Home › Books › Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage
Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage
by
99/99
Critics' Rating Index
84/99
Readers' Rating Index
84/99
Scholars' Citation Index
95/99
Volume of Reviews
39/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
From one of South Africa's foremost nonfiction writers, a deeply researched, shattering new account of Nelson Mandela's relationship with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Drawing on never-before-seen material, Steinberg reveals the fractures and stubborn bonds at the heart of a volatile and groundbreaking union, a very modern political marriage that played out on the world stage. One of the most celebrated political leaders of a century, Nelson Mandela has been written about by many biographers and historians. But in one crucial area, his life remains largely untold: his marriage to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. During his years in prison, Nelson grew ever more in love with an idealized version of his wife, courting her in his letters as if they were young lovers frozen in time. But Winnie, every bit his political equal, found herself increasingly estranged from her jailed husband's politics. Behind his back, she was trying to orchestrate an armed seizure of power, a path he feared would lead to an endless civil war. Jonny Steinberg tells the tale of this unique marriage--its longings, its obsessions, its deceits--making South African history a page-turning political biography. Winnie and Nelson is a modern epic in which trauma doesn't affect just the couple at its center, but an entire nation. It is also a Shakespearean drama in which bonds of love and commitment mingle with timeless questions of revolution, such as whether to seek retribution or a negotiated peace. Steinberg reveals, with power and tender emotional insight, how far these forever-entwined leaders would go for each other and where they drew the line. For in the end, both knew theirs was not simply a marriage, but a contest to decide how apartheid should be fought.
Reviews
"Readers will be mesmerized by the thrumming tension and profound emotional complexity of this intimate portrait of two global icons."
"captures the mythic quality of these two leaders, their great love story and tragic estrangement, and the hubris and human frailty beneath the personas ..."
"The most nuanced of storytellers, Steinberg has always had an extraordinary ability to get inside his protagonists' heads, and does so here while scrupulously detailing the brutalising pressures to which the two were relentlessly subjected, experiences that left them warped and hardened."
"Rather, it rounds it out by humanizing Nelson as never before via the messiness of his private life, even as he gave his all for the cause."
"More than a joint biography, as good as it is at that; it's a deft and operatic interweaving of two outsized characters."
"Above all this is a book about rage ..."
"The tangled web of passion, political intrigue and betrayal revealed in this story is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions."
"Steinberg is aided in this task by a collection of some 15,000 pages of transcripts and notes that were only recently made available to scholars."
"This is a superb addition to the history of South Africa and the struggle against apartheid."
"But his supreme contribution is in his ability to portray clearly and critically Nelson Mandela's flaws and Winnie Mandela's crimes, while expressing sympathy and understanding for both their courage and their pain."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!