Because the enigmatic South African novelist J. M. Coetzee’s first novel Dusklands is out of print everywhere I’ve looked, I always figured the book must have been a weak start to a great career.
Dusklands was published in 1974, years before Coetzee started hitting his powerful stride with The Life … Read the rest
Ask me to name my favorite living writer, and I just might name J. M. Coetzee, formerly of South Africa, now of Australia. I think his best novels are Disgrace
… Read the rest“The girl in the apron turned out to be the totality of the catering by Federico’s. By the time she brought in the snacks Alan had downed two glasses of champagne, and that set the pattern for the evening. I stopped drinking early, and Senor C. hardly drank at all;
J. M. Coetzee and Ethics: Philosophical Perspectives on Literature, a book of essays compiled by Anton Leist and Peter Singer, presents itself as a general overview of philosophical themes — morality, semiotics — in the work of the great South African novelist J. M. Coetzee.
There is plenty of … Read the rest
Whatever happened to the film adaptation of J. M. Coetzee’s stunning novel Disgrace, starring John Malkovich? If, like me, you’ve been under the spell of this book, you may have been wondering this too. We heard about the film when it was in production, and word began to spread… Read the rest
I can’t explain why I’ve never read J. M. Coetzee until two weeks ago. I always meant to dig into this Nobel Prize winner from South Africa, but never got around to it. Fortunately, a sudden flurry of articles about Coetzee inspired me to grab a copy of Disgrace for … Read the rest
I was walking in Prospect Park, thinking heavy thoughts about the world, when my mind suddenly generated a new thought: I had a new all-time favorite author. And this favorite author was the great Irish/British novelist Iris Murdoch, who died in 1999.
It’s a funny thing to be hit with … Read the rest
A weird thought occurs to me, as the summer of 2023 rolls in: Literary Kicks turns 29 years old this July.
Which can only mean we’ll be having a 30th birthday next year, and I guess I’ll have to think of some way to celebrate. What is Literary Kicks, as … Read the rest
Introduction
PARIS – AUGUST, 1870 – An incorrigible, horrible genius. A fifteen year-old! disembarks at Rue de Maubeuge. A concussion of uncombed hair infested with a plague of lice. Soiled clothing. A homicidal cupid with the enormous hands of a strangler. A smarmy smirk, perfect skin, a beautiful terror with … Read the rest
