Waterstones Boyhood
186 ratings
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Price: £10.99
Brand: Waterstones
Description: In Boyhood, J. M. Coetzee revisits the South Africa of half a century ago, to write about his childhood and interior life. Boyhood's young narrator grew up in a small country town. With a father he imitated but could not respect, and a mother he both adored and resented, he picked his way through a world that refused to explain its rules, but whose rules he knew he must obey. Steering between these contradictions, Boyhood evokes the tensions, delights and terrors of childhood with startling, haunting immediacy. Coetzee examines his young self with the dispassionate curiosity of an explorer rediscovering his own early footprints, and the account of his progress is bright, hard and simply compelling.
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9780099268277
Delivery cost: 2.99
ISBN: 9780099268277
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Author: Kelly,P.B.
Rating: 5
Review: Once again, I was left stunned by Coetzee's incisive instruments which cut to the bone - of truth, of reality. Even so, i wanted to return to absorb sections of the book which, begged re-living the experience (evocative of Doris Lessing's pure Africa, and inhabitants) The early part of the book can rouse spontaneous recognition, laughter, at a young boy's viewa or comments on his world and events. The third person device does not impinge - it cleverly removes the need for elaboration. As the story progresses, we move with the boy's shedding of naivety, the questionings and doubts about a mixed society, a small town, a parochial school world, Contrast this with his forays into the land of the Karoo, different relatives, sparse farmlands, where the dust gets into your throat, the thorns will lodge..while his observations sharpen, and becomes aware of passions, Yet, as he grows, he appears steadily,defensively,more obstreperous and we are the audience, This book may seem to be an apology to his mother, at times. He has spurned her devoted efforts on his behalf almost throughout (and for his younger brother), He juggles his other scorn which grow towards his other parent, his father. They move to another town. His mother is stoic in her remarkable fortitude and abilities,sadly, . Luckily the boy is clever and ambitious, though with only an almost mystical awareness of that. The boy remains, for me, an entrenched (other) character,by Coetzze, He is under my skin and never forgotten, even it that would infuriate him, by nature!
Author: northerner
Rating: 3
Review: I had never read anything by this author before, and after reading the reviews I thought I should . He is obviously a first rate author, and the picture of South Africa through a child's eyes is interesting. It's also rather depressing and doesn't seem to go anywhere, like the first part of a longer, autobiographical novel. It reminded me a bit of parts of James Joyce's 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young man', though it's a long time since I read it. I will try another book by this author, but I wasn't excited.
