The Covenant by James A. Michener
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally made it through this behemoth of a book 🙂

I started reading it because I really want to know more history, because my grandmother gave me the book and had enjoyed it, because I lived in the Netherlands for a couple years and knew a small bit about South Africa from that and a Dutch class in college, and because I’ve been intrigued by apartheid and how it could be considered reasonable for so long by the people there.

Any review I make of this book would be colored by the fact that it took me almost 2.5 years to read it. It wasn’t because the writing was poor or that it wasn’t instructive. Often it had to do with lack of time on my part and because I had a tough time slogging through the parts that didn’t interest me as much. I definitely read through the last few hundred pages much quicker than my previous pace.

I do find some very interesting parallels with apartheid and much of the social conflicts I see happening on social media daily. The use of religion to justify otherwise un-Christian or inhumane actions still baffles me and makes me feel sad.

View all my reviews