Summertime...

Author: J M Coetzee

A young biographer - Vincent tries to construct the life of a deceased Nobel laureate - John Coetzee– at the time of which John was trying to establish himself as a writer, through his thirties - with a series of interviews of various people, mostly women. Vincent chooses these people based on John’s notes.

It is a reflective piece of fiction. Autobiographical to an extent.

My great take-aways:

o   The whole narrative is a series of interviews. Lovely conversations. Delightful insights. [This is what I feel - Conversations, interesting and engaging,  be it with a person or in a book, active or passively involved,  are one of the best indulgences of life. ]

o   The women interviewed seem very real. That goes to show the author has a great sense of observation and understanding of the human nature.

o   Great men, even a Nobel laureate for that matter, may have confusions, needs to sort of things to getter a perspective, may not be sure of his calling and lead a “boring” existence! Lives of great people may not be a series of exciting events. [ No one ever claimed so, just that as a child I expected life to be a series of fun adventures and exciting moments as an adult – the greater the person, the more I felt his/her life was interesting. Only life itself, literature and insightful interactions sobered me down to accept the plainness of adulthood and the ordinariness of life!]

o   John is an introvert [And it turns out, an introvert is not closed or cold when he starts writing!]. The book has interviews at first followed by notes of John. One of the points in the notes about dance can be linked back to the what a Brazilian woman thought were John’s undue advances (as shared in an interview) when he tried to learn dance from her! It is actually comical if you could link the two!

o   A grown man’s struggle to understand his own father, how without a woman the two men of the family have nothing to bond over and just co-habituate uncomfortably! He is ill at ease with people who are not ill at ease! He is a product of a damaged childhood, as his notes say. His relationships and expectations from women don’t seem natural, it takes effort on his part to even have them in his life, he is not sure if he belongs in their world and all of it is obvious to the women.

In the notes section there is a mention of one John’s lists titled – “Ways of doing away with oneself”.

If literature cannot open up to you the life in all its variations, and give a peek into minds and lives of people very different from yourself, what else would? Life is too short to know all kinds of people. And it is always a pleasure to read a book like this.

o   There are very interesting ideas, to ponder, muse about. Hmmmmmm. Thoughts and ideas that makes the reader feel like having a very intimate conversation with the author(of course the reader is a “good” listener here!)  are some of the best moments of reading a book. This is at the fag end of the book, and by then you know the kind of person John is. I was nodding, smiling and couldn’t agree more!

o   I love the cover picture of the book. This was what caught my attention first.

Enjoyed reading the book a great deal. A delight. Makes me wish living was as pleasurable an experience as reading a well written book! J