 Book: Long Walk to Freedom
Title: Long Walk to Freedom
Author: Nelson Mandela
Pages: around 800 (I already returned to the library)
Genre: biography
One of the quotes on the front of this autobiography says something like "this is one of the few biographies that is also a page turner." And it is. Long Walk to Freedom is about Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa and the first elected President to be by a democratic process that included all people of South Africa.
It begins with a bit of his father's history and moves through his birth, childhood, and teenage ages in about 300 fascinating pages. His life was so different than any of ours and yet very similar in the sense that he grew up sheltered from all the bad stuff of his country, so that he never saw himself as inferior to the white man. It wasn't until he was about 16 that he moved to a city and began to see how his own people were treated.
After working a few years he was able to join a law firm and take night classes until he was an attorney himself. Then he started his own firm and he and his partner were the only black men in South Africa practicing law, so they had a LOT of cases. But at the same time he'd also become involved with the African National Congress (ANC); they were working toward gaining equal rights for all the people of South Africa. Nelson slowly worked his way up through the ANC and was in its leadership when he was arrested and sent to prison.
He spent the next nearly 30 years in prison, before coming out triumphant and being a part of the process that put in place a government in which all people had a voice.
You wouldn't think a life of 40 years outside prison and then 30 years inside prison would be half so interesting, but it was a book that kept me riveted from beginning to end. I was afraid it would have torture kinds of descriptions, but there were none. It stays very focused on what he thought and felt and did...and even from prison that was a whole lot. The cover of the book also says that everyone should read this book. I agree. This is a book worth reading and remembering.  | 
11-13-2009, 08:53 AM
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