Writing Quote created by Paul Jenny with Flickr photo “Sunset Joy” by flowcomm

Click HERE for an excellent article about Nadine Gordimer’s life by Helen T. Vorongos of the New York Times. The Nobel Prize winner’s novels were banned, but made a huge impact as she explored “the hot, crowded cinder-block neighborhoods and tiny shebeens of the black townships to the poolside barbecues, hunting parties and sundowner cocktails of the white society.”

I’ve spent time, however briefly, in the midst of South African culture (mostly in black townships) and I can see why Ms. Gordimer has said, “The fact that my books were perceived as being so political was because I lived my life in this society that was so much changed by conflict, by political conflict, which of course in practical terms is human conflict.”

***

Listen to Nadine Gordimer read some of her short stories at the 92nd Street Y on YouTube.com

Flickr photo by flowcomm (CC License)