Conservationist

Meetaphorical novel. Mehring is a rich, white industrialist in South Africa in the 1970s. His wife has left him, his son is filled with youthful rebellion against his father's way of life, his liberal-minded mistress has fled the country to avoid arrest, and he has bought a farm that he visits on the weekends, providing instructions for the black overseer, persuading himself that he is necessary for the success of the farm. No great and dramatic events occur--rather a series of small encounters and happenings which hint that his control is gradually slipping away.