Review: Sobering, saddening, real, and very human
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 3, 2014
Mr. Martin-Zerf was a serious participant in the events of which he writes. The inner struggles of his main character have the ring of truth, and I suspect more than a bit of autobiography in them. Colonialism is another of the evil "isms" that have plagued humanity through the ages, and South Africa is a primary example of that. It had been a while since I had read any book, fiction or non-fiction, centered on South Africa, the horrors of apartheid, and the brutality of the struggle that ultimately ended it, at least as a matter of law. This is a difficult book to read in many ways, but I think an essential one for we in the West to whom Africa in general is a problem we either ignore or wish would just go away.  It is also an extremely exciting novel putting everything else aside; the author knows how to tell a story, and that is his main focus. The issues he implicitly addresses simply come through as they are essential to the tale.As an aside, for a superb non-fiction history of apartheid told through the eyes of a major Boer family member clearly viewed as a traitor by his people, I strongly recommend, despite its age, "White Tribe Dreaming." by Marq de Villiers, an exploration of how apartheid developed through 8 generations of an Afrikaner family.  It is a great complement to "The Broken Men."Please read "The Broken Men." It has my highest recommendation. We human beings simply MUST learn to value, or at least to understand one another, regardless, or indeed because of, our different races, ethnicities, cultures and belief systems. We will live together or we will die separately, as we are again doing across the world, to my great sorrow.