Shelley Walia and Manuela Lovisa Review Summertime by JM Coetzee

November 11th, 2009 by Jani

Verdict: carrot from Shelley Waila

IN old age one often withdraws from the world. No friends to fall back on and a world of solitude in which the last days are spent immersed in oneself or occupied with the remnants of an interest that one still relishes. Such is the case of J.M. Coetzee’s father, who lives in a rundown cottage on the outskirts of Cape Town. The only company he has is that of his son, who at the start of the novel is in his thirties and groping for a life of a writer. This is the back ground with which the story of his life begins in Summertime, a novel that is original, arresting and at times disturbing. Coetzee has captured the anxiety and ambiguity of his life in South Africa with terse, hypnotic language filled with the prospect of imminent violence that has been intrinsic to his intellectual and intuitive experience.
Summertime is the last of the trilogy of fictionalised memoirs begun with boyhood and youth. Coetzee is the hero of all the three, though it is debatable if the historical truth coincides with the fictionalised. He said recently at a lecture in Oxford that “those hoping to find the historical record tallying with the fictional record will be disappointed”, adding that he “played fast and loose with the historical record”.

Complete review in Frontline (India)

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Uitspraak: wortel van Manuela Lovisa

JM Coetzee se jongste fiktiewe outobiografie, Summertime, is die derde deel van ’n trilogie en word deur Boyhood en Youth voorafgegaan. Gesamentlik bied die werke ’n blik op die verskillende stadiums van Coetzee se lewe.
Tipies van sy werk daag die jongste toevoeging ook die tradisie van die outobiografie uit deur dit as geskiedkundige feite vermom as fiksie aan te bied.
Coetzee skryf in die derde persoon oor homself en ook uit die perspektief van ’n groep sprekers wat elkeen ’n kenmerkende, afsonderlike identiteit kry – Julia Frankl, die getroude vrou met wie Coetzee ’n stormagtige verhouding gehad het, Margot Jonker, ’n niggie met wie hy ’n groot en gekoesterde deel van sy kinderjare gedeel het, Adriana Nascimento, die Brasiliaanse immigrant en eksotiese danser op wie hy byna irrasioneel verlief geraak het, en ander.