The Power of One (novel)
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| US paperback edition cover US paperback edition cover | |
| Author | Bryce Courtenay |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Bildungsroman, Historical novel |
| Publisher | William Heinemann (UK) & (Random House]] & (Marclar Productions) (USA) |
Publication date | February 1989 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 576 pp (UK hardback edition) & 533 pp (US paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-434-14612-9 (UK hardback edition) & ISBN 0-345-35992-5 (US paperback edition) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Followed by | Tandia |
The Power of One is a bildungsroman written by Bryce Courtenay, first published in 1989. Set in 1930s and 1940s South Africa and later on in the story, Northern Rhodesia, it tells the story of an English boy who, through the course of the story, acquires the nickname of P.K. The protagonist's true first name is never revealed. (In the film version the protagonist's (P.K.)is said to be Peter Phillip Kenneth Keith.)
Differences in Adaptations
It is written from the first person perspective, with P.K. narrating (as an adult, looking back) and trusting the reader with his thoughts and feelings, as opposed to a detailed description of places and account of actions.
It has been adapted into a film (starring Stephen Dorff, Morgan Freeman, and Armin Mueller-Stahl) the plot of which bears little resemblance to that of the book, and into a Young Reader's Edition, which stops about half way through the adult version, omits several explicit scenes and uses a simpler vocabulary. That edition was written after Bryce Courtenay received streams of letters from school teachers begging him to write a version suitable for primary school children.
There have been several other kinds of editions in several formats in many countries around the globe.
One memorable quote is by Nanny: "Sadness has a season and will pass" (page 47)
Tone
P.K.'s views on himself as a young boy are generally ironic, and he often pokes fun at his own misconceptions and misunderstandings. It is especially interesting at the language used by Courtenay at the various stages of P.K.'s life (i.e. the character's vocabulary in the beginning mimics that of a small child and matures as P.K. matures.) As the book progresses, the tone becomes more serious as P.K. speaks about the trials and tragedies of his young adulthood. He often harshly criticises his own actions and is less forgiving than when he spoke of himself as a child.
Plot summary
After his mother has a severe nervous breakdown, P.K. is cared for by Mary Mandoma, his Zulu nanny.
Soon after his mother's breakdown, a 5 year-old P.K. (played by Guy Witcher in the film) is sent to an Afrikaner boarding school. Being the only English speaker in the largely Afrikaner school, P.K. soon becomes the target of the other boys, who claim to be seeking to punish the British (symbolized by P.K.) for the atrocities committed against the Afrikaners in the Boer War concentration camps. They say he is a traitor and when the Nazis come Hitler will get him.
He is bullied and teased by everyone at the school, but most of all by older boys, led by "The Judge". An ardent supporter of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, The Judge frequently expresses the opinion that Hitler will soon arrive to drive the rooineks (literally "rednecks", Afrikaans slang for the British) into the sea. P.K. receives no help from the matron of the boarding school, Mevrou, (Afrikaans: Madam), who beats him with her sjambok in an attempt to cure his bedwetting. He quickly earns the name "Pisskop" (pisshead in Afrikaans), for this habit.
After his first year of school, P.K. returns to his grandfather's chicken farm in the Natal province. His nanny arranges for an African medicine man, Inkosi Inkosikazi, to come and cure P.K. of bedwetting. Inkosi Inkosikazi solves the problem for P.K. through an elaborate dream, set at a series of waterfalls. He also shows P.K. a piece of "magic" (which is revealed to be a simple trick) involving chickens, where the chicken remains sitting and docile within a circle drawn in the dust. P.K. is given one of the kaffir (ethnic slur for the native Africans) chickens, which he names Grandpa Chook, after a slang term he heard his Australian cousins say once and the chicken's resemblance to his grandfather.
Grandpa Chook becomes P.K.'s best schoolyard friend. At first meeting, Mevrou tries to kill and eat the chicken, though, Grandpa Chook's apparent skill as an exterminator of cockroaches convinces Mevrou to allow him to stay as a "kitchen helper".
