2026 #24 The Conservationist (Gordimer)

 

The Conservationist: Booker Prize Winner by Nadine Gordimer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this, and in theory, I did. I've heard that this is Gordimer's most poetic book and the language is undoubtedly that. I prefer it in straightforward poetry, however, rather than omniscient third person narration. Stylistic considerations aside (which I think are truly about personal preference), the book is artful in its illumination of white male privilege in the form of Mehring, a wealthy industrialist who buys a farm in South Africa (as a "getaway") that he is ill-equipped to run (leaving most of the management to his Black workers headed by Jacobus). Divorced and with an estranged son, Mehring wanders through life with little regard for relationships (platonic and romantic), and whose self-absorption fuels the evils of apartheid. The book opens with a murdered unidentified Black man being found on the farm, and Gordimer artfully allows that body to "surface" throughout the novel in various ways.

The book is very literary, with little distinction between dialogue and narrative, and some beautiful descriptive language. If you are somehow new to apartheid and colonialism in fiction, well this wouldn't be my first recommendation to introduce those topics, but otherwise it is an experience to read this Booker prize-winning book.

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Challenges on Storygraph (@rebcamuse):

2026 Reading Goals 24/60

#192030 Challenge:1974

2026 #23 The Modigliani Scandal (Follett)

The Modigliani Scandal by Ken Follett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Published under a pseudonym (Zachary Stone) in the 1970s before Follett reached his fame, The Modigliani Scandal is an entertaining look at the follies of the art world, and a reasonably good "mystery" of sorts. The back-of-the-book blurb would have it: "A high-speed, high-stakes caper from the grand master of international action and suspense." High-speed is pushing it a bit--the plot only really picks up speed in Part III, "Figures in the Foreground," but it is good fun. None of the characters are particularly likeable, although I daresay I was originally rooting for Dee, since she needs the "lost Modigliani" for her thesis. Certainly there is intrigue, but as stakes go, they aren't that relatable unless you happen to be in the art world running a gallery. The best part for me is how Follett sets up the denouement at a pub, but then steps back from it before revealing what happens inside that pub. That kept me reading and made for an entertaining ending.

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Challenges on Storygraph (@rebcamuse):

2026 Reading Goals 23/60

#192030 Challenge:1976

Tackle Your Physical TBR 2026 challenge: 14/18