Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II

by J.M. Coetzee

Book Overview

J.M. Coetzee's latest novel, The Schooldays of Jesus, is now available from Viking. Late Essays: 2006-2016 will be available January 2018. The second installment of J. M. Coetzee's fictionalized... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067003102X
• ISBN13: 9780670031023
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Superb

Twenty taut chapters of lucid prose is what Nobel Laureate Coetzee conjures up in this superb little novel. It is - presumably - a largely autobiographical work about a young South African (himself) leaving his native Cape Town for the UK in the hope that a life in London may finally wrest from him his ultimate destiny: to become a poet. The book brilliantly exposes the mind of this sensitive and somewhat listless youth, who searches for identity and meaning through a rare mix of poetry, computing, and a host of miscarried love affairs. Coetzee is a master of erudite objectivity, suspending outside judgement in a stream of succinct observations. His narrative runs its course with hardly an extraneous word, and, although the themes are often somber, he maintains an undercurrent of optimism. The result is both satisfying and memorable. This book is highly recommended. Read it and enjoy.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Rarely have I encountered so much insight and knowledge in such a short 169 pages. "Youth" is the second novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee. The first, "Waiting for the Barbarians" was a novel about societies whereas "Youth" is a novel about an individual. I get the strong suspicion that this is an autobiographical novel although I know little, if anything, about the author's life. However, his subject character's thoughts, actions, and observations are so real and humanly imperfect that I have to feel the book emerges from the authors own memory. If I'm right, it's all the more reason to praise the talent of Coetzee because he is willing to share the good and the bad about himself. Even if it isn't autobiographical, it is a masterful disection of the inner soul of an emerging adult writer. "Youth" tells the story of a young man of university age who sensed that his future as a writer in his native South Africa is hopeless. He also realizes that his entire life there is hopeless. We see the clumsiness of his relationships with others; especially women. Most of this is his own fault as he sees everything in the context of whether it will help the development of his artistic talent. Love has no serious role to play in this life (at least at this point in his life). He emigrates to London (his other options for artistic development were Paris and Vienna). Unfortunately he has to get a job and his mathmatical background enables him to find a reasonably good one. However, everything continues to be measured in its' ability to enhance or detract from his development as a poet. The book ends with the anticipated dispair that such a detached life would bring. The strength of "Youth", for me, is the author's ability to bring us such a candid view of an obsessed life and leave us wondering how we would have done things different. There are many actions and attitudes that we would have definitely handled differently. Yet, the candid reader will see himself committing many of the same errors. It's hard at 53 to remember just what I would have done 30 years ago without the maturity (hopefully) that comes with age and experience. Many authors, I believe, make their youthful characters too mature for their age. Who wants to spend time describing warts when the character is destined for greatness. Coetzee gives us a dose of immature reality and teaches us about ourselves through the improper and unrealistic expectations of a narcissist. We learn by wanting to reach out and correct our anti-hero's shortcomings. We also learn by occassionally seeing ourselves as well. It was an eye-opening experience for me to read "Youth". I'm more anxious than ever to read more of Coetzee.

A Finely Crafted Work

So absorbed was I after the first page that I plowed straight through this slim volume, without pause. Coetzee's subtle mastery of the English language mesmerized me without bells and whistles to announce its cunning intent. The type of writing I best love, Coetzee's "Youth" renounces ostentatious form for true substance that leaves a mark on the soul after the last page is turned. The plot outline is offered in other reviews; I would just add that it is not dark and depressing at all, but an incursion into the life of the mind which cannot help but enlighten.

Don't be afraid to fail

Coetzee's fictionalized memoir is a painfully honest account of a would-be writer trying to forge himself through two misguided yet common strategies of youth: heading to one of the world's "great cities" (London) because only in these places does "destiny happen"; and kidding himself that both he and his work will be somehow redeemed by love. That he promptly falls into an abyss of middle-class working life and a series of loveless relationships is unsurprising. Coetzee's detached third-person style (an admirable achievement in such a personal work) and his preference for narrating rather than dramatizing most situations here add to the lugubrious mood, though this never becomes a self-indulgent or melancholy work. Indeed, it is saved from that by two things. First, Coetzee's inspiring articulation, in the final pages, of the real reason behind artistic failure in the young: a paralyzing lack of self-confidence which kills art and any chance of a loving relationship. It's the unwillingness to fail and therefore the unwillingness to try which usually thwart us. Secondly, Coetzee's reflections on what I presume to be his own reading history are wonderful. His interleaved commentaries on Henry James, Ezra Pound and Ford Madox Ford are keen and insightful. This is a book that young would-be writers will find alternately depressing and inspiring - and perhaps the not-so-young ones, too. Exhausted, over-educated dwellers in the white-collar wasteland will find much to inspire and console them here. After all, Coetzee was an I.T. professional who didn't publish until well into his 30s and went on to win the Nobel this year at 63. He's certainly made up for lost time.

A further Addition to a Fascinating Mosaic

Coetzee, a South African writing in English, was the first author ever to receive two Booker prizes (Peter Carey did it again last year). He is celebrated for his economical style, his ability to draw together complex themes seamlessly, and his honesty when exploring the psychology of the individual. In "Youth," Coetzee presents a non-fictional account of his experiences as a student and struggling poet in England from the ages of 19 to 23. "Boyhood," a prior volume which appeared in 1997, described the author's life from the ages of 10 to 13.Coetzee's works frequently explore the isolation of a singular personality against a background of tangled relationships and political turmoil, such as in "Disgrace" and "The Life and Times of Michael K," both of which give a gripping if refracted view of disintigrating South African society. Another recurring theme, especially visible in "Foe" and "Disgrace," is the hostility of the natural world and this cruelty reciprocated by us - in the way we relate both to animals and other humans.Readers who have come to expect these elements in a Coetzee story will be on familiar ground when they turn to "Youth," or the first volume of Coetzee's memoirs, "Boyhood." The accounts both have the feel and sound of a novel: they are written in the third person and in the present tense. They also contain the psychological intimacy of the living story - tied completely to Coetzee's own subjective experiences at the time, and devoid of any effort to present any facts or historical data not germane to his emotional and literary lives.Critics approaching these works have paused at the use of the third person point of view, the brevity of the volumes, and the six year gap between the two accounts. Some have even questioned the author's truthfulness. The third person perspective and the use of the present tense draw the reader immediately into the account and add a clarity and resonance that are sacrificed in the traditional memoir format. The gaps and the brevity in the accounts might under other circumstances call into question the author's honesty or objectivity. Yet Coetzee is unremittingly merciless in revealing his (then) mediocrity as a writer, selfishness, repression and insensitivity. I can think of no account that presents a less favorable view of its creator, a view that ultimately may be somewhat unjustified. Clearly Coetzee has been unswerving in his singular pursuit of truthfulness and excellence as a writer, and a writer with a conscience, at that.The criticisms in my view are these volumes' greatest strengths. It is as though the writer is saying to us: "I have the greatest respect for you, so I will not waste your time with irrelevant information regarding the uninteresting periods of my life. I will not burden you with facts and history. Here you will find essences only, the truths regarding my struggle, the people and events that have defined me."I have no doubt that "Boyhood," "Youth," and the