Reviews

Foe by J.M. Coetzee

alysian_fields's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

2.75

imogen_reads_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

marykardos's review

3.0

3.5 stars! i had to read for school, but enjoyed reading it and found it fairly easy to get through

emilycoppella's review against another edition

5.0

I'm not sure what happened but I liked it.

linduuus's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

nanu_nanu_narnett's review against another edition

1.0

I did a course on 'Reality' and how it is portrayed through media, and I had to read this book.
I don't care if it won a Nobel Prize. I don't care how it looks into how stories are altered to fit the way we want to hear them/want to be told. I don't care.
This book was impossible.
It's like 100 pages long and I struggled to even get halfway. Susan's ramblings were just near impossible to follow and this book was so slow and vapid that I just couldn't get into it.
I just.... stopped caring. (I did Wag the Dog instead, at least that's got good actors and it's funny)
Just..... No.

skywalkyrie's review against another edition

1.0

not gonna lie, I'm not sure I understood everything in this book. It feels like there is a depth in this that I did not get and it fustrates me sooooo much but at the same time I cannot wait for my teacher to give me more tools to make sense of it all.
But for now I'm just glad to be done with Robinson Crusoe story haha

mizreads's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Really cool novel that talks a lot about truths, objectivity, and subjectivity.  Lots of things to think about.

iduska's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

frogknitting's review against another edition

challenging tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A strange little book — because of the way that my schedule and awful time management skills worked out, I had to cram it in before class yesterday, but I think reading it all in one sitting, in a sort of lucid state, was the best way to digest it. We discussed it for three straight hours and yet I still have ideas about it. The final part is a complete mystery to me,

a strange dreamscape that I read as Coetzee understanding his narrative as pulling him one way or the other, Friday always haunting it, Friday always impeded by something and his silence always a given in one way or the other. There is no version of Robinson Crusoe, indeed, where Friday is allowed to speak freely.

Coetzee's attitudes have definitely aged poorly in some aspects (although, are they Coetzee's or are they another? Are they just part of the story?), such as the strange submissiveness that takes over Susan's agency. I don't know. I enjoyed the book a lot and that's because it left me with a thousand questions.