Gordimer Fumbles With Love in 'The Pickup'

Is love strong enough to conquer all obstacles? Is the love between two people enough to keep them together regardless of their restless natures? Can this love be more important than personal adventure and growth? Nadine Gordimer, South African winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, elegantly but confusingly tackles these questions in her new novel The Pickup.

Previously, Gordimer used her numerous novels and short stories as a forum to speak against the now-defunct apartheid in her native South Africa. Her attacks were so controversial that some of her books were banned by South African authorities. As opposed to many of Gordimer’s earlier works, race is not a central issue in The Pickup. Instead, the importance of social class distinctions is threaded throughout the novel.

Julie Summers, a daughter of the uppity circles in South African society, does her best to separate her life from the materialistic world of her father. When Abdu, a “grease-monkey” (mechanic) from an unnamed third world country, appears in her life, she cannot resist the foreign uniqueness and social incorrectness that he represents. This strange man is her “pickup,” and she is excited that her father and his friends obviously disapprove.

Gordimer’s writing portrays an insincere love between the two main characters. Their connection is more sexual than anything else; their love is tainted by ulterior motives. Abdu likes that Julie comes from a higher class and that she has an influential father with a slew of connections who could help raise his status in the world. Julie likes the fact that her relationship with Abdu is a blatant defiance to convention.

A major crisis occurs when Julie’s “pickup,” who happens to be an illegal immigrant, is ordered out of the country. Abdu’s real name is Ibrahim ibn Musa. He, like her, is escaping the life he was born into. He deals with his restless nature by picking up and moving to whatever country will take him; he is constantly on the move to find something better. He looks toward the future, disregarding the all-important present. Julie, on the other hand, thrusts herself into the moment. Gordimer emphasizes Julie’s initiative by having her make the decision to move with Ibrahim to his country. Once there, Julie delves into the new culture. While Ibrahim, who never allows himself to enjoy the present, is busy struggling to obtain visas to some other country, any other country, she is living and learning. He feels he has to protect her pampered sensibilities from the coarse reality of his culture. She needs no protection; she is willing to risk dirty bathrooms and try her hand at cooking for the sake of adventure. She even learns the language of Ibrahim’s people with great interest.

The novel’s epigraph, “Let us go to another country… / the rest is understood / just say the word,” by William Plomer, is somewhat misleading. The couple does journey to another country, but all is not understood between the two. They look at their time in this place with different sets of eyes. When Julie looks into the surrounding desert she sees beauty and opportunity. When Ibrahim looks into the desert, he only sees desolation that he must escape from at all costs. It seems that their love is not strong enough to bridge their opposing outlooks.

The Pickup is enjoyable, but has loose edges. Gordimer composes beautiful sentences with masterful images, but they can be baffling. The novel’s harmonious, liquid style, which weaves a simple love story, doesn’t quite make up for its length or melodramatic mood. Still, it is worth the effort of climbing through the elongated drama and elusive passages just to experience the beauty that is the prose. In The Pickup, Gordimer shows that love does not always transcend the physical and emotional needs of individuals. Julie’s “pickup” changes her and allows her to experience a new world, but the love that beckons is not enough to keep her from living her own life.

THE PICKUP

by Nadine Gordimer

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

270 pp., $24