The Power of One

By: Bryce Courtenay

Narrated by: Humphrey Bower

Length: 21 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

"First with your head and then with your heart." So says Hoppie Groenewald, boxing champion, to a seven-year-old boy who dreams of being the welterweight champion of the world. For the young Peekay, it is a piece of advice he will carry with him throughout his life.

Born in a South Africa divided by racism and hatred, this one small boy will come to lead all the tribes of Africa. Through enduring friendships with Hymie and Gideon, Peekay gains the strength he needs to win out. And in a final conflict with his childhood enemy, the Judge, Peekay will fight to the death for justice.

©2013 Christine Courtenay (P)2014 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Inspiring, Beautifully Written, A++

This is the book is simply put, great literature. Bryce Courtenay’s writing is beautiful, almost poetic without being long winded. His descriptions are elegant. His characters are fully developed. The fact that the story takes place in a time and place which affected world history makes it all the more meaningful.
I would compare “ The power of one“ to Forrest Gump, in that while the main character is fictional, the events he lives through tell a story of history, human nature, love, relationships and much more.
I’m sorry that there was a movie version of this book because people may think they know the story. We all know the book is better but this story, more than most can’t possibly be in a two hour movie.
Think of the book as a life story and the movie as a memoir, a mere slice of the whole.

Loved it!

The narration was fantastic! The storyline and the characters were great. I was fascinated throughout… it was difficult to put down at times. But it is a great read!

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what a required waste of time to write this in order to rate book

Good story, great characters

The book starts great and very entertaining with strong good characters. I would give it 5 stars if I would rate it half way. But it gets a little blander and repetitive at the end, still very good but not great.

Wonderful performance, waning story

The performance by Humphrey Bower was amazing with all the voices. The story started out well, but waned in the middle, and finally crescendoed into the ending. Overall an entertaining “coming-of-age” story.

Don’t let the boxing theme chase you off

I’m not a fan of boxing so I hesitated to read this book. Don’t wait! It’s wonderfully written and gives such color and heart to South Africa and all her people. The language can be a bit rough when it comes to the racism that enveloped SA, but keep in mind the era in which the story takes place. I loved every minute!

One of the best books I have ever read or listened to!

Wonderful narration, such an awfully uplifting story. Just love love loved this book. I am going to listen to it again and now I want to watch the movie.

Excellent narration 

One of my all-time favorite stories. Opened my eyes to the mental and physical power of boxing 

Compelling story lifted higher by the narration

After several listens to books by Bryce Courtenay, it strikes me that this author's books, narrated by Humphrey Bower, represent something of the ideal in mainstream, audiobook fiction. The stories are vivid, well-plotted, with stirring story arcs. The narration is superb, with Bower handling a variety of accents and personalities and sexes in deft and entrancing form.
Yes, Peekay's accomplishments strain credulity. But only if you stop to add it up in a dispassionate accounting. Swept along by the story, it is not an issue. He is ruled by a genuine sense of humility that saves the day. The story is marked by great struggles to overcome injustices and stiff odds, some perhaps stereotyped villains and saints, but also nuanced and unique characters to balance it out.
There are two early significant characters that I expected might reappear. One, the 'good' one I thought surely should; the other, the 'bad' I thought could. Only one did reappear and it was the latter. I was surprised it was not both. This is not the kind of story to worry too much about convenient twists and turns.
The German character Doc is wonderful, especially the way that Bowers brings him to life. I never tired of his superlative 'absodoodle'. On occasion it brought tears to my eyes. Of all the audiobooks I have listened to in the past ten years, only the Courtenay/Bower combination has done that - and consistently.

ABSOLOODLE

FIRST WITH THE HEAD, THEN WITH THE HEART
This is a great book that should appeal to several different people. The first reason it will appeal to most is that fact that it is so well written. I am Jim, The Impatient, but I listened to all 21+ hours. It is a coming of age story, history of South Africa, history with references to Hitler and it has lots of boxing. Not knowing that much about South Africa, I felt I learned much. I got some of the perspective of how the Germans felt about the English before the War and I learned about APARTHEID.

EVERYONE IS AN ISLAND AND AT THE SAME TIME, ROBINSON CRUSOE.
Peekay, starts life out fairly rough. He is sent to border school at the age of five. He is the youngest there. A bully makes a habit of picking on him right from the start. Some of the torture this small boy goes through can be hard to take. To help him through it, he has a pet rooster. The first person to really treat Peekay with any kindness is a boxer. Peekay watches this man fight early on and this changes his life. For the rest of his life, his goal is to become welter weight champion of the world. Peekay's tough childhood and the kindness of the boxer, strengthen him and establishes his character. The strength of his character and they strong friendships he makes is the rest of the book. It is all very intelligently written and entertaining.

THE PRESUMPTION OF THE WHITE MAN KNOWS NO BOUNDS IN AFRICA.
This is a real good story on how the blacks where treated at this time. This alone makes the book valuable. Peekay makes friends with several blacks and becomes a hero to the people. I will agree with another reviewer and it did bother me and that is, what a shame that we have a white man hero. I would like to read a book where a black man becomes a hero. The statement of The Presumption of the white man also reminded me of a time in my childhood. When I was in fourth grade I knew nothing about South Africa, then a girl moved to our town from South Africa. One day she showed beautiful pictures of the country and talked about South Africa. She mentioned something about the crime and the worry of blacks raping whites. Only knowing what I had seen on tv about Africa and thinking of all of Africa as one country, I asked about all the naked black women. She commented to me "Everybody knows white flesh is more desirable then black flesh." She said it like I was an idiot. WE ARE OF THE EARTH, THAT IS WHY WE ARE THE COLOR OF THE EARTH.

SHAKE A PAW
The narrator is good and makes the listening better then the reading.