While sitting at his mother's deathbed, Josh Pandrey, the son of Jewish refugees, confronts the feelings he possesses for his mother as he traces his journey and right-of-passage as a child through the complicated teenage years occurring during the '50 s. - bitter times of apartheid South Africa A compassionate and humorous story about an interesting and dysfunctional (but not atypical)family this unique scenario sets the stage depicting Josh's relations between his parents and him, and his sister and their black servants. With vivid recall, Josh chronicles the racial oppression and the innocence of a child who lives a life of "racism without malice" , later realizing the full pain it causes the black servants he loves. He feels that a kid's life is difficult and as a young teen it's impossible, struggling through school, puberty and his 'confusing' relationships with those around him. The defining moment in his magical journey and right of passage, until he sets off for University at eighteen, occurs almost forty five years later when he's an adult in his sixties and an accident befalling his mother (in her nineties) leads to her passing into a coma. This causes Josh to reflect on the wondrous nature of his childhood and how he was raised by, and cared for and loved, by his family's African maid, Alice, and their house "boy" Morris (an African man in his 40's), both of whom are also his "parents" in all but blood. There are 17 Chapters, 228 pages
17 parts