The Syringa Tree

by Pamela Gien

Book Overview

In this heartrending and inspiring novel set against the gorgeous, vast landscape of South Africa under apartheid, award-winning playwright Pamela Gien tells the story of two families-one black, one white-separated by racism, connected by love.

Even at the age of six, lively, inquisitive Elizabeth Grace senses she's a child of privilege, "a lucky fish." Soothing her worries by raiding the sugar box, she scampers up into the sheltering arms...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375759107
• ISBN13: 9780375759109
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The Syringa Tree

The Syringa Tree is a wonderful book. It is a can-not-put-down book. It is written in such a soft, gentle and yet so powerful way. You can really feel the pain and happiness, the hope and despair of the people in South Africa during the Aparthied years. My South African friends tell me that the story is so true and many of them lived through it. I highly recommend this book.

The best summer read of 2006

As another South African expat who lived through the same years Pamela Gien describes, I have to say that this is the most honest description of life in South Africa during the times of apartheid, as experienced by an ordinary white family, and especially through the eyes of a child. Yes, it is political to a degree. It has to be. They were "political times", whichever side of the divide you lived. Those reviewers who found it "too political" confound me. It was what it was. But there is another aspect to Gien's book. Page by page I gasped in pleasure at old memories she stirred. Lifebouy soap, the tokoloshe, the maid's bed on high bricks, Springbok radio. Her evocative descriptions of the highveld and all its peoples. How wonderful that these forgotten pieces of a life, gone forever, can be resurrected so skillfully. I loved that part of it. So many of us lived on the "white side of the divide" almost totally unaware of the undercurrents that were surging in the country at the time. This book brought the two sides together in an honest, sometimes brutal way. The human story on both sides of the divide was riveting, and all these years later deepened much of my own understanding. Thank you, Pamela Gien, for giving us the best book I have read this summer.

A stunning masterpiece

I saw the play and thought it was great, but the book is even better. In it, the author has gives herself the time and space to luxuriate in beautiful descriptions of her troubled homeland and flesh out the contours of the many wonderful characters who inhabit a little child's world. I read the last 120 pages in one sitting and finished deep into the night. I just sat there for almost an hour thinking about it. The book is complex, filled with layers of fun and sadness, profound thoughts, horrible violence to the body and spirit as well as the innocent musings of a child. I loved the way she captured the mind set of Elizabeth. Gien gives her lots of funny little things to say, but also fills her mind and mouth with wisdom that only children have. I was so moved by the end, not just because of what happens to Elizabeth's friend, but because of what happens to her mother and father. Watching parents get old, demented and lonely is a universal problem, not one confined to the tip of a far away continent. I suppose you can say that the book is about politics, but I do not agree that the book is too political, as one reviewer here said. So what if there are political undertones in the book. There is no end to the great literature that has been based on, and written against the background of, political turmoil and strife. It is like saying Dr. Zhivago was too political. What was that? A love story or a political drama or a beautiful human story that arose out of, and became tragic because of, the political struggle of the day? The political movement there--communism and the great puge--made the story what it was. The same is true here. The Syringa Tree is very moving and loving. It is instuctive about all of our lives, not just what life was like in South Africa at the time. Gien is a rarity--sweet and kind in her treatment of her characters, so thoughtful in her expression of their ordeal. Her love of her homeland is exceeded only by her love of the humanity in which she immerses her story.

A Rare Gift

I saw Gien's play on Broadway and again three more times with different actresses and finally with Gien herself in the role. I finally decided to teach it to my 11th grade English Class to great success. This is story that stays with you. Now that it is a novel, Gien's voice resonates even louder, and I am hearing her story all over again with even more strength. The characters bring us to tears and to joy. Tell everyone you know about this book. It will change your life and open your eyes to cycle of opression. Pamela Gien is a gifted actress and writer: a rare gift to all of us.