J.M. Coetzee: Elizabeth Costello

[Cocko]

Here's one from 2003:

Based on several previously published articles by Coetzee (and a couple of new ones), Elizabeth Costello is essentially a collection of essays, or lessons, on the nature of writing, and more importantly reading. Linking these themes is Costello, an aging Australian author who seemingly revels in the success of past glories as she reluctantly accepts a series invitations around the world, an irony buried in her reliance on well-worn rhetoric. Yet it is this irony that is most enticing, Costello’s shell cracks, increasingly challenging her contemporaries and ultimately her own beliefs.

This fragmented collection is to be applauded on one level as it is a unique way to present a collection of disparate stories, encased in the fiction of one person’s final years. However, I’m not sure there was enough development of Costello’s personality to carry the novel’s philosophical weight. It is obvious that Coetzee is experimenting with the device of lessons as a bedrock for character development, but for me it was the issues alluded to - the relationships between mother and son, the sparsely mentioned daughter and ex-lovers - rather than the issues addressed - animal rights and eroticism - that carry the reader from chapter to chapter.

But of course, that is to focus heavily on the narrative of Costello the character, one could just as easily review this book from the substance of lessons alone. On that level Coetzee is raising some fascinating topics, through which the prism of fiction allows his to work up both sides of the argument, achieved to great effect in lesson two, The Novel in Africa. Still, the lessons that ring the loudest for me are those in which Costello faces an internal, rather than external, debate, the strongest of these were The Problem of Evil and At the Gate. Each embodies a power not matched elsewhere, achieving the right balance of exploring the lesson’s theme and adding to our understanding of Costello’s character.

It is a strange little book in which to first start reading Coetzee, although this is his first post-Nobel work it is not this prize, nor his double wins of the Booker Prize and Commonwealth Writers Prize that drew me in. If is was I would have probably started with the much lauded Disgrace. Rather, I chose Elizabeth Costello because I am interested in how Coetzee has approached writing about an Australian protagonist, his nuance in identity. A unique perspective as Coetzee is now Australian citizen, living in Adelaide for about the last five years.

From what is written about Coetzee it is obvious he isn’t one to embrace the limelight, it seems he is reluctant for any attention beyond his published work. So as a reflection of the man himself, Elizabeth Costello provides a surprising insight to its author, as opposed to the author it presents. On this level, Coetzee deals with at least three important issues we accept are vital to his own character: the future of South African literature, the identity of his adopted homeland and the varied moral debates of literature. Added to this are obvious issue of passion: animal rights, evil, belief systems, etc. But in these instances we are left wondering if Coetzee agrees or disagrees with Costello. But then again, maybe that is the final lesson.

How's this for a cracking passage:

'The future of the novel is not a subject I am much interested in’ she beings, trying to give her auditors a jolt. ‘In fact the future is general does not much interest me. What is the future, after all, but a structure of hopes and expectations? Its residence is in the mind; it has no reality.’

‘Of course, you might reply that the past is likewise a fiction. The past is history, and what is history but a story made up of air that we tell ourselves? Nevertheless, there is something miraculous about the past is that we have succeeded - God only knows - in making thousands and millions of individual fictions, fictions created by individual human beings, locked well enough into one another to give us what looks like a common past, a shared story.’

‘The future is different. We do not possess a shared story of the future. The creation of the past seems to exhaust our collective creative energies. Compared with our fiction of the past, our fiction of the future is a sketchy, bloodless affair, as visions of heaven tend to be. Of heaven and even of hell.’

[Stewart]

I had never realised it wasn't a fully fledged novel per se, but a gathering of disparate pieces. I suppose I've thought like that because Costello turns up in his later novel, Slow Man. (In my head I've seen it as a sequel.)

I intend to read some Coetzee in the near future. Have only read Disgrace years ago.

I was very impressed with EC and also the Lives of Animals. EC is a great new Coetzee character, and I thought his writing as both the old woman and the son were just heart wrenching. Just an amazing writer, IMO

[Igu Soni]

I tried this one right after Waiting for the Barbarians and never got past the first chapter. I decided after the third time that I was going to wait to read this.
Also, I've read it argued that the non-fiction part is not Coetzee's opinions but Costello's. What do you think of that?

Originally Posted by Igu Soni

I tried this one right after Waiting for the Barbarians and never got past the first chapter. I decided after the third time that I was going to wait to read this.
Also, I've read it argued that the non-fiction part is not Coetzee's opinions but Costello's. What do you think of that?

Interesting thought, I guess that means that you think the character has a life beyond that which the author has made for them? For a Coetzee character, I could believe it.....

now, as for your problem jumping from Barbarians to EC......hmmm.......was not much of a problem for me....I think, however, that since I have read the Coetzees as they came out, my understanding and ability to understand and appreciate his books has grown along with his writing....so, I'd recco jumping therefore from Barbarian to Life and Times of Michael K ( a favorite for me, since my real name is Michael K______) Here's the Wikipedia list for chronology....Age of Iron is fantastic, too


Dusklands (1974) ISBN 0-14-024177-9
In the Heart of the Country (1977) ISBN 0-14-006228-9
Waiting for the Barbarians (1980) ISBN 0-14-006110-X
Life & Times of Michael K (1983) ISBN 0-14-007448-1
Foe (1986) ISBN 0-14-009623-X
Age of Iron (1990) ISBN 0-14-027565-7
The Master of Petersburg (1994) ISBN 0-14-023810-7
The Lives of Animals (1999) ISBN 0-691-07089-X
Disgrace (1999) ISBN 0-09-928952-0
Elizabeth Costello (2003) ISBN 0-670-03130-5
Slow Man (2005) ISBN 0-670-03459-2
Diary of a Bad Year (2007) ISBN 8-465-5120-X

[Liam]

Originally Posted by Igu Soni

Also, I've read it argued that the non-fiction part is not Coetzee's opinions but Costello's. What do you think of that?

Personally, I think they are his opinions (at least as far as this particular book is concerned). All of the "chapters" of this very unconventional novel (with the exception of At the Gate) were previously published as essays in serious literary magazines. The two or three animal lectures at the center of the narrative were also previously published in one volume: The Lives of Animals.

Furthermore, I believe there's nothing about Elizabeth Costello's "original" opinions with which Coetzee himself wouldn't agree, whereas it is absolutely clear that Dostoyevsky, say, does NOT agree with the ideas of his protagonist in Crime and Punishment. So yeah, they are HIS ideas, both as in, they're in the book(s) he wrote AND he lives by them, as well.

A curious side-note: it was once mentioned to me by a South African lecturer at my old college that Elizabeth Costello was a kind of anagram for Coetzee's own last name. There are plenty of "extra" letters left over, of course, but the main point was, some critics thought she represented the writer himself as a fictional character, sort of like Vladimir Nabokov's Vivian Darkbloom in Lolita.


Hope this was of help--



Regards,
L.

[Igu Soni]

Yeah, Liam, it was of help. Thanks.