Mehring is rich. He has all the privileges and possessions that South Africa has to offer, but his possessions refuse to remain objects. His wife, son, and mistress leave him; his foreman and workers become increasingly indifferent to his stewardship; even the land rises up, as drought, then flood, destroy his farm.
Nadine Gordimer's fascinating portrait of a man both reckless and calculating, a "conservationist" left only with the possibility of self-preservation, is also a subtle and detailed study of the forces and relationships that seethe in South Africa today.
