A Question of Power

by Bessie Head

Book Overview

It is never clear to Elizabeth whether the mission principal's cruel revelations of her origins is at the bottom of her mental breakdown, but in the dark loneliness of the Botswanan night, the frightened South African refugee slips in and out of sanity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0435907204
• ISBN13: 9780435907204
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

multiple facets of power

I was recommended this book and told "it's about a woman's descent into madness. But A Question of Power is much more than that. It presents the life of a woman of mixed heritage in South Africa and Botswana. The reader is allowed into her mind and taken to a place where one may question one's own sanity, in imitative form. Her relationships--and the novel at large--invite a probing of our understanding of reality. Where is the line between the seen and the unseen, and what is their relation to what we call reality? The language is clear, precise. It should be no deterrent to say that this book is political, for how can one examine power or even view this world nonpolitically? All political really means is that it's a true work of art. This book envelops you, it does not overpower. Bessie Head writes with intelligence and grace.