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Youth

Scenes from Provincial Life II

By John Maxwell Coetzee

(48)

| Hardcover | 9780670031023

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Book Description

The narrator of Youth, a student in the South Africa of the 1950s, has long been plotting an escape from his native country: from the stifling love of his mother, a father whose failures haunt him, and what he is sure is impending revolution. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, and saving mContinue

The narrator of Youth, a student in the South Africa of the 1950s, has long been plotting an escape from his native country: from the stifling love of his mother, a father whose failures haunt him, and what he is sure is impending revolution. Studying mathematics, reading poetry, and saving money, he tries to ensure that when he arrives in the real world, wherever that may be, he will be prepared to experience life to its full intensity and transform it into art.

Arriving at last in London, however, he finds neither poetry nor romance. Instead he succumbs to the monotony of life as a computer programmer, from which random, loveless affairs offer no relief. Devoid of inspiration, he stops writing. An awkward colonial, a constitutional outsider, he begins a dark pilgrimage in which he is continually tested and continually found wanting. Set against the background of the 1960s-Sharpeville, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam-Youth is a remarkable portrait of a consciousness, isolated and adrift, turning in on itself. J. M. Coetzee explores a young man's struggle to find his way in the world with tenderness and a fierce clarity.

3 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    "You don't flip the pages of a Coetzee when you're under a loathing for mankind and the world at large," Asha Surkha told me once. "His books are ugly. but only when you know how ugly is an object and you still decide to love it, it's true love."

    Tis one of the few things Asha had told me. yes, thi ... (continue)

    "You don't flip the pages of a Coetzee when you're under a loathing for mankind and the world at large," Asha Surkha told me once. "His books are ugly. but only when you know how ugly is an object and you still decide to love it, it's true love."

    Tis one of the few things Asha had told me. yes, this was what she told me. When she was Asha

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    Paul Yeung said on Aug 11, 2010 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

  • There is a young man that travels through his youth using his ideal of poets and artists as an excuse for his fear, fear of doing really something, of taking responsibilities.
    He hopes to be equal to Eliot and Pound, but does not strive to be like them, using life as an excuse to be a terrible poet ... (continue)

    There is a young man that travels through his youth using his ideal of poets and artists as an excuse for his fear, fear of doing really something, of taking responsibilities.
    He hopes to be equal to Eliot and Pound, but does not strive to be like them, using life as an excuse to be a terrible poet and using poetry as an excuse for escaping from real life; the worst part being he knows all this himself.

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    Poyel said on Feb 2, 2012 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

  • It's a South African writer, this novel isn't the most famous one of his, but the style of writing is amazing!!

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    Amily said on Oct 2, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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9780670031023 Hardcover $22.95 -- The Book Depository
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