Before I Forget - Softcover
From a world-class writer – a remarkable new novel about love in all its forms.
Chris Minaar is a distinguished South African writer; an old writer, a writer who has lost whatever gift he had for writing. It is on New Year’s Eve, courtesy of his stalled car, that he meets Rachel, a young sculptress, who becomes the great love of his life, a love greater for being unfulfilled.
Having believed that his remaining function should be to comfort his mother, more than a century old now, he finds himself captivated by Rachel and drawn into a close friendship with her photographer husband George, a friendship that inevitably threatens this precarious triangular relationship.
Woven through this is the story of his life and of a lifetime of loving many women including brief affairs, extended affairs, a marriage; intensely carnal encounters and tender attachments. From Daphne, the troubled dancer, to Bonnie, his authoritarian father’s secretary, and Grethe, who arranges for her many lovers to meet at a party in her absence, these women define and inform his life.
As it becomes clear that this book is the final writing act of Chris’s creative life, so we understand that the recollection of these many loves is an attempt to bring order to an otherwise chaotic existence. Erotic, searingly honest, elegiac and profoundly moving, Before I Forget is the history of a life set against the history of a nation, and the history of a transforming love.
From the Hardcover edition.
Chris Minaar is a distinguished South African writer; an old writer, a writer who has lost whatever gift he had for writing. It is on New Year’s Eve, courtesy of his stalled car, that he meets Rachel, a young sculptress, who becomes the great love of his life, a love greater for being unfulfilled.
Having believed that his remaining function should be to comfort his mother, more than a century old now, he finds himself captivated by Rachel and drawn into a close friendship with her photographer husband George, a friendship that inevitably threatens this precarious triangular relationship.
Woven through this is the story of his life and of a lifetime of loving many women including brief affairs, extended affairs, a marriage; intensely carnal encounters and tender attachments. From Daphne, the troubled dancer, to Bonnie, his authoritarian father’s secretary, and Grethe, who arranges for her many lovers to meet at a party in her absence, these women define and inform his life.
As it becomes clear that this book is the final writing act of Chris’s creative life, so we understand that the recollection of these many loves is an attempt to bring order to an otherwise chaotic existence. Erotic, searingly honest, elegiac and profoundly moving, Before I Forget is the history of a life set against the history of a nation, and the history of a transforming love.
From the Hardcover edition.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
From the Inside Flap:
Chris Minnaar is a distinguished South African writer who has lost his gift for the wordóthat is, until he experiences the last great love of his life. He first encounters Rachel, a sculptress, on New Yearís Eve. Rachel becomes the great love of his life, a love greater for being unfulfilled.
When he loses her, Chris is ready to perform his final creative act: an assembly of the beautiful and ugly pieces of his existence, defined by the women he has loved. There have been numerous erotic affairs, tender relationships and a tragically ended marriage, all of which have left their indelible marks. Among them are Bonnie, his fatherís secretary; Grethe, who arranges for her many lovers to meet at a party in her absence; and Chrisís own mother, whose memory has faded in old age. Chris loves each woman uniquely, and his reflections convey a deep appreciation for their individual beauty and spirit.
Erotic, candid and elegiac, Before I Forget is the history of a manís life set against the turbulent history of his nation. More than anything, however, it is a rich tribute to the power of love.
Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and twice short-listed for Englandís prestigious Booker Prize, AndrÈ Brink is one of South Africaís most distinguished novelists. He is the author of seventeen works of fiction and an outspoken recorder of South Africaís turbulent history from the days of apartheid to the present. He wrote the first Afrikaans book to be banned for political content. In 1992, Brink was awarded the Monismanien Human Rights Award for making known the injustice of apartheid to the wider world. He has also worked for over forty years as an academic and translator of works as varied as Mary Poppins and Shakespeare into Afrikaans.
From the Back Cover:
When he loses her, Chris is ready to perform his final creative act: an assembly of the beautiful and ugly pieces of his existence, defined by the women he has loved. There have been numerous erotic affairs, tender relationships and a tragically ended marriage, all of which have left their indelible marks. Among them are Bonnie, his fatherís secretary; Grethe, who arranges for her many lovers to meet at a party in her absence; and Chrisís own mother, whose memory has faded in old age. Chris loves each woman uniquely, and his reflections convey a deep appreciation for their individual beauty and spirit.
Erotic, candid and elegiac, Before I Forget is the history of a manís life set against the turbulent history of his nation. More than anything, however, it is a rich tribute to the power of love.
Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and twice short-listed for Englandís prestigious Booker Prize, AndrÈ Brink is one of South Africaís most distinguished novelists. He is the author of seventeen works of fiction and an outspoken recorder of South Africaís turbulent history from the days of apartheid to the present. He wrote the first Afrikaans book to be banned for political content. In 1992, Brink was awarded the Monismanien Human Rights Award for making known the injustice of apartheid to the wider world. He has also worked for over forty years as an academic and translator of works as varied as Mary Poppins and Shakespeare into Afrikaans.
"Peter Carey, García Marquez, Solzhenitsyn: André Brink must be considered with that class of writer."
-Guardian
"[Before I Forget] is a complex, many-layered attempt to combine eroticism with broader social and political issues and Brink, in the steps of Scheherazade, is skillful at enclosing stories within stories."
-Sunday Times
"Brink has a dazzling narrative gift and an acute insight into personality that are bound together with an indisputable integrity."
-Boston Sunday Globe
"There is so much grace, dignity and passion fused in Brink's work that, compared to it, most contemporary novels will seem spare and lacking, mean-spirited or horribly self-indulgent."
- San Francisco Chronicle
-Guardian
"[Before I Forget] is a complex, many-layered attempt to combine eroticism with broader social and political issues and Brink, in the steps of Scheherazade, is skillful at enclosing stories within stories."
-Sunday Times
"Brink has a dazzling narrative gift and an acute insight into personality that are bound together with an indisputable integrity."
-Boston Sunday Globe
"There is so much grace, dignity and passion fused in Brink's work that, compared to it, most contemporary novels will seem spare and lacking, mean-spirited or horribly self-indulgent."
- San Francisco Chronicle
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherVintage Books
- Publication date2005
- ISBN 10 0099477521
- ISBN 13 9780099477525
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages288
- Rating
Buy New
Learn more about this copy
US$ 11.81
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace
Seller Image
Before I Forget [Soft Cover ]
Published by
Vintage Books
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0099477521
ISBN 13: 9780099477525
New
Soft Cover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780099477525
Buy New
US$ 11.81
Convert currency
Stock Image
Before I Forget
Published by
Vintage Books
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0099477521
ISBN 13: 9780099477525
New
Paperback
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks31612
Buy New
US$ 59.00
Convert currency
Seller Image
Brink, A: Before I Forget
Published by
Vintage, London
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0099477521
ISBN 13: 9780099477525
New
Softcover
Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. Dieser Artikel ist ein Print on Demand Artikel und wird nach Ihrer Bestellung fuer Sie gedruckt. Chris Minaar is a distinguished South African writer, an old writer, but a writer who has lost whatever gift he had for writing. It is on New Year s Eve, courtesy of his stalled car, that he meets Rachel, a young sculptress who becomes the great love of his. Seller Inventory # 594351166
Buy New
US$ 24.77
Convert currency
Stock Image
BEFORE I FORGET
Published by
Vintage Books
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0099477521
ISBN 13: 9780099477525
New
Softcover
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.44. Seller Inventory # Q-0099477521
Buy New
US$ 74.68
Convert currency