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A review by savaging
The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee
4.0
Maybe this book takes the question of Jesus more seriously than any other text, Bible included.
I also struggled with the allegorical nature of it. A few of the long discussions in this book are about abstractions: in this new country, they eat bread and crackers, and Simon longs for meat dripping with juices. They women feel friendly goodwill toward him, and he hungers for lust and love. The philosophy courses are about the chairness-of-chairs, but he wants lively and dangerous thinking instead.
And similarly, reading a Coetzee allegory, I sometimes want a real story instead, even though real people are small and petty and real dialogue is bumbling and stupid most of the time, never approaching the big ideas of this book.
It felt like Coetzee was himself pitying his characters, for landing them in this odd book, where they couldn't just go about their animal business, but instead had to think about their thoughts.
I also struggled with the allegorical nature of it. A few of the long discussions in this book are about abstractions: in this new country, they eat bread and crackers, and Simon longs for meat dripping with juices. They women feel friendly goodwill toward him, and he hungers for lust and love. The philosophy courses are about the chairness-of-chairs, but he wants lively and dangerous thinking instead.
And similarly, reading a Coetzee allegory, I sometimes want a real story instead, even though real people are small and petty and real dialogue is bumbling and stupid most of the time, never approaching the big ideas of this book.
It felt like Coetzee was himself pitying his characters, for landing them in this odd book, where they couldn't just go about their animal business, but instead had to think about their thoughts.