J. M. Coetzee

[Igu Soni]

Coetzee is one of my favourite writers. Not because he is so much better, but because
a) his range of voices appeals to me.
b) He, with his Waiting for the Barbarians, got me into serious reading.
c) I found this forum by googling Disgrace.

He is a really depressed guy, judging from his books, but he handles that depression well, analysing it rigorously and in a detached(I spelt this wrong, didn't I?) manner. Very often, we see his own depression extending to the world and the world working its way into him.

Oeuvre:
Dusklands: A story in two parts, something like a rehash of Lord of the Flies. The first part is about a propaganda creator in the Vietnam war, and the second the story of a merchant/explorer in the early days of South African colonialism. Both of these pieces are highly psychedelic, and (surprisingly enough) come together quite well as a novel. My rating:
In The Heart of the Country: Set of diary entries of a lonely young woman trapped in a South African farm. Again, psychedelic. My rating:
Waiting for the Barbarians: A district magistrate of the border town of an unnamed empire trying to deal with Government officials wreaking havoc in the barbarian situation. Possibly his best(all such claims on general consensus).
Life & Times of Michael K: Black (never actually said in the book) hare-lipped not-too-bright young man finds true freedom. Second of three candidates for the title of his best.
Foe: Interpretative rehash of/sequel to Robinson Crusoe. Haven't read it.
Age of Iron: Dying college professor coming face-to-face with horrors of Apartheid. Haven't read it.
The Master of Petersburg: Written after Coetzee's son's death, account of the life of Dostoevsky right after his stepson's death. Too searing; coudn't finish it (because of lack of time, actually ).
Boyhood: Semi-memoir, vol I
Disgrace: Old man coming to terms with a new paradigm of power in his native South Africa. Third candidate for his best. (going to reread this properly in December).
Youth: Semi-memoir, vol II
Elizabeth Costello: Coetzee-ish female writer giving life-lessons or something of the sort. Couldn't get past the first chapter.
Slow Man: Some guy loses his leg, gets grumpy, Costello from above comes to help him. Will read after former.
Diary of a Bad Year: Arrogant author shown his place in life by hot young woman and snobby boyfriend in a delightfully experimental novel. , because the human story was a bit too thin.
Summertime: Semi-memoir, vol III (final one, it would seem).

Achievements:
First guy to get Booker twice(Life & Time of Michael K and Disgrace)
Won the Nobel in '03

He used to be South African, but has now shifted to Australia.

Threads here about his books:
Disgrace
Diary of a Bad Year
Elizabeth Costello
Waiting for the Barbarians
Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life

[Igu Soni]

Additional piece of info: Eric hates/is creeped out by this guy.

[Stiffelio]

I like Coetzee, to a certain extent. I find him uneven. Ironically, his best books - the early ones - are his less personal. His superb Waiting for the Barbarians reads like a re-make of Dino Buzzatti's The Desert of the Tartars. And his best book, The Life and Times of Michael K, is a direct homage to Kafka. I also read Disgrace, but was not all that impressed by it. I thought it was a clever but conceited book. I guess at some point I shall revisit Coetzee and give him another chance.

[Igu Soni]

I like Coetzee, to a certain extent. I find him uneven. Ironically, his best books - the early ones - are his less personal.

I like his first four best too.

His superb Waiting for the Barbarians reads like a re-make of Dino Buzzatti's The Desert of the Tartars. And his best book, The Life and Times of Michael K, is a direct homage to Kafka.

Thanks for reminding me: the title Waiting for the Barbarians was lifted from this brilliant poem.

I guess at some point I shall revisit Coetzee and give him another chance.

I'd suggest In the Heart of the Country, based on your preference of Waiting for the Barbarians.


Also, whoever put that flag, thanks; I didn't know whether to put Australian or South African.

[miercuri]

I only read Disgrace, a very powerful book, in the sense that it strikes you. I couldn't put it down but at the same time it felt uncomfortable to read. One of the best I've read this year, I plan on reading The Life and Times of Michael K next.

[Stewart]

Also, whoever put that flag, thanks; I didn't know whether to put Australian or South African.

I chose South African. He may have attained Australian citizenship, but the majority of his life - not to mention his work - belongs in South Africa.

[Daniel del Real]

Coetzee is one of my favorite writers, although I've only read 5 of his books. His ability to describe the cruelty and the pain existance in the world is like no one else. His books are always full of anger, frustration and hope comes like a small window, not knowing if it will come or if it will last.
Personally, along with Pamuk, the best Nobel awarded this decade.
These are the books I've read in chronological reading order:

Waiting for the Barbarians
Disgrace
Life & Times of Michael K
Age of Iron
Slow Man

All of them are great novels, but I have to say my personal favorite is Disgrace

P.S. Don't worry, Eric is creeped out by everything that is not European

[Clarissa]

South African - I have read Coetzee - Disgrace, Life and Times of Michael K and The Master of St. Petersburg.The last one a far cry from South Africa as the title indicates. He is a very literary writer; by that I mean he refers to other writers either to their work or directly to the author himself. This is the case for The Master of St. Petersburg, where Dostoyevsky is the main protagonist.

Other South African writers whose work is worth reading, Andr? Brink, Breytenbach and, of course, Nadine Gordimer.