To try and ward off The Judge and his "stormtroopers", P.K. adopts a "camouflage", whereby he hides his above-average intellect. He also does The Judge's arithmetic for him. As a symbol of thanks, The Judge says he will not tell Hitler of P.K.'s existence until the end of term.
At the end of the year, The Judge rounds up P.K. and Grandpa Chook and takes them to the large jacaranda tree in the school, for a final "council of war". During the resulting engagement, the Judge kills Grandpa Chook with a catapult and forces P.K. to eat human excrement.
Traumatised from this experience, P.K. yearns to be back in the arms of his beloved Zulu nanny. However, Mevrou informs him that he will not be returning to the farm, rather, he will be going to the East Transvaal town of Barberton, where his grandfather lives after the outbreak of Newcastle disease on his previous home.
On the train to Barberton, P.K. is chaperoned by Hoppie Groenewald, the boxing champion of the South African railways. Hoppie shows P.K. his boxing gloves and instills him with his own personal love of the art of boxing. He also invites P.K. to come and watch him box Jackhammer Smit, a tremendously large light heavyweight miner, in Gravelotte, a town on the way to Barberton.
Hoppie emerges victorious, and teaches P.K. a maxim that will stay with him forever:
Arriving at Barberton, P.K. meets his mother, who has become a born-again Christian. Much to his sadness, he discovers that his beloved nanny was fired because she refused to remove her traditional jewelry (her symbols of womanhood) and convert to Christianity. In anger at the news, P.K. screams to his mother that "the Lord is a shithead!". However, Dee and Dum, the two teenage Shangaan girls who worked as maids back at the farm are present in Barberton, though without their similar bangles and jewelry.
After the fight with his mother regarding his nanny, P.K. runs into the veld behind his new house, where he meets German professor of music and amateur botanist Karl von Vollensteen, who introduces himself as Doc, and takes a photograph of P.K. The two soon become good friends, and, with P.K.'s mother's permission, Doc begins to teach the young boy both piano and botany. Instead of monetary payment, P.K. pays for his lessons by helping Doc gather cacti in the surrounding hills.
Both Doc and P.K. become friends with Barberton's librarian, Mrs. Boxall.
However, just as World War II begins, Doc is arrested for failing to register as an enemy alien in wartime. However, when the arresting officer comes into Doc's house, and attempts to emulate a scene from a movie by pouring whisky onto the keys of Doc's Steinway, Doc attacks him, but not before the officer kicks up at Doc. Accidentally hitting P.K., he breaks P.K.'s jaw, which needs to be wired.
When Doc is sentenced to stay in prison for the duration of the war, P.K. regularly visits him in prison. The kommandant (commander) of the prison, an Afrikaner who greatly admires German culture, gives Doc preferential treatment and allows him to keep his cactus garden in the courtyard.
The kommandant hears of P.K.'s boxing aspiration, and arranges him to be taught by Lieutenant Smit, the Prison's Head boxing instructor. However, it is when a Coloured man, Geel Piet (Afrikaans for "Yellow Peter") (played by Morgan Freeman in the film) impresses the Lieutenant with his encyclopedic knowledge of boxing that P.K.'s boxing really begins to shine. Geel Piet becomes a close friend of P.K.'s, and transforms P.K. into an astounding boxer.
P.K., who is now 12 (played by Simon Fenton in the film), feels compassion and sympathy for the appallingly treated black prisoners, and helps Geel Piet organise an intricate black market scheme, smuggling tobacco and letters from family members into the prison. As a result, many of the prisoners take an almost religious view of P.K., calling him Onoshobishobi Ingelosi, the Tadpole Angel (in the film they call him the Rainmaker, someone who unites the tribes).
P.K. also helps arrange a concert for Doc in the prison, and convinces the commandant to allow some singing from the black prisoners, too. On the night of the concert, P.K. notices the Geel Piet has not shown up, and goes to find him. He finds Geel Piet's bloody body lying in the gymnasium. A white warder, Borman, sadistically bludgeoned him to death with his baton.
