7. The Pickup: a Novel by Nadine Gordimer

Julie Summers comes from a fairly wealthy white South African family. She works a pretty meaningless job doing public relations work and hangs out with a multiracial group at the trendy LA. Café. One day her car breaks down and she meets an illegal Arab immigrant, “Abdu” (not his real name), who is working illegally as an auto mechanic. Julie begins an affair with him, and shortly into the relationship, Abdu is served with deportation papers back to his unnamed poor Arabic desert village. Shocking everyone around her, Julie decides to follow Abdu to his country, and even agrees to marry him. Once in his country, Julie seems to mature and becomes more grounded, while Abdu, now known by his original name, Ibrahim, continually tries to get a visa out of his homeland.

While I originally thought this novel was slow to get into, I ended up liking it very much. My only complaint is that sometimes the narrative switches abruptly and you cannot tell immediately who the narrator is. Also, sparse language is sometimes more of a hindrance than being beautiful, and some of her prose is very dense. If readers are able to stick with her writing style, I think they will find a very rewarding read.