Disturbingly enough, I had Elizabeth Costello, another one of his novels (side note: the character of Elizabeth plays a major role in his novel Slow Man) sitting on my shelf for several years until my father-in-law picked it off the shelf while passing through to Alpine, read it in two days, returned it, and proclaimed he was going to read all of Coetzee's stuff. How many times did I hunt for a good book and not even give a second glance to this novel? Further I do not have any recollection where I got the book from.
I'm also going to read everything he has. And, for those who are lucky enough to be English college teachers, his books are Penguins which means you can get them for free.
3 comments:
That is odd although it happens to me all the time. If I hadn't been introduced to Coetzee in a post-colonialism class in undergrad. Happy reading his whole oeuvre (how annoying to use that word and yet I couldn't think of another word.)
I'll have to give Coetzee another chance. I read Disgrace and though it was obviously well-written, I found it deeply unsatisfying.
I'm finished with Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello, and I'm with Middlebrow on this one. Notice I didn't say I completed it, because I could only suffer through 150 of the 230 or so pages of "well-written" but "deeply unsatisfying" boorish literary assembly of monological, oratorical diarrhea. Perhaps a wiser man would complete the whole book before pronouncing it a waste of a few good nights of reading this Thanksgiving week.
Unlike the time a couple years ago when I read 3 of the great Hemingway's "classics" (For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, and A Farewell to Arms) before realizing Earnie's suicide was justified and one I would have encouraged, I will NOT be reading anymore Coetzee. While some of the much ballyhooed authors deserve a second chance before passing judgement, and Cormac McCarthy was one such author who won me over after being on the fence with "The Road", I'm not up for any more of this drivel.
Post a Comment