Playing the Enemy

I just finished reading the part of Playing the Enemy I was interested in. My librarian wife shook her head sadly, more from force of habit than from any real grief. I was so delighted by the movie, Invictus, and it wasn't until the second viewing that I noticed it was based on a book by John Carlin. But the book really is bigger than the movie. There is a great deal in it about Nelson Mandela's courtship of his jailers, and his political opponents, and the South African Rugby Association.

The next time I read this book, I will probably start at the beginning and read it all. If I do, it will be because that new material is now the material I am in contact with. I can presume the World Cup of 1995, which is when the South African rugby team "played the enemy" and go on to the new material that is now right next door. Had I begun at the beginning, it would have been two doors away—too far-- and I probably would not have finished the book.

I recommend this book to anyone who is seriously interested in reconciliation in any larger social setting. If the leadership of my church, for instance, were to stop whatever it is doing and read this book--just the part about the game--they would return to their work with a renewed sense of what is possible and what is might cost. Worse things could happen.