An extraordinary achievement, Telling Times reflects the true spirit of the writer as a literary beacon, moral activist, and political visionary. The book represents the full span of her works in that field—from the twilight of white rule in South Africa to the fight to overthrow the apartheid regime, and most recently, her role over the past seven years in confronting the contemporary phenomena of violence and the dangers of HIV.
Under apartheid, several of Gordimer’s books were banned – A World of Strangers (1958) for 12 years, The Late Bourgeois World (1966) for 10, and several other novels for shorter periods. But she refused to be cowed, and remained in South Africa while many of her contemporaries left. “Exile,” she once said, “is a terrible thing, even in comfort.” She had a prominent role in opposing censorship and helped found the Congress of South African Writers, but has always rejected the label of “political writer”, fearing being seen as a propagandist or conformist.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/aug/31/nadine-gordimer-fighting-censorship
By Nadine Gordimer
