The Power of One

I finished the book The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay recently. Wow. The Power of One was intense, violent, poetic, endearing and unforgettable. Set in South Africa, where beauty is overshadowed by the weight of racism, anti-Semitism, and the wounds of war are fresh, the story follows a small English boy named Peekay. Sent to boarding school, Peekay is welcomed by hate-driven humiliation at the hands of others but he survives and dreams fiercely of becoming the boxing welterweight champion of the world. Clinging onto this dream, Peekay stumbles upon the power of one, and the power of others. This book had the amazing ability to draw you into the story, make you feel for the characters, and hope for the best for them. The extraordinary quality of the characters, the elaborate plot, and the empathy for Peekay this book possessed was astonishing. However, the book did have parts, which I considered to be dry and rambling. The book truly begins with the self-proclaimed Judge, who brutalizes Peekay constantly and the book ends with Peekay finding revenge. One interesting aspect of the book was symbolism. The Judge is Peekay’s demon; he embodies the fear that caused Peekay to change who he was for survival. Several times throughout the book, he mentions the Judge in self-reflection as a painful but effective motivator for Peekay. At the end of the book, when Peekay defeats the Judge, it is a victory for Peekay both physically and emotionally, representing Peekay taking back the control of himself and his identity. I thought this book was amazing, not one to pass up and highly recommendable.