and who grapple with just trying to live and survive.
There are terrible heartbreaking scenes of the struggles the decent characters have, that show their humanity and dignity. Their world is comprised of simple pleasures: food, shelter, safety, love of family, a moment of peace.
The thugs are shown lazing, drinking, and abusing women while they wait for dark and plan their next job. Their lives are empty regardless of the money and free time they have.
Through it all are the oppressive laws and police that try to force the blacks into the shape the whites want, while denying them the basic status of humans.
Tsotsi's memories show the direct impact of the whites in their lives and of how people are broken and families destroyed all for the crime of being black.
It is set in South Africa during apartheid in a township outside Johannesburg. The township, Sophiatown, was destroyed in the 50s, to make way for the white city to expand. The townships are the only
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place near the city where blacks can live. The buildings are flimsy shacks made of odds and ends and the roads aren't paved. There is a communal water standpipe that blocks and blocks of people have to share. The only people who should be living there are those who work in the white city and have a pass. If they don't have a pass they are supposed to be go to black homelands, that have even less of the necessities of life.
Periodically the police conduct pass raids and pull people out of their beds, not even letting them get their pass to prove they belong. Mothers are torn from children, and old people are given no slack. Demolition gangs also come in and start destroying shacks, even if they are inhabited, the people with no place to live are carted off.
In this setting the POV character lives. He is a young man, early 20s and he is a criminal. A tough, vicious, thug who preys on those who try to eke out a poor life in the township. These young men are called Tsotsi as a group. Because the POV was a street child he has no past, no parents and no memories -- not even his name. He takes Tsotsi as his name.
He runs with 3 others like him. But one is a time-bomb that will soon shake Tsotsi's life. Boston is not just a thug, but a thinker, and a formerly decent man with a conscious. He infects Tsotsi with questions about his past, and his cruel actions currently.
Tsotsi ends up with a baby when the woman he is trying to rape, shoves a shoe box at him and runs off. Tsotsi has begun to change because he keeps the baby and tries to care for it. It triggers his memories of life before the streets. He makes further changes by breaking with his gang.
The end is quite devastating.
The writing is very simple and it works so well for the characters who are not educated, and who grapple with just trying to live and survive.
There are terrible heartbreaking scenes of the struggles the decent characters have, that show their humanity and dignity. Their world is comprised of simple pleasures: food, shelter, safety, love of family, a moment of peace.
The thugs are shown lazing, drinking, and abusing women while they wait for dark and plan their next job. Their lives are empty regardless of the money and free time they have.
Through it all are the oppressive laws and police that try to force the blacks into the shape the whites want, while denying them the basic status of humans.
Tsotsi's memories show the direct impact of the whites in their lives and of how people are broken and families destroyed all for the crime of being black.
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LibraryThing member thelittlereader
i picked this up in the airport because i accidentally left my book at home. unfortunately, i already owned every other book in the store that i was remotely interested in reading, so i was stuck with this one. lucky for me, it turned out to be pretty good. its about a boy, or maybe a man (you
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never really find out), that is the leader of a small local gang. he has no recollection of his past, where he came from, what his name is, how old he is. an infant is dropped into his arms, abandoned and alone, and he somehow finds memory of his childhood in the baby. its a great story of youth and individual transformation. however, if graphic violence bothers you, this book has a few moments that are american psycho-ish.apparently, this one has also been made into a movie and has won tons of awards in the film circle as a more independent syle film (not mainstream i guess). i'll have to see if i can find it. Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
This book covers 6 days in the life of a young gang leader in the township of Soweto. He is brutal and regularly commits vicious and senseless crimes. When he inadvertently kidnaps a baby during the course of committing a crime, he begins to remember his own childhood, and, almost against his will,
This book so convincingly conveyed the life of a street child growing up in a hopeless environment, subsisting on a life of crime, living the hardships of the slums of Soweto, that I was amazed to learn that South African writer Athol Fugard is white.
The book was made into a highly-regarded movie (which was the impetus for my reading this book), which I also highly recommend.
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begins to care for the baby.This book so convincingly conveyed the life of a street child growing up in a hopeless environment, subsisting on a life of crime, living the hardships of the slums of Soweto, that I was amazed to learn that South African writer Athol Fugard is white.
The book was made into a highly-regarded movie (which was the impetus for my reading this book), which I also highly recommend.
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Awards
The Big Jubilee Read (1980 — 1972-1981)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1980
Physical description
160 p.; 7.64 inches
ISBN
0140062726 / 9780140062724