The Pickup

The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked this book up at a Goodwill store.  Best place for books besides yard sales.  Or libraries. Ok, Barnes and Noble, Border, Amazon and my night stand are best places too.  This one cost me 50 cents and a few days.

The book won the Nobel Prize for Literature and it was definitely literature--high brow.  Sometimes sloggy, sometimes over written and always interesting.  It is less a story of love and more a story of ignorance of self.  The book started off in South Africa and moved to the Middle East with the two main characters lost in their families of origin.

The book ended strongly--and (spoiler) I knew the desert would win.  The way it pulled Julie again and again.  I understood her need to go to the edge and beyond.

Well written and not an easy read.