The team met up to discuss The Life & Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee. I was going to say that choosing a book by a Nobel Prize winner is easy pickings, but then I remembered what I wrote about another laureate some while back. Nevertheless, Coetzee was indeed easy pickings - in the sense that he is an excellent author and though this was the first novel of his I have read, I doubt I will be left disappointed when I pick up another. Although a difficult book to categorise, not least because of its timeless and allegorical nature, Michael K did leave two of us with a strong feeling of Camu's The Stranger. Michael is a stranger that doesn't fit in our world and even reading about him made me feel I was infringing on his right (and unspoken desire) to be left alone. Certainly not a man of our times - though possibly we could all do with his resilience and strength.
"He is like a stone, a pebble that, having lain around quietly minding its own business since the dawn of time, is now suddenly picked up and tossed randomly from hand to hand. A hard little stone, barely aware of its surroundings, enveloped in itself and its interior life. He passes through these institutions and camps and hospitals and God knows what else like a stone. Through the intestines of the war. An unbearing, unborn creature."
Posted by Joe at April 26, 2004 10:37 PMI almost feel as if I should reread The Stranger, as the connection did not occur to me.
Nevertheless, Coetzee is a powerful writer.