''No Time Like the Present'' is a 2012 novel by South African writer

Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer (20 November 192313 July 2014) was a South African writer and political activist. She received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writin ...

. It was Gordimer's last published novel during her lifetime. The novel deals with a variety of issues in contemporary South Africa, including unemployment, HIV-AIDS, and corruption.

Plot

The novel is set during the period after the lifting of Apartheid. Stephen, a white,

half-Jew The term Halbjude (English: Half-Jew) is a derogatory term for people with a non-Jewish and a Jewish parent. The overwhelming majority of the so-called half-Jews were legally classified as " first-degree Jewish hybrids" during the era of Nazi Germ ...

, half Christian, and Jabulile (Jabu), a Zulu, are now able to legally live as a married couple in South Africa. Stephen is a chemistry professor, and Jabu takes classes to become an attorney in the new political order. The novel deals with their adjusting to the normalcy of post-Apartheid South Africa, and the cognitive dissonance of sending their children to private school and living in a suburb while poverty remains a severe problem in the country. Toward the end of the novel, a disastrous home invasion, compounded by other crimes against the family, causes Stephen and Jubu to consider moving to Australia.

Reception

The plot of the novel was well received by critics. Critics also praised Gordimer for her ability to address a number of different social issues in the context of one family's experience, and her willingness to ask difficult questions about quality of life in South Africa. Francine Prose, writing for ''The New York Times'', faulted Gordimer for her occasionally stilted language. Dominic Davies, writing for the

Oxonian Review ''The Oxonian Review'' is a literary magazine produced by postgraduate students at the University of Oxford. Every fortnight during term time, an online edition is published featuring reviews and essays on current affairs and literature. It is t ...

, expressed a similar opinion. Both, however, admitted that the difficulty of the language and Gordimer's prose made the novel more rewarding.

References

Novels by Nadine Gordimer 2012 novels 21st-century South African novels {{2010s-SouthAfrica-novel-stub