About this title: A young woman trying to escape her upper-class but stifling life gets involved with the garage mechanic who fixes her car, an Arab who is also an illegal immigrant. The question becomes: who is using whom? Or is this a love story in which no one is using anyone? THE PICKUP was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize and was New York Times Notable Book for 2002.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Date Published: 09/2001
ISBN-13:9780374232108ISBN:0374232105
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Good, In good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 224 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780374232108ISBN:0374232105
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 224 p. Audience: General/trade. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Please remember: This item is in used condition. Good: Copy has been read, but remains in good condition. read more
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: Large type / large print.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780786238484ISBN:0786238488
Description: Good. No dust jacket. Ex-library. Hardcover Book, Ex-Library, Clean pages, Normal library markings, No dust Jacket. LARGE PRINT. Glued binding. Paper over boards. 390 p. Thorndike Basic. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780142001424ISBN:0142001422
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 288 p. Audience: General/trade. Like new, clean, unmarked, unread copy. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 2002-09-24
ISBN-13:9780142001424ISBN:0142001422
Description: Like New. Softcover. Not ex-library or remainder. Interior is completely clean. No marks, rips or tears. Cover shows minimal shelf wear. Binding is tight and secure. I ship carefully and quickly with Delivery Confirmation always included on US orders! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Thorndike Press, Farmington Hills, Michigan, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780786238484ISBN:0786238488
Description: Good. A large print library withdrawal in very good clean condition. Almost no sign of the library. Not stamped at the page edge. Quite presentable and clean. read more
Description: Very Good. 0670043001 Condition: VERY GOOD. (Book may have one or a combination of the following characteristics: former library book, cover wear, name written inside cover, light underlining/highlighting, remainder mark, etc. Overall, the book is in solid shape. This is a blanket description. Please email us if you require a specific, detailed description of the book condition. We will typically respond within one week of your request). read more
"Eye opening to read other people's responses to the book. Seems like people had expectations that the book was going to be a love story. And a "love story," I suppose, brings many expectations with it, most of which would have been completely disappointed by this novel. I found it a powerful exploration of space, place, and the body, and all the ways these intersect in a context in which boundaries are officially privileged and regulated above all else."
"I read this with a book club....first time reading this author but I would highly recommend checking out her unique style. She is South African and writes many of her stories about mixed race couples as well as the immigrant experience. While frustrated at times with the main character, I found this novel very well done overall."
"This brilliant novel has much to say about crossing borders and the way in which dreams of another, better place often lead people in exactly opposite directions. A "well-born" South African woman, Julie, meets, quite by happenstance, an illegal alien automobile mechanic named "Abdu" (later identified as "Ibrahim"), who comes from some unspecified Islamic African state. Gradually the two become lovers, with motives on both sides, beyond the fact that the sex is good, left somewhat ambiguous. But Abdu has long overstayed his visa and is finally ordered out of the country. In a decision this reader initially read as disastrous, Julie chooses to follow him back to his impoverished homeland to live among his extended family. What follows is fascinating and surprising-the novel moving in quite a different direction at least from what I had expected. To abbreviate and simplify somewhat, Abdu is ever looking to get ahead, which he uncritically associates with returning to the white world. Julie, however, is looking for authenticity and anchorage. A political reality informs all of this: globalization, in he final analysis, is for the rich and famous-largely the white-poor inhabitants of the third world typically cross borders illegally and at their own peril. Gordimer addresses so many contemporary topics in this novel with such intelligence that I think The Pickup should be required reading for all of us interested in the challenges (and opportunities) our increasingly globalized world presents to personal identity and to the age-old dream of a utopian elsewhere. Finally, Gordimer's terse, rapid-fire prose makes it difficult at times to know who is speaking, as well as what is spoken and what merely thought, but it sparkles with genius. At last, a Nobel Prize Winner I am beginning to think actually deserved the prize."
"A white South African woman and an illegal immigrant from an Arab nation working as a car mechanic meet by chance one day and start a relationship. I would hesitate to call this book a love story, as it's never really clear to me that the main characters love each other despite some half-hearted hints at the end of the book. What's obvious is that they're both using each other -- she needs him to prove to everyone that she is truly rejecting the wealthy suburban life of her parents, while he needs a connection to the middle/upper class as a way around his unwanted illegal immigrant status. This could have been a really interesting story, if it weren't for the disjointed (no complete sentences, no use of quotation marks to denote dialogue) way in which the prose is written. I kept having to re-read sentences to find out what was going on and who was supposed to have spoken, which really disrupted the narrative flow."
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