The narrator of this long and convoluted novel [Rumours of Rain] is a mining entrepreneur whose confessions are intended to illustrate the thinking of South Africa's upper bourgeoisie—the sort of people who would not personally abuse a black but firmly support a government that does little else. The fellow's only principles are money and safety, and for them he betrays friend, colleague, brother, mother, wife, and mistress, and will eventually betray his son. Mr. Brink, himself a South African, makes this character entirely convincing but also, unfortunately, so predictable that in spite of the variety of episodes in which the man is involved—a real panorama of South African problems—he becomes tiresome.

Phoebe-Lou Adams, "PLA: 'Rumours of Rain'," in The Atlantic Monthly (copyright © 1978, by The Atlantic Monthly Company, Boston, Mass.; reprinted with permission), Vol. 242, No. 4, October, 1978, p. 117.