The Pickup
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| The Pickup | |
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| Author | Nadine Gordimer |
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| Country | South Africa |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Penguin Books |
| Media type | Paperback and hardcover |
| Pages | 270 pp (US Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0-14-311335-5 |
The Pickup (2001) is a novel by South African writer Nadine Gordimer, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991.
The novel opens with a woman whose car has broken down in the middle of a busy South African street. This event leads to this woman (Julie) to meet Abdu, the car mechanic. Through their relationship, motifs such as race, culture, expectation, identity, wealth vs. poverty, among others are explored.
[edit] Plot Points
- Julie meets Abdu (in an unnamed city in South Africa).
- Abdu turns out to be an illegal immigrant, and is scheduled to leave the country.
- Julie decides to accompany Abdu to his unnamed home country.
- Julie and Abdu marry before departing.
- The couple lives at the place of Abdu's parents (in an unnamed Middle East country).
- Abdu fails to get legal asylum in other countries.
- Abdu declines the offer of his uncle to become partner in his car repair shop.
- Julie and Abdu are finally granted an immigration visa to the United States.
- Julie decides to stay behind as Abdu departs for the United States.
[edit] External links
- The Pickup is the selected reading for the 2007 Cornell University New Student Reading Project.
- The Pickup was on the Longlist for the 2001 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
