Betrayals of the Body Politic

Book excerpt: He examines the connection between the personal and the political, showing that Gordimer has always seen the two as inseparable, and that her understanding of this relationship has developed profoundly during her career. Though the book is not biographical, it explores more fully than any preceding publication Gordimer's attitudes toward feminism and her connections with her Jewish background, thereby expanding our comprehension of her social context. Ettin includes a succinct overview of her career and devotes each of six chapters to a major theme, tracing and analyzing the themes as they recur in selected stories, novels, essays, and interview reflections, and as they have emerged in relation to circumstances of her own life. The author sees Gordimer's work as a tool not of propaganda but of understanding, a means of sharpening our perceptions of one another's lives.