Conversational Reading

Obviously Novels Are ConstructedShare

Stephen Mitchelmore offers my first reasons to want to read Summertime and Diary of a Bad Year:

The Complete Review offers another curious judgement: “Coetzee is an incredibly talented writer and a master craftsman — and, yes, this is a meticulously crafted book, and one of [Summertime's] weaknesses is that it is so . . . continue reading Obviously Novels Are Constructed

Summertime Excerpt WatchShare

Another one just popped up ($$$) in Harper's. This one takes the form of a mock interview with a woman whom a man referred to as "Coetzee" once propositioned, the woman declining because "Coetzee" seemed "soft."

Movie Trailer: Disgrace by JM CoetzeeShare

Oddly enough, they've made a movie of what is probably JM Coetzee's most popular novel, Disgrace. And odder yet, it stars John Malkovich as the philandering professor Lurie. The trailer:

Looks almost decent, doesn't it? Although, I have my doubts . . . bad book = good movie, and vice versa.

For . . . continue reading Movie Trailer: Disgrace by JM Coetzee

Summertime by JM CoetzeeShare

Moving into prolific author territory, J.M. Coetzee will be publishing his 20th book in late summer, the aptly titled Summertime. Hat tip to the Literary Saloon for the head’s-up.

The book doesn’t yet have a U.S. Amazon webpage, although it is listed on the Wikipedia J.M. Coetzee page, where it has been grouped . . . continue reading Summertime by JM Coetzee

Coetzee and CrossreferencingShare

Matthew Cheney:

And then I realized that I was marking up my teaching copy of Michael K. as if I were marking up a poem.  I looked, then, at my teaching copy of Disgrace,
from when I used it in a class a few years ago. The same thing. Lots of
circled words, lots of "cf."s . . . continue reading Coetzee and Crossreferencing

Coetzee on NooteboomShare

I enjoy few novelists as critics as much as when JM Coetzee steps in to contribute on essay. He’s already written eloquently on Cees Nooteboom in the past, and here he is again, discussing the recently translated Lost Paradise.

Do angels exist? Does God exist? It is not only in the universe of
postmodern fiction . . . continue reading Coetzee on Nooteboom

Why Did Coetzee Leave South Africa?Share

Given that Coetzee’s personal life intrudes on his writing to a greater degree that most novelists at work today, I found this article interesting reading.

A host of questions lurk behind that simple sentence. Why would a
novelist who has written so powerfully about the land of his birth pack
up and leave? . . . continue reading Why Did Coetzee Leave South Africa?

A Review of the New JM CoetzeeShare

That and more in the new Bookforum.

In fiction, Coetzee’s efforts to come to terms with apartheid resulted, early in his career, in the haunting allegory of Waiting for the Barbarians
(1980), an exploration of the ways in which empires rise, consolidate,
oppress, and fall. Written in a language that is both . . . continue reading A Review of the New JM Coetzee

Diary of a Bad YearShare

Steve Mitchelmore shares some thoughts on Coetzee's newest:

The writer asks along the way: "Why can there no discourse about
politics that is not itself political?". We might wonder in turn: why
can there be no novel that is not also just a novel – a work of a
masterful imagination? The questions are essentially . . . continue reading Diary of a Bad Year