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Review
"The best description of a childhood I have ever read." -- "The Times"
"As funny, cruel and terrifying as life itself. It is also intense and elegant, clearly the product of the complex, subtle imagination which shapes Coetzee's outstanding fiction... As austerely beautiful as would be expected of Coetzee the artist... its aloof, edgy grace and seething passion ensure the narrative is both truthful and mysterious." -- "Irish Times"
"A deeply-felt and utterly compelling account of a South African childhood: the narrative style is as spare and lean as the Karoo flatlands which form its backdrop." -- "Daily Telegraph"
"As funny, cruel and terrifying as life itself. It is also intense and elegant, clearly the product of the complex, subtle imagination which shapes Coetzee's outstanding fiction... As austerely beautiful as would be expected of Coetzee the artist... its aloof, edgy grace and seething passion ensure the narrative is both truthful and mysterious." -- "Irish Times"
"A deeply-felt and utterly compelling account of a South African childhood: the narrative style is as spare and lean as the Karoo flatlands which form its backdrop." -- "Daily Telegraph"
The Times
'Coetzee has achieved something universal in his work…a fine book, probably the best description of a childhood I have ever read'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
In this youth memories, J.M. Coetzee defines himself as `twice-born: `born from woman and born from the farm'. He is, first of all, a mother's son (`he clings to her as his only protector'), but `the farm is his secret fate'.
Growing up in a rude and unsocialized family with eccentric characters, with a father who becomes an alcoholic and a mother, for whom `studying is just nonsense' and `children should be sent to trade school', he nevertheless continues to study `normally'.
Through school, he discovers the real world around him: the different social classes, the opposition (and ostracism) between black / colored and white (race), English and Afrikaans (language), and Catholic / Protestant and Anglican (religion).
This clear, sublime, impeccable prose is a far cry from J.M. Coetzee's struggling `Beckettian' beginnings.
Its undercooled, accurate and still dramatic style makes this book a marvelous and moving read.
Growing up in a rude and unsocialized family with eccentric characters, with a father who becomes an alcoholic and a mother, for whom `studying is just nonsense' and `children should be sent to trade school', he nevertheless continues to study `normally'.
Through school, he discovers the real world around him: the different social classes, the opposition (and ostracism) between black / colored and white (race), English and Afrikaans (language), and Catholic / Protestant and Anglican (religion).
This clear, sublime, impeccable prose is a far cry from J.M. Coetzee's struggling `Beckettian' beginnings.
Its undercooled, accurate and still dramatic style makes this book a marvelous and moving read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Initially it is rather unsettling to read an autobiography of sorts written in the 3rd person and it takes a while to settle into the pace of the book. But after a while it spins it's magic and pulls you in as do most of Coetzee's works. It's a fabulous evocation of childhood, made more moving by the bizarre backdrop of South Africa at the time - segregation and ostracization was rife across all of SA, including it's children. JMC's spare, clinical, unemotional writing style somehow manages to stir powerful emotions in the reader and reading the book is, perhaps surprisingly, a genuinely moving experience.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of the best books I have read on the subject of childhood. The narration of the young S. African boy is so compelling and emotional. Describing his fears, worries, his questions on life that no one gives an answer to. Coetzee has managed to sum up the (sometimes) terrifying process of growing up in one book.
Very real, very true and very touching. This book has melted my heart...
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