009 The Pickup

The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer, 2001.


A rich white woman from South Africa falls for a Middle Eastern illegal immigrant. When he is deported, she decidedly buys two tickets and follows him to his village. After nearly a year and much effort, he is granted a visa into the U.S.; however, she tells him, two days before departure, that she will stay in the village.

Abdu, later identified as Ibrahim il Musa, hungers for the lifestyle Julie rejects while she desires the life in the village bordering the desert. Both believe the other is naive to want what they do not.

The Pickup is a complicated book about love, taking changes, identity, imagined places, seeking out the kinds of fantasies that are the opposite of what one knows, a hunger and drive to fulfill oneself, regardless of the opinion of others. Both characters are like that and through a series of events, they help each other reach the footholds of spaces where their imagined selves begin to form.

It's a book that sneaks up on you. Bravo.