Although there is a lot of information about South African politics that was new to me, it wasn't dry or really even that much over my head! The detail about how apartheid came to exist, and the methods of resistance they used against it, was really interesting.
There are a couple of other books I'd like to read about Mandela's life, including Conversations with Myself, a compilation of primary documents from Mandela's papers. Apparently Mr. Mandela was sometimes uncomfortable with how he was portrayed as nearly perfect. In an unfinished autobiography that was to follow Long Walk to Freedom, he wrote,
One issue that deeply worried me in prison was the false image that I unwittingly projected to the outside world; of being regarded as a saint. I never was one, even on the basis of an earthly definition of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.
A film adaptation of the book was released last year and I haven't seen it, but I have my doubts that it could present Mandela's life in enough detail to be satisfying.
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