SOURCE: "The Politics of Good Intentions," in VLS, No. 28, September, 1984, pp. 6-8.

In the following essay, Hill discusses defining characteristics of Gordimer's fiction, in particular the impact of South Africa's political and social landscape on her work.

[Gordimer is] someone trapped in a world she cannot change. Her hope resides in a revolution others will have to bring about; her dream revolves in circles of betrayal, trust, and distrust. Gordimer is a master of the short story because she's compelled to be such a consummate ironist. Although she's best known for her novels, some of her finest writing and thinking occurs in the eight volumes of short stories she has published over the past 30 years. She's a virtuoso miniaturist, finding the precise form to represent an experience and the insight that attends it. But writing no more releases Gordimer from her impasse than it frees her readers (the...