pickWhat to make of a novel of essays? Apparently JMC took his own published essays and their criticism (good, tough criticism) and made a novel out of it, with an afterlife confrontation added in. Of course, these are Elizabeth Costello‘s speeches in the book.
So it works and also doesn‘t. First chapter of Realism is fantastic. Later obsession with the morality on veganism was ok - but, i had trouble caring. But i still kind of liked it overall.
Still warming my cat (and vice versa). Trying out Coetzee. Lovely 1st chapter toying with perspectives on Realism.
so-soThis book was a really difficult read because it was very upsetting. It is representative of South Africa and the tumultuous racial issues that are present there. I did not know enough to see the analogy and recognize that is a big reason why the book didn‘t resonate with me. 3/5
so-soA young black man is imprisoned for allegations of rape of a white woman in apartheid South Africa. As he sits in his prison cell awaiting execution, he recollects to a Swiss psychoanalyst his boyhood, his parents, his ambitions to become his country's preeminent writer: a life disrupted by an infatuation he develops for a woman suntanning on a segregated beach.
panI can see where the author was going but I just wasn‘t there with him.
so-soAn interesting if slightly depressing read. An emigrant and would be poet turned computer programmer struggles to reinvent himself in London.
pickThe real disgrace is,obviously, the apartheid past of South Africa. Its scars are palpable in this compelling story. But David Lurie, our protagonist, makes it all about him. He‘s growing old disgracefully. I‘ve not read a more superbly crafted, mean spirited, selfish person in a novel before. He‘s no Lecter, Bateman or anti-hero that you love to hate: He‘s just a complete narcissist & bastard & feels very real. I think the blurb contains spoilers
