Classics are hard to write about, because everything about them has been said much better by more learned scholars. The Grass is Singing is a truly exceptional book, because the plot is realistic and consistent on so many levels - human relationships, history, societal mechanisms, racism, economy of farming - while staying short, just 300 pages. As a student decades ago used to like discourse analysis, how it decostructs texts to find out how they reify social order, conventions and power structures by handing out roles, expectations and standards in everyday conversations and behaviours. The Grass is Singing is a treasure trove of such intricate negotiations. It starts with omnipresent racism (but certainly does not stop there.) However, the situation is far from stable. On the one hand the colonial masters tell stories and dream about past days when they could mistreat their labour as they pleased. On the other hand exit equals voice. Mistreatment is kept in check by the need for