CRY THE RELOVED COUNTRY

At times an affecting story of the whites and the blacks of South Africa. In humble Rev. Stephen Kumalo's earthly pilgrimage to find his sick sister, his vanished son, the brother of whom he has lost track, he sees the wrongs and the few rights of the color situation in Johannesburg, finds a helping kindness and some warm understanding. The final discovery of his son is tempered by the boy's having killed a white man. Through the murder, Kumalo gets to know the dead man's father better. On his return to his country parish Kumalo sees the rewards of faith in the aid old Jarvis gives, for the health of babies, education in agriculture, the rebuilding of the church. A handling of choral-like interludes, a shifting montage of people affected by the incidents of the story, the staccato quality of the dialog with its stylized Zulu forms, keep the narrative from a smooth pace. But the material is distinctive.