The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer

 

 

For my Independent Reading book I decided on The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer. I'm not too far into it, but it has already caught and kept my attention. As of right now in the book, it seems to be a love story about two people from different social classes. Nadine has a very unique style of writing; she never uses quotations. At first, I was very confused and couldn't tell what was going on. Now it is a little easier, but sometimes it is still hard to follow dialogue between four or five people.

I haven't learned too much about the main characters yet either. The two main characters that the story follows are Julie and Abdu. Abdu is an illegal immigrant in South Africa. His name isn't actually Abdu, but he has to hide his identity to stay in South Africa. He works in a auto repair shop, and lives a very poor lifestyle. Julie on the other hand, lives a very lavish lifestyle. She still feels like she is missing something. She doesn't seem to be happy having such nice things when other people like Abdu live in shambles.

At first I thought that the title referred to a car, as in a pickup truck, but I was wrong. I think it refers to how Julie picked Abdu up off the streets and became his friend and lover. My inference might be wrong, but I think that it has something to do with the people instead of a car.