After the end of the war, Doc is freed and P.K. develops his intellect more. With the help of Mrs. Boxall, Ms. Bornstein (his Jewish schoolteacher) and Doc, he acquires a great knowledge of cacti, chess, literature and music. He wins the East Transvaal under-twelves title and wins a scholarship to the prestigious Prince of Wales School in Johannesburg.
At the school, P.K. quickly makes friends with Hymie Levy (called Morrie Levy in the American publication of the novel), the son of a Jewish millionaire. The calculating Levy combines his financial skill with P.K.'s boxing skill to devise numerous "scams" that make them both rich. He also reaches puberty there.
Reforming the pathetic school boxing team, they earn enough money to afford lessons for P.K. from South Africa's best boxing instructor, Solly Goldman. Though he excels at rugby, boxing and academic pursuits, even becoming one of the headmaster's personal favourites, P.K. does not win the Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford that he hoped for.
Returning to Barberton after his final year at the Prince of Wales School, P.K. goes on one last expedition with Doc. They find a cave, which Doc dubs the "Crystal Cave of Africa". Doc lies down on a large pillar, and speaks about his impending death. P.K. gets frightened, tells Doc that he is speaking nonsense and urges him to come out of the cave. Inside, however, he knows that Doc is growing old and must pass on soon.
When Doc disappears without trace several days afterwards, P.K. knows exactly where he is, and, knowing what Doc would have wanted, decides not to betray his position to the search and rescue party. He goes back to the Crystal Cave a week later, and finds a goodbye note from Doc attached to a pocket knife hidden near the mouth of the cave. He can finally mourn the Doc (who had become a very powerful father figure) his way. (The Doc went back to his home in Germany in the film.)
At the end of his school career, P.K. decides to make some money by travelling to Northern Rhodesia (modern day Zambia) to work as a copper miner. Getting an extremely dangerous (but high paying) job as a "grizzly man", working on large machines that process the copper, P.K. builds up his body so that he may become better at boxing.
He forms a close friendship with a towering Georgian named Rasputin. Rasputin, who speaks little English, eventually sacrifices his own life to save P.K.'s during a mining disaster.
Before leaving Northern Rhodesia for good, P.K. goes to the bar to organise a raffle in recognition of Rasputin. However, just before he leaves, a diamond driller with a powder headache (caused by exposure to high quantities of explosives) enters the bar in a state of insanity. P.K. finds out that this person is Jaapie Botha, his unseen partner above the grizzly. Botha attacks P.K., and in doing so, reveals his swastika tattoo. Botha is none other than The Judge (played by Daniel Craig in the film), who tortured P.K. during his childhood! Using techniques Geel Piet taught him back in Barberton prison, P.K. easily, but savagely, beats his tormenter. He takes the knife that Doc gave him and carves "P K" and a crude Union Jack over the swastika tattoo on The Judge's arm.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
It has been adapted into a 1992 film (starring Armin Mueller-Stahl, Stephen Dorff, Morgan Freeman, John Gielgud, Daniel Craig, Lance Jargonson, and Jack Rinehart ).
Sequel
Bryce Courtenay wrote a sequel to The Power of One in 1992 called Tandia. The novel continues P.K.'s story while he studies at Oxford and later practices law in Johannesburg, South Africa. His quest to become Welterweight Champion of the World is also continued and new characters are introduced to give the reader a different perspective of P.K..
Trivia
- Sonata Arctica lead singer Tony Kakko wrote a song with the same name, and says that The Power of One is one of his favorite books. The song lyrics refer to racism and the idea that everyone is born equal.
- The full name of the protagonist (P.K.) in the film version is Peter Phillip Kennith Keith.
External sources
- Find The Power of One in Libraries Australia - click on the name 'Heading' to find out about works in 800+ Australian library collections
- Bryce Courtenay's official site
- IMDb entry for the 1992 film
- Sparknotes