Next book: a Coetzee

I had been wanting to read a Coetzee for ages! I remember going to the library in Plymouth, and figuring that whatever it is they don't have; surely they have the Nobel prize for literature winners. I was wrong! And it hadn't happened ever since either. Until I was visiting Roelof. He lent me one! And he picked Summertime. And I am now reading through my pile of books people have lent or given me, so I tackled this one as well.

I don't think I need to say anything about spoiler alerts! There isn't a plot in this book, so I can't reveal it. But it has an unusual structure. It presents itself as notes gathered by a biographer who wants to write a book about a particular few years in the life of John Coetzee. Some of these notes are extracts from Coetzee’s diaries, and the rest are interviews with people who featured in the diaries, who the prospective biographer has managed to track down, and who are willing to talk to him. So you get some disjointed memories from that time, from six different perspectives. It totally worked for me!

I like books and which not much happens. Just some people struggling through life is interesting enough for me. And Coetzee seems a bit ill at ease in his skin and his family and in South Africa. I would imagine this (at least the latter) is autobiographical; in real life, as in the book, he did leave the country.

The book is in English, but people do say things to each other in Afrikaans. It was mildly annoying that they always provide the translation as well. If you're Dutch, you don't need it! But well, most people are not Dutch. 

I am already moving on in my big pile, which features no further works by this author. But if the opportunity presents itself again to read a Coetzee, I would take it! On the basis of this first book I like his style. But first I'll deal with some non-fiction, and some Dutch fiction. Enough to do!