Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black: And Other Stories - Tapa dura

"It is Gordimer's special skill that she can both make us feel the distinct yearnings of these characters, where nothing else matters, and allow us to stand back and perceive the parts they play in a larger collective pattern. As she always has, Gordimer offers her readers a rare combination of intimacy and transcendence." --The New York Times Book Review

"On nearly every page there's evidence of Gordimer's intellectual rigor, as well as the upright discipline all serious writers possess." --The Los Angeles Times

"The pages in Nadine Gordimer's slim new collection of stories truly contain multitudes, so rich are they with invention, insight, and artistry.... Gordimer shows that in her 80s she is actually still growing as a writer--what a rare and admirable feat." --The San Francisco Chronicle

"Like John Le Carre, another fine writer from this generation, [Gordimer] has gone on to explore the world after the demise of the material she was best-known for with intelligence, grace and power . . . brief glimpses into the mind of one of Africa's great modern literary geniuses ... the overall effect here is that of lasting mastery of the mode." --Dallas Morning News

"[Gordimer's] voice travels across the page, darkening certain regions, changing barometric pressure in others--and then, just as quickly as it arrived, the voice moves on, leaving you with the memory of an occurrence so vivid and yet ephemral that it takes on the lived quality of real experience." --Newark Star-Ledger

"Gordimer still has a canny eye for the world's vastness and complexity, and her expert fiction goes far in bringing us close to the mystery and value of it all." --Washington Times

"At 84, [Gordimer] remains deeply engaged with literature's role as a bellwether of current affairs and a corrective to ideological laziness." --Financial Times

"Nadine Gordimer pushes buttons and the boundaries of race, politics, and sex." --Vanity Fair

"Gordimer is a precise, politically astute writer whose novels, story, and nonfiction works are charged with sprightly humor, sudden insights, and fearless candor." --Elle magazine

"Peppered with parentheses, dashes, and incomplete clauses, her writing is deceptively tight, and a story's resolution often hinges on one or two lines . . . Kafka's influence has inspired its own metamorphosis, alive on her page--an 'ectoplasm of my imagination.'" --Bookforum

"Tantalizing and provocative short stories . . . With Gordimer's exquisite use of language, keen insight into social relationships, and elegant writing style in full form, this work is recommended for all libraries." --Library Journal (starred review)

"Thirteen stories from South African Nobel Prize-winner Gordimer offer a staccato demonstration of how people's origins, inheritances and histories--and the loss of them--are inescapable.... Terrifying, sometimes acidly funny and often beautiful." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Executed with finesse and power." --Kirkus Reviews

"Gordimer has been writing about her native South Africa for more than 50 years, and in this lively collection, she continues to tell the contemporary stories of people 'going about their own affairs within history's fall-out' . . . No slick irony, no heavy messages; as always, the mix of intimacy and politics stirs everything up." --Booklist