A Mantis Carol

Mantis Carol is without question one of my top ten all time favorite books. I've read it four or five times over the last 30 years, always around December 21st, weeping again and again as the portrayal of Bushman Hans Taiibosch in New York touches the wellsprings of my heart. This extraordinary man, alone in a foreign land bearing the unique depth of his own stone age culture and tradition within his heart, sharing it's dances and bearing a universal identification with the suffering and joys of all persons, in his own hidden suffering and love becomes an icon of Christ. Without the slightest hint of religiosity or doctrine, Sir Laurens Van Der Post weds anthropology and theology in a fascinating narrative that conveys this true synchronistic event from his life. Perhaps more than any white man on earth, Van Der Post knows and loves the vanishing Bushman people. His journey reveals the lasting power of that culture to affect modern civilization who have become incresingly cut off from and uncomprehending of our ancient past. We have betrayed the indigenous peoples within our own selves and in the world by seeking to own it and control it rather than belonging to it and loving it. The geonocide of the the first peoples all over the world is ultimately a genocide of us all. Yet there is hope. As the narrative brings Hans Taiibosch to life through the eyes of one whom he loved, the reader is confronted with human capacity to betray the Beloved over and over who even so, refuses to give up on loving us. An extraordinary portrayal.

A poignant story that successfully does the improbable and sifts the essence of the kalahari desert culture of the bushmen with the epitome of western culture in New York. A moving tribute to what makes us human through the eyes of both cultures. I highly recommend this as well as Van der Post's "A Story Like the Wind".

A beautiful account of a period in Van Der Post's life which tries to demonstrate the imponderable workings of love, of living myth and the weaving together of diverse lives into a single, greater synthesis. A profound, wordy and at times, utterly brilliant work.

A very intriguing story about the importance of myth in everyday life. At times, the writing is brilliant, poetic and powerful. At other times, it's more than a bit confusing. But it's a book that's definitely worth reading.

I loved this book. It is very short and can be read in a sitting, but it is really profound. The clash of African and American cultures is depicted with great tenderness, with no judgment about which is better. The courage of the bushman is great.