The Power of One
Bryce Courtenay, year
Random House
544 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345410054
Summary
Based on Bryce's own childhood experiences in South Africa this is his debut novel celebrating the power of one individual to profoundly change a life.
In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a white South African boy is born. When his mother suffers a breakdown, the boy is taken to his grandfather's farm where he is raised by his beloved Zulu nanny, Mary Mandoma.
Eventually the youngster is sent to an Afrikaans boarding school. As the only English-speaking student, he is bullied and beaten by an older student known as The Judge. It is there he is given the name"Pisskop," a derogatory term used by Afrikaaners during the Boer War. Later he adopts the name P.K.—or Peekay—the name he calls himself throughout the book
Despite the hardships, Peekay manages to become a gifted student, musician, and boxer. His precocious talents are nurtured by a series of teachers, mentors, and friends, who introduce him to a world of magic, myth, and inspiration.
When he wins a scholarship to an exclusive secondary school, Peekay befriends Hymie Levy (Morrie in US editions), a wealthy loner and the school's "token Jew." Drawn to help the downtrodden Peekay and Hymie, found a school for Black South Africans. Hymie also joins Peekay in several scams and becomes his boxing manager.
Throught his early years, which have been marked by humiliation and abandonment, Peekay embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives, and the power of one. (Adapted from the publisher and the author's website.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 14, 1933
• Where—Johannesburgh, South Africa
• Death—November 22, 2012
• Where—Canberra, Australia
• Education—N/A
Bryce Courtenay was a South African novelist who also held Australian citizenship. He is one of Australia's best-selling authors, notable for his book The Power of One.
Background
Arthur Bryce Courtenay was born in Lembombo Mountains, South Africa, the son of Maude Greer and Arthur Ryder. Ryder was married with six children, and lived with his family, but also maintained a relationship with Greer, with whom he already had a daughter, Rosemary. Maude Greer gave the surname Courtenay to both her children. Bryce spent most of his early years in a small village in the Lebombo Mountains in the Limpopo province. He later attended King Edward VII School.
In 1955, while studying journalism in London, Courtenay met his future wife, Benita Solomon, and they emigrated to Sydney in 1958. They married in 1959 and had three sons.
Courtenay entered the advertising industry and, over a career spanning 34 years, was the Creative Director of McCann Erickson, J. Walter Thompson, and George Patterson Advertising. His award-winning campaigns included Louie the Fly, the original Milkybar Kid commercial and the Australian Labor Party's 1972 election campaign, It's Time.
Along with Geoff Pike, Bryce Courtney invented the Cadbury Yowie, a chocolate that contained a children's toy, typically an Australian or New Zealand native animal.
On 1 April 1991, his son Damon, who was born with the blood condition haemophilia, died at age 24 from AIDS-related complications, contracted through a blood transfusion.
Courtenay and Benita divorced in 2000, ending their 42-year marriage. Benita Courtenay died on 11 March 2007, at the age of 72, four months after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. Bryce later lived in Canberra with his second wife, Christine Gee.
Writing
His novels are primarily set in Australia, his adopted country, or South Africa, the country of his birth. His first book, The Power of One, was published in 1989 and, despite Courtenay's fears that it would never sell, quickly became one of Australia's best-selling books by any living author. The story was made into a film, and was being re-released in an edition for children.
Courtenay was one of Australia's most commercially successful authors. He built up this success over the long term by promoting himself and developing a relationship with readers as much as marketing his books; for instance, he gave away up to 2,500 books free each year to readers he met in the street.
The Power of One is the only one of his books published in the United States. Courtenay claimed this was because "American publishers for the most part have difficulties about Australia; they are interested in books in their own country first and foremost. However, we receive many e-mails and letters from Americans who have read my books, and I am hoping in the future that publishers will recognize that there is a market for all my books in the U.S."
Death
In September 2012, Courtenay announced that he was suffering from terminal gastric cancer and that his last book would be Jack of Diamonds. He died in November at his Canberra home. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/15/2015.)
Book Reviews
The Power of One has everything: suspense, the exotic, violence; mysticism, psychology and magic; schoolboy adventures, drama.
New York Times
Marvelous.... It is the people of the sun-baked plains of Africa who tug at the heartstrings in this book. . . . [Bryce] Courtenay draws them all with a fierce and violent love.
Washington Post Book Wor
Unabashedly uplifting...asserts forcefully what all of us would like to believe: that the individual, armed with the spirit of independence–"the power of one"–can prevail.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Totally engrossing...[presents] the metamorphosis of a most remarkable young man and the almost spiritual influence he has on others.... Peekay has both humor and a refreshingly earthy touch, and his adventures, at times, are hair-raising in their suspense.
Los Angeles Times Book Review
Episodic and bursting with incident, this sprawling memoir of an English boy's lonely childhood in South Africa during WW II pays moderate attention to questions of race but concerns itself primarily with epic melodrama.
Publishers Weekly
(Grade 6-up) The book packs a powerful emotional punch, evoking horror, laughter, and empathy. It is a condensed version of the first part of Courtenay's adult book of the same title, and the ending feels artificial and unresolved. In all, this is an extraordinary and unusual survival story. — Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City
School Library Journal
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Power of One:
m. Talk about the the book's title. Author Bryce Courtenay once commented that...
[People] think it's all about the individual discovering a wonderful inner strength, the mantra of 'the power of one.' But the title comes from and is for the power of one teacher. It is about how one teacher can lift a child out of an impossible environment and allow him or her to have an education, to change their life.
But according to "reader theory," readers' interpretations are not necessarily incorrect; in fact, they are often entirely valid ways of seeing literature. It turns out that words mean different things to different people—even authors have no monopoly on how people read and interpret their writings. So...how do YOU interpret the book's title: what does "the power of meaning" signifiy to you?
m. In what way does Peekay's childhood shape the young man he becomes? How wold you desccribe him as a character? What do you admire about him?
m. The book pits poses two distinct visions of life—the mystical vs. logic and rational. What are the benefits of each way of seeing the world? How do the book's characters line up in representing this dichotomy. Does Peekay choose one approach over the other? How do you approach your own life?
m. Follow-u to Question 3: Talk about the ways in which Doc influences Peekay. At one point we are told that "Doc was calm and reason and order." Yet Doc tells Peekay that mystery should trump logic when truth is not at stake. What does he mean?
m.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off with attribution. Thanks.)