#2 Summertime - J.M. Coetzee

Quote from the inside cover
" A young English biographer is researching a book about the late South African writer John Coetzee, focusing on Coetzee in this thirties, at a time when he was living in a rundown cottage in the Cape Town suburbs with his widowed father - a time, the biographer is convinced, when Coetzee was finding himself as a writer. Never having met the man himself, the biographer interviews five people who knew Coetzee well, including a married woman with whom he had an affair, his cousin Margot and a Brazilian dancer whose daughter took English lessons with him. These accounts create an image of an awkward, reserved and bookish young man who finds it difficult to make a meaningful connections with the people around him."

Sadly, I think the front cover is a perfect description of exactly how the book ends up, with an inability to make a meaningful connection. I understand that Coetzee was trying to discuss the role of a writer in the public eye and, more interestingly in my opinion, the discussion of some white South Africans of Coetzee's generation feeling not at rest in their own country due to racial tensions. It was interesting how John is depicted as being disconnected from everything and everyone except his ideas. I also think it's interesting how Mr. Vincent (the researcher) interviews 5 people he's decided who are important to John, and yet from John's own diary he doesn't mention any of the people he interviews and mostly discusses his relationship with his father. I think there is an interesting discussion about how others perceive you and the inner reality of what shapes you.

I did like the book, the writing is fabulous, however due to the character's disconnect from John (the main character who only gets a voice at the very beginning and the end of the novel) I didn't become fully engrossed in the novel. I would definitely recommend this novel and would give it *** out of ***** stars.

For another guardian book review please see the following: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/06/jm-coetzee-summertime