[Eric]

Yes indeed, Igu Soni. I find that Coetzee is one of the most creepy-looking contemporary writers from among those whose photos we are often confronted with. I tried to read "Disgrace", highly recommended to me a by an Afrikaner academic as I have mentioned several times before, but I found the rendering of the plot as cold as the stare of its author.

Of all the authors' photos posted up on the other thread here, only Lovecraft comes anywhere near the creepiness of Coetzee, judging by appearances. I doubt if Coetzee's contact lenses are to blame.

Somehow, I just don't want to read his books. Prejudice, for sure. But there are so many other writers queueing up for my attention, many of whom look warmer, more human.

I prefer South African writers such as Ingrid Jonker, Ingrid Winterbach, plus a few other Afrikaners who are not called Ingrid.

[waalkwriter]

I'd disagree with you Daniel, I don't consider Pamuk one of the better Nobel's awarded this decade, Doris Lessing and Le Clezio were the most deserving of the winners, and they are my favorite authors of the winners, though I like Coetzee, though he always seems strange in descriptions of him by people who know him, like he rarely talks, he's reclusive, he goes for hours long bike rides and devotedly writes for hours a day.

Speaking of Booker's Peter Carey also won it twice, and I like him a little more than Coetzee, though I admit I need to read more of Coetzee because I've only read Disgrace. I'm waiting for Carey to win a Nobel sometime, he probably will before his career is over.

[ferns_dad]

I've read all of the JMC stuff. The autobiographies are wonderful.

[Daniel del Real]

I'd disagree with you Daniel, I don't consider Pamuk one of the better Nobel's awarded this decade, Doris Lessing and Le Clezio were the most deserving of the winners, and they are my favorite authors of the winners, though I like Coetzee, though he always seems strange in descriptions of him by people who know him, like he rarely talks, he's reclusive, he goes for hours long bike rides and devotedly writes for hours a day.

Again, different opinions. What I've read from Lessing and Le Clezio hasn't been exciting at all for me. I don't how I was able to finish Le Clezio's Quarantine. Just awful.

[Heteronym]

though he always seems strange in descriptions of him by people who know him, like he rarely talks, he's reclusive, he goes for hours long bike rides and devotedly writes for hours a day..

Well, according to the 'are you sociable' thread, most of us are reclusive people too. Riding a bicycle is a clean, healthy pastime. Perhaps he prefers that to wasting time with drunk people in nightly alcohol binges. As for writing several hours a day... isn't he a writer?

Looks like people are just looking for excuses to make him look quirky when all I see is a man leading a decent life we should envy.


Regarding the similarities with The Tartar Steppe, I disagree with Stiffelio. Coetzee's novel clearly drew inspiration from the idea of people living on a border waiting for an attack. But whereas Buzzati's was a mediation on people wasting their time waiting for something that never comes - the military allegory could easily be replaced with any other profession - Coetzee's novel is about the relationship between the people from the two sides of the border - the town people and the 'barbarians'. Plus it explores themes regarding racism and torture that never crossed Buzzati's mind. I'm less than 30 pages into the novel and it's not difficult to see they have little to do with each other.

[Backwords]

I read Elizabeth Costello and part of Slow Man, banal life of a contemporary academic put to page - a stranger next to me on the train asks what the book is "looks interesting" he says, because he saw the name Kafka on the page as we see next to every authors name in the blurbs on book jackets nowadays.

"Sameness!" - Leland Archer

[Stiffelio]

Coetzee is one of my favorite writers, ...Personally, along with Pamuk, the best Nobel awarded this decade.

I agree, but this only goes to prove how relatively poor and decadent this decade is compared to the 90s, when, except for the ugly duckling of Fo, they awarded it to literary giants such as Paz, Gordimer, Walcott, Morrison, Oe, Heaney, Szymborska, Saramago and Grass!!

[Igu Soni]

Somehow, I just don't want to read his books. Prejudice, for sure. But there are so many other writers queueing up for my attention, many of whom look warmer, more human.

We've all got ours, Eric.

[Daniel del Real]

I agree, but this only goes to prove how relatively poor and decadent this decade is compared to the 90s, when, except for the ugly duckling of Fo, they awarded it to literary giants such as Paz, Gordimer, Walcott, Morrison, Oe, Heaney, Szymborska, Saramago and Grass!!

Can't tell about Walcott, Heaney, Szymborska and Morrison because I haven't read the, thought they sound as very good choices from what I've heard.
However, Gordimer, Oe, Saramago, Grass and Paz are excellent choices that makes the 90's one of the best decades for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

[ferns_dad]

I really like the Elizabeth Costello stuff, its incredible on aging, and also the relationship of the son to the mother, very true to life, uncomfortably so.

Coetzee is also very concerned with animal rights, and his Rights of Animals book, which I remember being the intro to EC, is sort of puzzling, but again, awfully good.

I'd really reccomend reading his work in the order they were published. It would not surprise me that someone who liked Michael K and then jumped to Slow Man would find him a very different author......

In short, I think he's one of the most astonishing authors working today.

[Heteronym]

This guy has won my admiration on the basis of Waiting for the Barbarians alone. I'm sure that when the year ends and I go over the books I read in 2009, this will stand out as of the best.

[Liam]

...his Rights of Animals book, which I remember being the intro to EC, is sort of puzzling, but again, awfully good.

I'm sure you mean The Lives of Animals. There's nothing puzzling about animals having rights.