Out of France and Africa

Press, 7 August 1976, Page 15

Out of France and Africa

Reprints appear for many reasons and topicality is one of them. Africa is very much in the news at present and most of the short stories in Nadine Gordimer's LIVINGSTONE’S COMPANIONS (Penguin Books, 237 pp. N.Z. price $2.45) are set in one >r other of the African countries These stories are acutely observed fragments of the lives led by ordinary people; politics are not particularly intrusive, except in the chilling “Africa Emergent,” but the reader is left in no doubt as to the writer's feelings about apartheid. Colette’s biography has recently been published and there will doubtless be a fresh demand for her books. In THE RAINY MOON AND OTHER STORIES (Penguin Books, 347 pp., N.Z. price $2.80) are reprinted; 11 stories translated by Antonia White. Colette was warmly curious about people all her long and varied life, and these stories, written w'hen she was in her sixties, demonstrate her insight and versatility. Here are the vivid fantasy world of “The Sick Child.” the wry- humour of "Armande ” and the mystery of the “Green Sealing Wax,” among others — a variety of themes and as French as champagne. The responsibility that each one of us has for every other human being is

the theme that run: through Simone de Beauvoir's THE BLOOD OF OTHERS (Penguin Books, translated by’ Yvonne Moyse and Roger Senhouse, 240 pp.. N.Z. price $2,201 It is a concept that is as valid today as it ever was and tliir story, of a small group of friends which became pari of the French Re-isiance. contains mui h of the existential thought developed bv Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. “But my life is made up of my relations with the remainder f mankind,” says Jean Biomart: bis wounded Helene dies happy , knowing that she had achieved that awareness of others that she had rejected and fought against all her short life. In A VERY EASY DEATH (Penguin Books, translated by Patrick O’Brian, 92 pp., N.Z. price $1.40) Simone de Beauvoir describes in compassionate detail her mother’ illness and death from cancer. She explores (he problems of trying to save life and alleviate suffering —aims which often seem mutually exclusive to those looking on — and she sets down her thoughts and feelings about her mother with honesty and intelligence. This is a very moving book which never descends into sentimentality. —A. J. CURRY