Journal 2

When I first heard Bryce Courtenay’s name, I was totally unfamiliar with it. My mother told me what she knew about Bryce Courtenay, mentioning that he was a famous author, but that he used rough language. I had to do a bit of research to get to know more about the background of the author.

Courtenay experienced a lot of struggles and hardships throughout his life. Peekay’s struggle through life loosely follows the struggles in Courtenay’s life. Courtenay was born in South Africa, 1933, and spent the first years of his life on a farm. He was sent to boarding school at the same age as Peekay, just five years old. Courtenay was also bullied at school, learning to box in order to defend himself from the older kids. Not long after, he and his family moved to a different part of South Africa. There Courtenay was taught by a music teacher whom he called ‘Doc’. Just like Peekay, Courtenay spent many hours wandering around the bush with Doc.

After completing school, Courtenay studied Journalism at university. Courtenay set up a weekend school for the black African kids, but was ‘exiled’ from the country by the government. He began to live in England where he met Benita, who became his wife. He retired at the age of 55, allowing him to write a number of novels.

The Power of One was the first of his best selling classics, which he published in 1989. The story became famous mainly because of the relaxed atmosphere it has. The story line is quite simple, following in a logical order, the life of a small African boy. Everyone likes a story about the underdog who comes out on top, and a story where the small boy ends up beating his bullies resonates with many. I especially was amazed at how powerfully Courtenay could manipulate my emotions toward the different characters in The Power of One.

For a book to be published by Penguin books it has to have reached a certain level of popularity and critical acclaim. It says something about this novel that over 1 million copies have been sold and it has been made into a feature film. Now that I think about it, it seems like Courtenay had no particular audience in mind when he wrote this book. Because he is African, you would expect his target audience to be the upper class of Africa. However, the message of anti-racialism in The Power of One is applicable to everyone. The actual audience of The Power of One includes people from all continents of the globe. It has brought the message of determination and racial acceptance in thirty different languages. After reading only the first seven chapters, it does not seem surprising how popular the story of Peekay is.