Bryce Courtenay, The Power of One

A quick post,  because Bryce Courtenay doesn't need me, and because I read his novel The Power of One only because it was for book club:

Nope.

At the time of this book's writing and publication, I recall, since that's JUST how old I am, it wasn't unreasonable to have a white saviour plot interwoven with racist caricatures of various kinds, pointing in multiple directions. That's where virtually all of the narrative drama and situational tension comes from, and it's pretty transparent even if you're sometimes surprised by what's going on. I mean, the Jewish character we spend lots of time with was named Hymie in every edition but the American, where he was "Morrie": in my copy, the back cover mentions Hymie but the book itself features Morrie.

Similarly (is it similar? I mean, maybe it's similar), it's not that unusual to have a child protagonist and retrospective narrator repeatedly going back to the theme, in this case explaining the power of one as an individual's sense of morality, individualism, and so on. It strips away more of the drama, but that's only an issue if you think of this novel as narrative rather than didactic, which ... nope.

But it's gripping, and there are wheels within wheels, and Wilde's Miss Prism would've been happy with the outcome (if not the degree of violence or the amount of blood): "The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means."

The Power of One is a product of its time, and it's a tough slog at this point in history if you're not doing it specifically with history in mind. Not recommended, but some readers would enjoy it.