The Promise: A Novel

This 2021 Booker Prize-winning novel is a tale of the Swarts, a white family in South Africa. This story takes place over several decades, framed around four different funerals.This story is told in four long sections. I think it was best to read a full section in one sitting when possible, as there were not really good stopping points in the sections. Of the four sections, my favorite section was the one titled Astrid. That section shocked me the most, especially the death that occurred in it.Something I have seen mentioned a lot in reviews of this novel is the writing style. The writing flows between many characters, including more minor characters in the overall scheme of the story. The writing forced me to slow down my reading more than how I normally read so that I could really focus on what was happening in the book. While I don’t think that is a bad thing, I do think that the writing kept me feeling a bit removed from the primary characters. I wanted to feel the emotions in the story deeper and delve more into the lives of the characters, especially Amor.I can definitely understand how this novel won the Booker prize. It seems like a book that is worthy of discussion.

As this novel opens, a family has gathered after the death of the mother on a farm in South Africa. Anton Swart is the oldest child and is a soldier in the Army. Astrid, the middle child, is consumed with thoughts of her beauty and its effect on men while Amor, the youngest girl is living at boarding school. She has always been the quiet one in the family, the one who disappears onto the land for hours at a time. She is friends with the son of Salome, the family's maid and the woman who has helped raise her. The last time she was home she heard her mother extract a promise from her father that he would give Salome the deed to the house she lives in on the farm.But that promise is not kept. The country is in turmoil and Manie, the father, believes that giving his servant property will only make things more uncertain. Those who came in and took the land from the natives are now uneasy, unsure what the future will hold and if those same natives will now take the land back from them. Amor can't believe that her father would renege on the promise he made to her mother on her deathbed.Over the coming years, the family slowly dies off. At each death, Amor reminds those surviving of the promise but the house is never deeded over to Salome. This has the effect of removing Amor further and further from those she grew up with. She becomes a nurse in an HIV ward and spends her life serving others.This book won the Booker Prize in 2021. It is a tale of white privilege and the interaction of what are seen as interlopers and those who were native to the land. This was the time of apartheid in South Aftica and Galgut as a South African native is uniquely situated to explore this theme. The family drifts apart over the years as each carves out a life that they think is best for them while the land endures and exists as always. Amor is a character whose selflessness the reader will remember long after the book is done. This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.

Much has been made of this novel's echoes of Woolf and Faulkner, and at the same time its relevance to today's issues. That's all true. And it's true that Galgut employs a unique, roving omniscient/close third person approach. But beyond that, this novel is a classic, traditional social and realist novel. Not only that, it's gripping and immersive. Galgut has the novelist-magician's wand in his hand, and (seemingly) effortlessly creates vivid characters and a palpable, immediate world. In fact, his narrative approach actually enriches that sense of full reality. This is novel-writing at its best. As a lifelong novel-reader, I'm heartened about the future of the novel when reading this.

The Promise is centered around the Swarts', a white, privileged family in South Africa over 3 decades. In the final days of her life, the matriarch, Rachel, insists that with her husband, Manie “Pa,” promise that he will gift to Salome, the Black woman who has worked for them most of her life, the house that she has been living in and the land that it is on, part of the Swart farm. He reluctantly agrees. The promise is overheard by their youngest daughter, Amor.Over the next years, Amor advocates again and again for the land gift to occur and, in doing so, becomes alienated from her family. She leaves home as soon as she is of age. Each time Amor returns home she again advocates for the land to go to Salome, always unsuccessfully. The family continues to drift further apart with Amor ultimately has no contact with them.A parallel in the book is the country’s turmoil surrounding apartheid and the regime’s continuously imposed state of emergency, the ending of apartheid and the World Cup being hosted in the country does fill its citizens, black or white, with a sense of communal pride. Yet, what follows is another corrupt government, increases in crime rates, dishonesty and a lack of integrity and once again, promises unfulfilled. “Apartheid has fallen, see, we die right next to each other now, in intimate proximity. It's just the living part we still have to work out.”A powerful novel with interesting characters in a time of turmoil, both in the country and in the homes. The story is very slow for the first half and, having heard good things about it, I was determined to finish. It does move at a better pace in the second half and I am glad that I finished it. The ending is almost haunting. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Winner of the 2021 Booker Prize.

I visited South Africa around the time at which the story is set. I drove through rural areas similar to where the farm is located. This has to affect the ease with which I read the book. It’s beautifully written. The characters are well drawn. The subtle as well as the flamboyant racism is uncomfortable yet instructive. Lives are wasted. I wondered ( and still wonder) whether it was apartheid that wasted lives or perhaps it was the times of change to which adjustment was difficult. The actual promise is an important element and the casualnesses of a commitment show how, in power relationships, different expectations and the failure to honour them can lead to results which are impossible to predict. I recommend this book. It stays with you for a long time.

While first reading, I had a difficult time figuring out, who was speaking. It required a lot of detective work. I had to reread the first 40 pages 4 times before I finally started adapting to it’s reading style. Once you realize the personalities of each character, it then makes sense.Once I’ve adapted, the read was very enjoyable, I find myself pondering and processing a lot while reading. The book touches upon many perspectives, more then half that gets brought up again. Within these perspectives, you see how cold and hard life can be in South Africa, but the life there is about being patient and adapt to have a good life.The book writes itself while reading the second half, at that point you are glad for remembering all the little things said. Reacting to their reactions more and more strongly. Been awhile since a book made me cry in public, and visibly upset with the thoughts portrayed in this book.Thinking of rereading for the fact I don’t need to figure who the speaker is anymore. Just means it gets better for the second read. Such as rereading one segment, realizing it was actually a different character speaking at that point. Chuckled at that. This book requires ‘No Distractions!’ When reading, you will find yourself rereading the last two or three paragraphs to figure out context and speaker.

Wonderful writing, an original, richly textured voice. Intriguing characters and an engaging story thread that meanders, yes but never loses you.It is set in South Africa but it is not About South Africa. It is a universal story that transcends politics and history.

This story is the rather morbid portrayal of an Afrikaner family struggling and failing to come to terms with the new dispensation in South Africa. A Mother dies. Having converted to the jewish faith, she is not allowed to be buried with her family which leads to contention. Also her promise to their black servant, that she will receive land and a house, casts a shadow of guilt, division and obligation on the family. The father flees into a distorted form of his religion, guided by shady spiritual mentors (Shady spiritual mentors seems to be a theme throughout. It is sometimes overdone, giving the impression that the writer has huge issues with religion and religious leaders and wants to settle a score). Three children inherit the family farm. Anton, the soul scarred embittered son who dreams big but follows through on nothing. Astrid the self centered daughter who turns into an immoral hedonist. Amor, the youngest neglected one who breaks out and build our own life as a nurse in Durban far away from the family drama. Astrid gets killed in a car high jacking and Anton commits suicide. Amor returns to the family farm as a middle aged woman and finds her peace in promise keeping and letting go.The story seems to suggest that care and sharing are the only real option for a life of meaning amidst the pain and decline in South Africa.

Beautiful writing and memorable story telling. A winner on all fronts. I couldn’t put it down. Passing thru the sad history of S.A